Guitar Lovers

Tips on Buying a Guitar 
Random buyer advice.

Suppose you were buying an acoustic or electric guitar. What are some of the common attributes that you look for? What might you find that would automatically rule out buying that guitar? Here’s what some community had to say on this topic:
Christopher Sung said:

For me, the following are essential (and keep in mind that this is a matter of taste):

Tunability — this is the most important aspect for me. I check the intonation and see if it chords played on the first 5 frets sound the same as chords on the 12th-17th frets
Action — the guitar has to be capable of having nice low action with no fretbuzz. I’m not a blues or slide player (for which I think high action is better) so I’ve always looked for low action guitars
Playability — how easy is it to get around the fingerboard? Is it cumbersome or does it flow? I suppose this is a combination of the dimensions of the neck and the type of fingerboard
Sound — For an acoustic, yes, but for an electric, this isn’t necessarily that important to me. You can always dump some other pickups in it. I guess, for me, it’s a lot like sniffing a wine cork. As long as it doesn’t reek, the bottle’s probably pretty good…
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Jason Reich said:
I think I’ll use my soon-to-arrive ESP as the example of what I look for in a guitar:
Price — Right here is where it all happens. Usually the budget defines the guitar.
Sound — Sound is spilt up between what gizmos give the guitar its sound (pickups, body, neck) and how it actually sounds.
Gizmos — I like EMG pickups (HZ’s on the ESP), and the neck joint is important (Neck).
Actual sound — This isn’t so important for electrics, because what you hear unplugged isn’t what you hear when it’s plugged in.
Playability — I like guitars with fast necks and very low action. Extra jumbo frets are also a plus.
Looks — Whoever said, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, must have made some very ugly books. The shape of the body, as well as the finish, are very important to a guitar. A cool-looking guitar gives you confidence, prestige, social status, and financial success (kinda like beer). But seriously, it is very important.

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Craig Smoot said:
Here’s what I usually look for:
Feel — If the fingers don’t flow and feel comfortable on it, then usually it’s a turn-off for me.  However, a lot of this is determined by how the music store likes to set up their planks on display, so I take it with a grain of salt knowing that I’ll have to set it up to my personal tastes anyway.
“Singability” — You know.  When you pick up a guitar, strum it (unplugged) and the guitar resonates from the top of the headstock to the butt of the body.  That’s really when I know that I’ve got a possible keeper.
Intonation — This is a big deal to me, so it’s always something I look for right away.  You can have the world’s most beautiful guitar, but if the intonation inherently sucks then you may as well display it inside a glass case in your house, because that’s where it’ll be most useful.
Tone — In general, I usually look at planks that can offer me something I can’t get out of the planks I currently own.  For example, since I don’t need another guitar I can safely say that my next guitar will either be a 7-string or perhaps a good Tele.  Why have multiple versions of basically the same thing unless that’s all you yearn for?
Here are the factors I don’t consider when shopping for an axe:
Looks — When I was a kid, all I wanted was “..the coolest-looking guitar on the block.”  I almost made the mistake one summer of pouring all my hard-earned lawnmowing money into a radical-looking guitar, but luckily good taste prevailed.  As I got older and my tastes matured, I began to realize more and more that it’s not the guitar that makes the player.
Bells & Whistles — Sure, I’m an admitted hot-rodder when it comes to modding my axes so that I can get the maximum flexibility out of them, but when I’m shopping around for a plank, I could care less whether or not this guitar has more buttons and switches that the next one.  Besides, I’ll probably end up modding it myself anyway, so to me, I could take them or leave them.

You Just Have to Play
 When I  started playing the guitar, I  felt it was necessary to sit down and make myself write a song. I had all these ideas about how the song should be written. I would pound my head against the wall trying to come up with something. I would listen to the radio or my CD collection looking for answers on how my song should sound. I tried writing Heavy Metal, Rock, and even Blues. I was so desperate to write a song. When I would sit down to try to write a song, I would get so frustrated that I would actually start to hate playing the guitar. I wanted to throw it aginst the wall. I would put it down and not pick it up for weeks. Don’t get me wrong – I did get plenty of riffs written and even a few lyrics, but something was wrong. It just did not sound right and it surely did not “feel” right for that matter. I was trying so hard to make a great song like the Allman Brothers, or Eric Clapton, or one of the 80’s or 90’s  hits on the radio. I felt hopeless.
If you believe in yourself and the music you create, other people will believe it too.
Then, one day I decided to pick up the guitar, kick on the drum machine, and just play. I put no thought to what I was doing. I just let it happen. It was then that it all came out. The more I just sat and played, the better I felt, and the music just poured out. I did not need to concentrate on one genre or how I wanted to the song to come out. It just did. All my musical influences from early childhood on just poured right out with my individuality. It blew me away. I recorded everything I did. I was writing 3 songs a day. Then, one day I sat back and listened to the music I had created and I started to question it, even though I absolutely loved what I had created. I though to myself This has an awful 80’s ring to it. I do not sound like the music that’s out today. I do not sound as good as Eric Clapton.” My leads are nothing compared to the Allman Brothers. I almost got myself right back in the rut I was originally in – frustrated.

Why? It was because I questioned myself and thought that I had to sound like someone else to write a good song. I came to the realization that what I wrote was from within; it’s what was in my heart. Even if no one else liked the music, it did not matter. I had to be happy with it – not everyone else. Of course I was unable to sound like Eric Clapton. That is because I wasn’t Eric Clapton! Of course my leads were not going to sound like Eric. Eric was Eric and no one else on earth could touch that. It was his heart talking through the music, not mine. Of course I wasn’t going to sound like today’s music; I grew up in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Why would I sound like the 90’s? What I played and the songs I wrote were from within, not from someone else, but from me. They are comprised of all the music I grew up with along with my own individuality. I did not have to work at them – I just sat and played and they came out. I absolutely love the music I have written. I love to play it and get a great feeling from it. To me, that’s the key, no matter what it is you write, what genre, how many chords, full chords, power-chords, or single notes. As long as its what you feel, it’s right. You have to be happy with what you write. Not me, not John Doe, You! To me this is the greatest achievement any musician could strive for. To create music that is from within you, not this group or that group. Of course your influences will come through since this is only natural. But don’t kick yourself for not sounding exactly like them. It’s impossible because you are not your influences.

Strive to be yourself through your music; you cannot go wrong. No one can ever doubt what is in you heart but you. If you believe in yourself and the music you create, other people will believe it too. You do not have to work at it; it’s right there inside of you. Just sit down and play and eventually it will all come out. And it will be beautiful music to your ears.

Every once in a while, I’ll see the frustration with the progress on their guitar. I hear something like;

“That’s it – I’m quitting. I’ve been practicing guitar for months now and I’m not getting any better. How long is it going to take for me to learn this thing?”

With so many concepts and techniques to learn such as scales, chords, rhythms, strumming, picking, fingerstyle, bending, and slides, it’s only natural to question yourself “what should I learn now?”), or “should it be taking this long for me to learn the guitar?”. It’s hard enough to stay focused enough to learn and absorb a particular concept without continually questioning whether the manner in which you are learning is actually working.

For me, the most effective way to deal with these anxieties is to get back to why you are learning the guitar in the first place: the music. When I say “the music“, I mean the execution of a musical idea. It can be a song, a melody, a riff, a lick, part of a solo, a one-bar phrase, or any other things you can play that feels good and sounds good. When a musical idea fits this, it takes on the characteristics of what I like to call a groove. It doesn’t matter if the groove doesn’t contain scale or chord, or use concept. The only thing that matters is that when you play it, you dig it, other people dig it, and it reinforces why you play music in the first place.

If you begin to feel these type of emotions, try the following steps in order to “lock in” a groove or a musical idea that moves you:

Choose a musical idea for your “groove”. As stated above, it can be a snippet of a song, a rhythm guitar part, a lick, part of a solo, something you saw a friend of yours play, etc. The main thing is to not “bite off more than you can chew”. You want to focus your attention on playing a small amount of music well, and not on playing a lot of music poorly. 

Get a metronome and set it to a tempo that is significantly slower than you would normally try to play your selected groove. This is important because it will reinforce the playing of the groove at a steady tempo. 

Play your selected groove at the given tempo. If you find that you are missing notes or having a hard time playing it, slow the tempo down until you can execute the groove from start to finish with no mistakes. 

When the groove feels comfortable to the point where you can play it in your sleep, increase the tempo by a small amount, and practice your groove at the new tempo. One good run-through at the new tempo is not sufficient. Play it over and over at the new tempo until it’s a permanent part of your brainwaves. 

Repeat the alst step until the tempo has reached the normal tempo at which your groove should be played.