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Joined:
March 2007
Posts: 665
Location: Tychy, Poland | Hi,
what are you checking when you're buying electric guitar?
Personally, when i'm in shop i check guitars unplugged first, how do they sound from wood only. Then i look if the wood is resonating properly when i knock on guitars, and if wood is ok then i might want to check it plugged in.
But it's not always the rule, sometimes i find ultra-cheap guitars built from some fine wood so i buy them, replace pickups and bridge and then play on them.
I found that this is pretty good way to check what's guitar really worth, for example - 9 of 10 guitars from PRS SE series are worthless. The only thing that really makes them sound good are pickups, but when you'll put those pickups to $100 guitar that sound good unpluged, this cheap one will sound much better than PRS.
This is one thing that i learned from Robert Pieculewicz ( www ), "polish Satriani" who is one of artists cooperating with my agency.
He has 9 high-end guitars he won or got from different companies, including Music Man Axis SS, Ibanez Jem 77, Fender Stratocaster Deluxe, 2 Carvins etc. and still his favourite is korea-made Blade Durango in which he replaced pickups, with Carvin DC127 being on close 2nd place. |
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April 2006
Posts: 2491
Location: Copenhagen Denmark | The AMPLIFIER makes the Difference .. and some Talent |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7236
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I look at playability, fit'n finish, and general craftsmanship on electrics along with the usual is the neck straight and all that.
While the material the guitar is made with plays a factor, the pickups and anything that touches the strings (bridge, nut, tuners, etc) are where the rubber meets the road, but... those are all replaceable so I refer back up to playability, fit'n finish, and general craftsmanship.
One of the reasons I like the UltraGS guitars are they are the result of what I would have done with any inexpensive guitar I might have purchased in the 80's. As long as they were easy to play, decent finishes, built well... nothing a set of Dimarzio pickups, Kahler bridge and Schaller tuners couldn't make sound great.... oh... that's what they came with.. perfect.
The amplifier plays a part, but without something decent going into it, the best amp in the world isn't going to make a crappy guitar sound good. |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Pretty much brand name, model, and reputation of the manufacturer. The majority of my purchases have been sight unseen, and I've been lucky. |
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February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | Buy the entire guitar. Buying just the tip isn't a great idea. |
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Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | And who says PT doesn't have a sense of humor? |
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Joined:
December 2006
Posts: 6268
Location: Florida Central Gulf Coast | Originally posted by Paul Templeman:
Buying just the tip isn't a great idea. True...
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Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 13996
Location: Upper Left USA | I like to cut a tender branch from a Mojo tree in early Springtime and use it to "douse" out a good guitar...
The rest of the year it depends on feel and playability. I have been hacking out some mutts trying to see what I would like best in a guitar and it ssems that the LP, Viper and VXT shapes are the most balanced for feel. |
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June 2003
Posts: 1792
Location: Rego Park, NY, | PT Barnum? |
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Joined:
June 2003
Posts: 1792
Location: Rego Park, NY, | Does PT like Bailey's? |
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Joined:
March 2007
Posts: 665
Location: Tychy, Poland | Originally posted by ProfessorBB:
Pretty much brand name, model, and reputation of the manufacturer. The majority of my purchases have been sight unseen, and I've been lucky. Buying by brand name is setting your mind to hear what you want to hear.
for example, Fender Stratocaster Standard made in USA.
9 of 10 Standard's that were built for past few years were just weak and overpriced, and now if you want to get a good Stratocaster You have to either buy a custom shop version or really old one.
I had other example in acoustic-electric guitars.
I got to play in used guitars shop in Cracow an Ovation-copy made by Furch in early 90's. This guitar was really ugly, but it was playing SO MUCH BETTER than deep bowl Custom Legend that was hanging in the same shop that it opened my mind a little to "copies".
It's better to |
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Joined:
May 2009
Posts: 325
Location: Utica, NY | Just buy a Hamer...never had a bad one. :-) |
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Joined:
May 2009
Posts: 325
Location: Utica, NY | Seriously though, perhaps you could narrow your search by first determining what type of music you intend to use it for. Most any high quality (and many lesser quality) solid body, dual humbucker guitars will cover a wide gamut of musical needs very nicely. What will you run it into, an amp alone or though a string of effects (or a multi-effects unit)? If it's the latter most any guitar can be made to sound awesome. If it's the former then body construction (i.e. solid, semi-solid, hollow etc. can make a big difference. Body materials like maple or spruce or mahogany can also be a factor but often a more subtle one IMHO. Trem or no trem? But, as has been stated, playability is an equal factor for me. I don't like tele of strat style necks and don't like single coil pickups so that immediately halves the field of what I would shop for. Others are just the opposite. That's what makes it fun. If you don't have a specific direction then try to play a bunch, buy something of solid reputation, that appeals to you visually and sonically and that feels right. No easy answer. |
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Buying electric guitar tips
