Content
- How to choose the best guitar: 5 practical tips
- Can I choose a guitar by sound
- Can I choose a guitar in appearance
If you are just mastering the guitar, the choice of instrument can confuse you. Find out what you should pay attention to first, so as not to miscalculate with your purchase.
How to choose the best guitar: 5 practical tips
1. Inspect the guitar
Make sure that the tool does not have obvious defects: chips of varnish coating, cracks on the deck. Inexpensive guitars are made of insufficiently dried material, so the stands begin to peel off from the deck, so you should see if there are gaps.
2. Check the quality of gluing
Gluing should not have any gaps and gaps.
3. Pay attention to the guitar neck
If you take the tool and look along the neck, it should be relatively straight, and not curved outward.
4. Measure the height of the strings
Pay attention to the height of the strings above the neck: it should be 2 mm above the sixth string and 1.5 mm above the first. Plus the distance between the 12th fret and the string itself. How to check it? When traveling, use coins. A ten-ruble is about 2.2 mm, a ruble is about 1.5 mm. If they pass with a margin, then the string height is greater than necessary.
5. Check truss rod and frets
Everything should be smooth and not cling to hands, if you hold them with your fingers. If there is discomfort, then this can lead to cuts in the future..
Instruments that come from the factory often need refinement to make them comfortable to play. When buying, you should pay attention to these points, so that later you do not have to carry the guitar to the workshop.
Can I choose a guitar by sound
To choose a guitar by sound, you need to have experience so that you already play several different instruments. Then you will have some kind of sound of your own. You can say: “Ο, I like the sound!” – or vice versa.
Someone like the traditional jazz sound of the guitar of Joe Pass and George Benson, and it seems to him that is ideal. Another person likes the sound of Tommy Emmanuel’s guitar: the mid frequencies are very pronounced there, and it sounds very cool when you play with your fingers. And to someone – 12-string guitars, because such instruments are closer.
In the form of the case, the color of the guitar and its sound, there is nothing “solid”. This is not a clear criterion. What really matters is convenience. Take the guitar in your hands and say: “This guitar is convenient for me! I can play it! ” – here it is, the criterion.
Can I choose a guitar in appearance
You can choose a guitar in appearance, some do just that. But here you need to understand that all guitars are approximately the same. For example, guitars with a type of body called dreadnought were invented a hundred years ago and have not changed since then..
It is also important to consider: the more expensive the guitar, the more professional it is, the more restrained and laconic it is made.
There are some nuances, for example the so-called exit on the case. Professional musicians will look at such a guitar and immediately understand what it is used for – to play high frets. For a beginner, this is exclusively a feature of appearance, and he, in fact, does not need such a guitar.
If you do not know all these chips, then for you they will not carry any meaning. So, choosing a guitar in appearance, you can just focus on its color.
Good luck!