Acoustic Guitar Buying Tips For First-Timers
If you're learning how to play an acoustic guitar, experts recommend that you to sign up for some formal lessons to gain mastery of this musical instrument. And to have an easier and faster time of being an expert in guitar playing, it would be advisable to have your own acoustic guitar.
Buying an acoustic guitar for the first time will require some time and effort from your part. After all, if you want to be owner of a good quality guitar that will allow you to practice and hone your skills, you can't afford to buy just any acoustic guitar that you see in a music or online shop. If you are too hasty with the whole guitar shopping venture, you'll just waste valuable money and time since you may end up having a poor-sounding and low quality musical instrument that will be broken in just a matter of months.
If it's your first time to buy an acoustic guitar, below are some handy tips you should keep in mind:
Be on the lookout for any dents, cracks, nicks, and bridge separation.
Whether you are buying a new or used guitar, you have to make sure that there aren't any parts of the guitar that are cracking or have serious wear on the finish. Keep in mind that even new ones can often be played or handled by customers and as such, they may fall off their stands and get bumped and even some scratches.
Although scratches or scuff marks won't affect the overall sound of the guitar, unfortunately, cracks are a different matter. Make sure you thoroughly inspect the guitar since some cracks may not be very noticeable. In addition, take the time to ensure that the bridge is sitting fully flush with the top of the guitar and it is not lifting up or cracking.
Make sure the neck and fretboard are in good condition.
Carefully inspect the neck from the bottom of the guitar to make sure that it isn't bent, crooked, or warped in any way. Make sure the frets on the fretboard do not stick out that they rub your hand in an uncomfortable and sometimes, even painful way.
Choose a guitar with the ideal action.
Action pertains to the space between the strings and the fretboard. Guitar players will sometimes find it hard to press the strings down to the fretboard if the action is too high. On the other hand, if the action is too low, the strings will sometimes catch on the other frets and create a buzzing sound whenever it is in use. The good news is that if you want to buy a guitar with an action that is a bit off, this can easily be fixed by having an expert shave down the nut if the action is too high or have the nut filled with an epoxy if the strings are too low.
Make sure the guitar stays in tune.
Lastly, make sure the guitar you want to buy will stay in tune for a long time by playing it for a while and observe to how well it does or doesn't stay in tune. If the guitar comes with cheap tuners, you can choose to replace these in the future. In addition, most acoustic guitars in stores usually have old and played out strings on them. As such, guitars with this type of strings will never stay in tune and usually move flat. You can consider buying new strings and have the old ones replaced to have a guitar that will stay in tune.
Read more tips for buying guitars here.
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