subject: Buying A Guitar - Make A Great Purchase On A High-quality Guitar [print this page] It's a really exciting time when it comes to beginners getting ready to buy their first guitar because it's a whole new experience. You walk into the music store, you're surrounded by tons of fantastic instruments, and you just begin to imagine yourself shredding on a sweet axe of your choice.
However, buying a guitar isn't always so fun if you don't know what to look for or what to compare the prices too. Here are some effective tips to make sure that you come out with a good instrument when you go shopping for your next guitar.
Take someone with you if you're a beginner.
As a beginning guitarist, you should expect to be asking for help on just about everything and purchasing a guitar should be no exception. Ask a friend or neighbor that has played the guitar for awhile to accompany you to a music store for you next purchase. They'll have some insight that you might over look.
* They can play the instrument if you can't already.
As this point, you might not be the best player and you wouldn't know how to test the instrument out anyway. Just let your friend have a go and they'll walk up and down the fret board and let you know what the play action is like.
* They'll recognize the problems if you're not keen to the subtleties.
Guitarists who have been buying guitars and playing for awhile know how to identify subtle little things that may be wrong with a guitar that most don't. Let them look it over and be very critical of how it's made. They'll let you know if you need to move to the next one.
Do research on the web first.
One of the major mistakes of beginners is they walk into a guitar store without having learned anything beforehand. It's so important to learn as much about an instrument as you possibly can before you walk into a store because then you're just relying on the word of the salesman, and they usually work on commission.
* Check ratings and reviews on instrument websites.
Find an instrument that catches your eye from an online guitar store and then research the heck out of it. Learn what its average ratings and reviews are and if people are generally satisfied with how it plays and how it's put together.
* Learn what the prices are.
You can't check out the price at the music store you go to and just assume that they're not taking you for a ride. Search for 3 or 4 prices on the same instrument and learn what the lowest and highest prices are.
You might be surprised to learn that local music stores sometimes charge on the higher end of the price spectrum.
The worst thing that you can do with buying a guitar is to have minimal knowledge of the instrument when you make the purchase. Do all of your homework before you walk into the store and you should come out with a purchase you can be proud of.
