When buying an electric guitar for the first time, there are many features to consider. If you are a beginner at playing guitar, you will want to avoid spending an exhorbitant amount while at the same time you will want enough quality in the instrument to make learning on it enjoyable and worthwhile. Fortunately, these days it is very possible to find an instrument which meets both these criteria.
First let us examine the most common types of electric guitars which are available. The most common by far is the solid-body type. Solid-body means the body of the guitar is made of a solid slab of hardwood with no hollow portions other than those routed out for the pickups and controls. The second most common type is the semi-hollow-body. This type is typically solid wood down the center of the guitar body with hollow body sides, usually seen with F-holes via which you can see into the hollow chambers within. Third is the hollow-body type, which means the body is entirely hollow, again usually featuring F-holes. One more type that is much less common is the chambered-body, which means it is basically a solid body guitar but with one or more smaller hollow chambers within the wood itself which you cannot see. All these various types are made in their respective ways for tonal purposes, and which tonal characteristics are prefered is a matter of the guitarist's personal taste. Not included in these categories are acoustic-electric guitars, which basically are acoustic guitars with built-in electronics for plugging into an amplifier. In this article we will primarily address the solid-body type, it being the most common, especially for beginning guitarists interested in electric guitar. However, much of what is discussed here will apply to all body types.
The first thing to look at is the wood it is made from and how it is put together. Certain kinds of wood inherently have better tonal properties than other types, and guitar makers these days usually make adequate wood selections even for inexpensive instruments. Since different types of wood impart different tonal characteristics, the choices in tone wood are often made for the same reason as the different body types: the personal taste of the individual guitarist.
The most important distinction to be aware of is whether the body is made from solid wood or some sort of ply. A plywood body will never equal the tone of a solid wood body, but plywood is much cheaper as a material than most solid hardwoods. Currently, relatively few plywood bodies are made since even most low-end instruments are now made from solid woods, but if you're looking at used guitars, especially much older ones, you will often find plywood bodies on cheaper instruments. Many cheaper guitars from the 60's and 70's were made with plywood bodies. You can often tell even through a coat of paint if the body is a ply by looking at the body edges, where the layers of ply are often discernable with the right lighting angle.Next look at the neck. If it is an older instrument, look down the neck from one end and make sure it doesn't twist or bend. Exposure to extreme temperature changes can sometimes warp neck wood, producing such a twist, and the instrument will not play properly. This is one reason you should never leave your guitar in direct sunlight, in the trunk of your car during a hot summer day, and so on. In addition, any guitar on which any portion of the outer strings are not over the fretboard enough to fret properly anywhere along its length has serious problems which need repair.
Also make sure there is no significant neck bowing, which means the neck is too curved. If you lay the guitar flat on a table and the neck visibly curves upward at the tuning head end as compared with right at the body join, it has too much neck bow. The neck should be nearly perfectly straight along its overall length. A very slight bow is required for proper fretting on the higher frets, but this is barely perceivable to the naked eye. Unless you know what you're doing, any corrective adjustments should be made by a qualified guitar repair person.
To familiarize yourself with how the neck and body are put together, examine where they join. The two most common joints are glued-in and bolted-on. Both methods are competely valid, and you can find either type of joint even on expensive models. If it is glued-in, take a look at how cleanly the job was done. If it is a bolt-on neck, look for how tight a fit it is. The tighter the fit, the better for imparting good tone. Sometimes you will encounter a neck-through-body type construction, which means the wood of the neck extends all the way through the body with the body sides glued onto it. This is far less common and is rarely seen on lower-end guitars.
Now look at the frets. The frets should not be flat straight across the neck, but should have a shallow, smooth curve so that there is a slight rise all the way down the middle of the fretboard compared with either edge. This curve makes playing chords much easier. Only on much older and much cheaper electric guitars have I seen completely flat fretboards, but they do exist.
Next feel along the edges of the fretboard and take note of whether there are any sharp edges to deal with. You will usually wish to avoid this kind of problem, although a qualified guitar repair person can often remedy it. The idea is that you don't want to chance cutting your fingers when you move from one position to another. Sometimes it is caused by cheap construction, but other times even on better instruments which are older the wood of the neck may have shrunk slightly over the years, leaving the ends of the frets slightly protruding. Some guitars have a binding strip along the fretboard edges, essentially eliminating any possibility of this problem occuring, but the lack of such binding, which is primarily there for looks, does not in any way disqualify a guitar from being a good one.
Now look at the tuning machines. Good ones are fully enclosed and sealed, never needing lubracation. If you encounter tuning machines with exposed gears, it is almost always a sure sign that the guitar is very cheaply made and probably should be avoided. If you want the guitar anyway, you can have the open-gear machines replaced with better quality ones. Poor quality in tuning machines is asking for constant trouble with tuning, which can quickly become very annoying.
Now hold the guitar in playing position and take note of how it feels. Put your fingers on the strings and press them to the fretboard. The strings should not be so high off the fretboard that there is any difficulty in pressing them down in a fairly relaxed manner. If the bridge provides no way to adjust how high the strings are, it is an indication of an extreme lack of quality. Fortunately, you will likely only encounter this on very old, cheap instruments.
Another thing to look for regarding the bridge is intonation adjustability. This means there is some way to adjust the string saddles, the parts of the bridge which are actually in contact with the strings, back and forth along the direction of the strings themselves. What this does is make tiny adjustments in the active string length. This is important for the strings playing in tune on the higher frets. Occasioanlly you will see a high-end type of guitar whose bridge design does not adjust, with the contact points staggered for permanent correct adjustment, but in these rare cases the guitar is so well made that the intonation will probably never be out of adjustment. Any cheaper guitar which does not have such intonation adjustment capability should probably be avoided.
Also when you put your fingers on the strings, note how the neck's shape feels in your hand. Try it along the neck from one end to the other. The more comfortable the shape is for you, the more you are likely to enjoy playing that particular guitar. Different people sometimes like the feel of different shapes and thicknesses in the neck, so go by your personal preference.
Next turn all the control knobs back and forth to make sure they operate smoothly. Work any switches for the same reason.Now you're ready for the first tone check. Before plugging the guitar in, strum the strings, both individually and together, and listen to the tone it produces. If you have several guitars to look at where you are shopping, compare their tones in this way. Yes, there are many devices for producing interesting tones when you are going into an amp, but my philosophy is that if the guitar sounds pleasing even without plugging it in, your raw starting tone is going to already be good before that tone is sent through anything else. This can only be a plus.
Now plug the guitar into an amp. Do not buy an electric guitar unless you can do this first, because it is the only way to make sure that everything works properly. Keep the amp on a clean setting with no distortion or effects and listen to the tone with all the guitar's knobs turned all the way up. Try starting out with each of the amp's tone settings in the middle, and make small adjustments to your personal taste. Don't turn the amp up too loud because you will not want to fatigue your ears too quickly while making your tone assessment. If the guitar sounds good to you completely clean, then when you add distortion or effects later, you will know that you have again started with good tonal "raw material" which will only be a positive no matter what else you do to modify the tone electronically.
Naturally, you should make sure all the controls do their job. Some guitars have one volume knob for the whole thing, while others have separate knobs for each pickup. Also try the tone knobs to see how they affect the sound. Most of the time players will leave the tone controls all the way up, but there are times when you want those tones which turning them down produces. On most guitars, the tone knobs cut the treble frequencies when you turn them down.
Also make sure all the switches do their jobs properly. Most of the time the switches select between which pickup(s) you are using. Each pickup gives a different sound because of where it is positioned along the string compared with the others. The pickup nearest the bridge will typically produce the most trebly, biting tone, with the pickup nearest the neck producing a warmer, thicker tone. The pickup heights should be adjusted so that their volumes are about equal, with the one nearest the bridge closest to the strings. None of the pickups should interfere with the strings no matter where you fret them. Pickup height is nearly always adjustable for this purpose via bolts at each end of the pickup.
The most ideal amp to try the guitar on is the one that you will actually use, because then you will have the best idea what your rig will sound like once you get it home. If you like the tone you are getting, this will make it more enjoyable to play and will help inspire you to keep learning and playing for a long time to come. Good luck and have fun!
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