Some Things to consider when buying a guitar

   


     Buying a guitar first glance it might look like a piece of cake. But as the saying goes, nothing can be farther from the truth. Why? Well, because there are just too many things that can be wrong with a guitar for many reasons. For example, your fingers might be too big for the fretboard. I once met this fellow who claimed that he could not  play the guitar because his fingertips were too think. Lo and behold! He showed us and he seemed to be right. Our guitars were electric solid-body types with narrow necks and each of his fingers covered to strings instead of one. Of course his mistake was assuming that all guitars would prove to be the same when they are not. There are guitars that provide very wide necks and plenty of room for thicker fingers. So the size of the guitar must be taken into careful consideration before you purchase it.


     Another matter to consider seriously when buying a guitar is the distance that the strings are elevated above the fret-board-or the action. You see, if the strings are elevated too high above the fret-board, then you will have to press harder in order to make them sit tightly in order to get a clear sound. If you don't, then the string will produce a muffled sound and not a note. You have a strong grip you say? That won't help because the chords, especially if they are steel or bronze ones, will viciously dig into your fingertips causing pain. 

     I had a guitar whose strings were so high above the fret-board that they even dug through my thick fingertip callouses a year after I received it as a Christmas gift from my parents.  I persisted fanatically until mercifully, I finally got a guitar that wasn't out to savage my fingers.  But in most cases, the pain can become so unbearable that the player might decide it isn't worth the trouble. In that case, you wasted your time and your money. That's why it's best to make sure that you can easily press the strings against the fret-board before purchasing the guitar.


     Another matter is to test the strings along all the length of the necks to  make sure none of the frets, those metal strips of metal that are arranged along the neck, will produce buzzing. Buzzing is when a fret is so high that the string vibrates against it when plucked.  That causes the string to buzz instead of producing a clear note. That means that when you are playing part of your song with be ruined by constant buzzing sounds whenever your fingers touch those strings in that part of the neck.   True, the problem can be easily fixed by taking your guitar to the repair shop and having the offending fret or frets hammered lower. But a new guitar should never need to be taken to a repair shop. If it is defective, then it should not be on display to be sold to begin with. So you will feel cheated.

     Another essential thing to check is the neck itself for warping. You see a guitar neck, being make out of wood, can become warped in various ways due to temperature changes, especially if it lacks a rod in it to assure that it doesn't. A warped neck causes the guitar to sound tuned in one chord position but untuned in another. You patiently tune it on the fifth fret chord and the first- fret chords sound untuned. So if you buy a guitar, test to see if it remains tuned all along the length of the neck and not just on the lower rages. Imagine playing a song that sounds beautiful until you choose to move  higher up on the neck and then it sounds flat. You tune it so that it sounds OK there, and then the chords on the lower frets become flat. That can lead to wanting to smash the guitar against  a tree or taking a sledgehammer it out of sheer frustration. Especially if you are ignorantly blaming yourself for its antics. 

  Finally,  never choose a guitar you intend to play because it looks pretty or cool. Just as in all other merchandise, outward appearances don't guarantee quality. That is if you intend top play it of course. If it is just for decorative purposes, setting it in some corner just to gaze at it, then it really doesn't matter since how it sounds would then be irrelevant to why you bought it. This might seem like a quaint reason to purchase a guitar but  it happens.   I was once invited to help this person buy a guitar and the person's criteria was how beautiful the guitar looked. Found out once we reached the store and the person began rejecting all my advice in favor of how the guitar looked. Didn't need me to go along for that. SMH Finally purchased a guitar that sounded like crap. But was very happy just gazing at it.