by Nicholas Myers

Created on: January 13, 2007   Last Updated: April 02, 2007

Most articles on guitar buying give the reader just the basics. It can be a little daunting to purchase a guitar even after the articles have been read. Mainly due to the fact that after all the advice, they don't give you a few of your many possible options. I'll try to fix that.
If you are looking for a guitar to buy, there are some things to take into consideration.

1. This actually something that you shouldn't take into consideration: the pickups.
Many writers and dealers will tell you that single coil pickups are for blues and rock while humbuckers are for metal. This is garbage. First of all, a lot of single coil configurations have a middle pick-up that is reverse wound with reverse polarity. When this pick-up is used in conjunction with the bridge or neck pick-up it creates a sound that reminds me of, you guessed it, a humbucker. I've also seen Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Metallica all use Fender Strats equipped with Single Coils.

2. Body Wood: There are a few companies that I would avoid low cost guitars from. Many low cost guitars can still be found using woods like alder, basswood, and nato, which is a kind of mahogany. Unfortunately, there are some manufacturers that are building guitars out of agathis, which is a very inferior wood. Even worse, at the lowest of the low, some companies use "laminate" which is a really nice way of saying plywood. You want your guitar body to be made out of as few pieces of wood as possible. You won't find a cheap guitar made with a one-piece body, but you will find guitars made with two or three piece bodies, which is fine at an introductory level.

3. Neck: It is possible to find guitars with one-piece maple necks. I wouldn't settle for anything less. If you are a beginner, I recommend the maple fret boards over the rosewood. The maple plays a bit faster, so that will help with the learning curve.

4. Hardware: Ignore the tremolo bar, more popularly known as a "whammy" bar. Unless you upgrade to some locking tuners, the only thing you will accomplish is horribly detuning your guitar and causing unneeded string wear. That doesn't mean to avoid tremolo equipped guitars altogether, in fact it is very hard to avoid them at the low-end of the guitar market. Just unscrew it after you buy the guitar to avoid the temptation.

5. Gimmicks: Not just on low-end, but all guitars, it's best to avoid gimmicks. That includes "special" engravings and paint jobs other than the standard colors. Usually these appointments are just an excuse to raise the price of a cheaper guitar. Don't fall for it. I would also include brands like Squire and Epiphone's guitars as gimmicky, because Fender and Gibson (respectively) try to sell them as foreign alternatives to their American-made guitars, and more often than not they miss the mark.

Here are some good starting points for decent quality introductory guitars:
http://www.instrumentalley.com/
http://www.aa mpselectricguitarstore.com/index.html
http://65.108.1 99.151/pictures.bmp/agile/index.html

Stayed tuned for my next article, as I will be describing ways you can upgrade your cheaper guitar to put it on par with the higher cost brands.

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