For Newbies - Shopping For A New or Used Guitar - What to look for and what to avoid

[Gostwriter]

Sorry meant to post this as a new thread...

For Newbies - Shopping For A New or Used Guitar - What to look for and what to avoid

I am starting this post due to a previous post about a brand new guitar that possibly is a damaged guitar with a broken, bowed or replaced neck. I hope that everyone will contribute some tips on what to look for and what to avoid. This will possibly help the next person from buying a lemon so to speak. Personally I would recommend the following:

First take a few steps back and look at the guitar in the light (look beyond the name, the model the design and the bling) just look for any flaws in the paint or the wood itself and any parts loosening or peeling even the bridge or binding around the body of the guitar and also any cracks anywhere on the guitar just as you would with a new or used car. This applies double to used guitars.

Once you confirm that there are no obvious factory defects in the guiat body, then pick it up and take it for a test drive.

First make sure it fits your body size and playing style. A guitar can be to large, too small, to wide etc. Also I am not a fan of the rounded body such as Ovation only because I like to play seated and it tends to want to slide off my lap but standing up they are great. Guitar sizes range from the small parlor size or 3/4 size to a OOO, OM, Dreadnought (the most popular, size) mini Jumbo and Jumbo with several variations by different manufacturers. Size does matter and also affects tone. Smaller guitars tend to have better treble and larger tend to have better bass and also the size of the sound hole and depth of the body will affect the sound.

Once you find a clean guitar that fits you, play some chords, scales up and down the neck and make sure the neck and action are comfortable. Listen for any strange buzzing sounds, Hold the guitar out in front of you with the headstock away from you and eyeball down the neck. It should appear straight with maybe a slight bow away from the strings towards the 7th fret area and should never bow in towards the strings.

Then examine everything closer up for cracks and loosening bridge or binding etc.

Lower the tension on the strings and bring them back up to tune one at a time and note the way the tuning pegs work are they easy to adjust or near impossible to turn?

Again play the guitar and check every note on every string up and down the neck to pick out any buzzing sounds which will indicate it needs a good set up.

Try several of the same model and see if one is better then the next as no two guitars are identical.

Do this with every guitar you are considering buying.

you can also slip a quarter between the top of the 12th fret and the bottom of the 12th string. it should fit snug and not take two quarters stacked on top of each other to fit snugly. If it's too tight or too loose the neck needs adjustment.

Feel free to add and correct me where I'm off...
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Gostwriter

Never use metronomes; they screw up my timing!