The stress of buying an acoustic guitar, especially if you are a beginner, starts with wondering which brand to buy and, if you’re not careful, will continue into the area of learning to play. Acoustic guitars all look the same but they are actually made of different types and qualities of wood and put together with varying levels of care and attention.

An acoustic guitar can have a high or low action. The term “action” refers to the distance of the strings from the fretboard. If the action is too low the strings will buzz against the frets. If the action is too high the guitarist needs to exert too much pressure on the strings to get a clean sound. Acoustic guitars also make use of two kinds of strings – nylon and steel. The ideal guitar for a beginner would have as low an action as possible without fret buzz and use nylon strings which are better for breaking in a new guitar player’s soft finger tips.

Every guitar buyer has his or her own budget and you need to bear in mind that if you are looking at buying a new guitar, there’s no such thing as a bargain. An acoustic guitar is a valuable item so when you buy a new one, get a warranty with it.

The body of an acoustic guitar should be without dings or cracks in the wood. Any kind of damage or deterioration which shows itself in the form of splitting wood is not going to heal by itself. It will mean repairs later on. This also goes for any splits around the screws holding the machine heads in at the top of the neck.

The lacquer on the guitar should be free from chips and worn patches and you should check to make sure that the neck is not bowed. Hold the guitar up to your eye with the fat part of the guitar against your cheek, and sight along the neck. The neck should be straight.

After inspecting the physical condition of the guitar, play a few chords at different places on the fretboard. If you or whoever you brought with you to help check out the guitar, can play bar chords going right up the guitar’s neck without the guitar sounding out of tune it means there is no twisting of the neck that you could not see during your physical inspection.

The strings are stretched between the machine heads and the bridge. These two parts of the guitar hold all the tension. Make sure the machine heads do not resist you efforts to turn them. Any decent guitar can be tuned easily and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. The bridge should be without cracks and be firmly attached to the body of the guitar.

By: Ricky Sharples

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