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What Kind Of Guitar Should I Buy And Where Should I Buy A Guitar On-Line?

What kind of Guitar should I buy and where should I buy a guitar on-line?

     What kind of guitar should I buy? It seems that local music shops having nothing good to say about any other brand of guitar except their own. So who is their “luthier” anyway? A good luthier, in my oppinion is vital to the success of any aspiring guirtarist. Your luthier is the man or women you entrust with your guitar. He will set-up your guitar so that it has correct entonation and action.
Should you squabble about paying the standard fee for this service? Absolutely not. Your instrument when cared for properly will give you years of enjoyment compared to the price of movie tickets and popcorn.
     So if the music store will not identify their luthier that is a sign to be heeded.
I found an excellent Luthier on the edge of Cleveland, Ohio at a small shop called Timeless guitars. The first thing he does when I bring in my guitar is to listen to what I am concerned about. Then he carefully accepts the guitar from me as I reluntantly hand it over to his care. He examines it right in front of me!
Unless he is busy setting-up another guitar and has an assistant your luthier should examine your guitar right in front of you. On a new guitar – first time the luthier has seen it, he will look at the neck and explain about the truss rod.
There are some other things a luthier can do with a neck, but if the truss rod will not adjust the neck if it is needed, then consider another guitar. Because unless this is a high dollar guitar the cost to adjust a warped neck may make it affordable to shop for another guitar. Hopefully, before something like that happens, you will have read this article and taken advantage of my concierge service.
      After examining the neck and discussing the truss rod adjustment if any is needed he will look over your bridge, bridge pins (not all bridges use pins) and the saddle. He will look at the action around the 12th & 13th frets. Then he will examine your string heights over the first and second fret (most of your chords are played here) and examine your nut. Later he will check your Machine heads. (Ask your luthier to show you how to install a replacement string but save that question until the first time you break your 6th E-string!)  For now let him concentrate on your set-up. He will feel the edges of the fret bars to determine how pokey they are. (Finger board wood can shrink – add a little lemon oil or liquid gold to the fingerboard on the neck with a Q-tip and do the same if your bridge has a natural finish also. Do this the day before taking it to the luthier. Do not put lemon oil on the body, neck, or head stock. Use a light spray of furniture polish – generic or Pledge. Also some of the polishes sold by the music stores, i.e. Dunlop, etc, are good to use.) Finally, he takes an over-all look including looking inside the sound hole by the rosetta and looks for the truss rod allen head and the bracing. Perhaps he will play it briefly to hear how it sounds and resonates. Sustain is an important quality he will listen for.
     

     After he has made these observations he will pause before suggesting if you only need a basic set-up or something extra. Sometimes they like to include a new set of strings. This is the toughest decision a new guitarest has to make.
And it helps to have the guage and brand of strings you will enjoy playing your guitar with selected before it is set-up. But how do you decide which strings to purchase if you have never played before or have never compared strings before. The luthier will make adjustments to your nut based on the strings you will have on your guitar. It is imperative that you know what brand and guage are on your guitar.  Even luthiers who build guitars use a certain type of strings so they know if the guitar is going to sound as intended when it is tuned. You should be just as picky. So this is where word of mouth is good. Do you know any musicians who play guitar? Do you like the sound of their guitar when they play? Ask the musician which strings he plays on and why. Be a little nosey – see if he or she has tried another brand before settling on this brand and guage. Find out how often he or she changes strings versus how much they play. Do not buy a set of strings just because it is the only brand the music store sells or is the cheapest. Chances are they are only selling that brand because they got them at a bargain-bottom-basement price…..note the word “bottom”. I prefer phosperous- bronze wrapped (4 heaviest strings) as opposed to just brass. Using the same strings, once you find the brand and guage that right for you, will help you recognize when your instrument is in-tune or out of tune.

      Wait a minute! Wasn’t this supposed to help me decide which guitar to buy?
Absolutely. But whether you buy a guitar on sale at a discount, even for less than a hundred dollars, by an off-the-shelf high end guitar, i.e. A Martin, or have a luthier build you a custom job, unless it is set-up right the first time you will not enjoy playing it. And when you learn to play it is critical to learn habits developed from playing with a proper set-up as opposed to learning to switch chords and strum then have to re-learn when the set-up is changed. The feel of your guitar is important to how your playing style develops.  I can guarantee that if reasonable materials – even on the lower priced end, are used to make your guitar it will be hard to discern a difference in sound from a high dollar guitar provided both are set-up to similar standards. Why should you pay $35 to a luthier to set-up a guitar you only paid $100 for?  Because then you will enhance the value of your inexpensive guitar and you will get more quality out of your time playing the guitar. So I can’t expect to help you find a guitar that is right for you if I haven’t even sold you on the value of having your wood and stringed instrument set-up by a professional.
      So if you are ready to have me help you find a guitar that is right for your budget and/or how you expect to use this guitar my concierge service will – absolutely free – assist you in finding a guitar on-line that hopefully you will become attached to and develop a personal feel for.  Go to www.productsearchbytim.weebly.com. Submit some basic information, but be sure to include an e-mail address to receive a prompt reply.

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