While you shop: Use Your Eyes and Trust Your Ears

The way that the guitar is physically put together is the first thing you should notice. We already talked about how the materials SHOULD affect the guitar's sound. Now, however, we get into what you're actually holding in your hands.

Why are we getting into an instrument's physical condition first? First off, the guitar's appearance is likely to be the first thing you notice about it. So starting with physical appearances is not a bad starting point when shopping. But on a more serious level, a damaged instrument can actually sound pretty good to the ear. But it doesn't make a very sound investment (no pun intended).

With this in mind, look the instrument over. Look for obvious dings or scratches or scrapes. Look at all the seams that you can find in the wood - are they tight?

Check out how smooth the top of the guitar is. The top of the instrument should be smooth and flat (unless its an archtop), and the back should be lightly rounded outward. Any curvature of the instrument's surfaces should look strictly intentional, and should be symmetrical (if there's a bulge on one side of the guitar soundboard, don't let the salesman tell you that's on purpose!).

Are there any cracks at all in the wood of the instrument? I'm not just talking about the light cracking that a guitar's finish can take on after a while; I mean cracks in the WOOD. If you spot any, try your best to stay away from the instrument. A good salesperson will do his or her best to give you plenty of reasons why that crack won't get any worse, and why it doesn't really affect the sound of the instrument. Be skeptical. Be very skeptical. That sort of damage won't get any better over the life of the instrument, and will almost ALWAYS affect the structural integrity of a guitar, interfering with its even aging. Chances are, it will also affect the sound. If it still seems like a great buy, ask for a repair estimate from the store's service department, and mentally include that in the guitar's "cost."

Check out the neck. How high is the action? On most acoustic guitars, the action is pretty much fixed. There are some things you can do: you can shim under the bridge a bit, or shave some off; you can play with the truss rod. But these will generally not be able to correct extreme problems with an instrument's action.

How's the intonation? Compare harmonics at the 12th fret with the fretted notes. If the neck has room for it, try the harmonics and fretted notes at the 19th fret. They SHOULD be the same. If not, how close are they? If you do a lot of jazz chords, then try out some barre chords up high on the neck. Try to incorporate combinations of strings high and low on the neck to see if it stays in tune all the way up the neck. I like to play normal "open chords" (those normally played down by the nut), but transpose all the fretted notes up an octave (i.e., put yer fingers in the same positions relative to the 12th fret that they would have been relative to the nut). Doing this will give you a good idea of how close the intonation is.

Now we get down to brass tacks. There is no substitute for hands-on time on the guitar. So play it! But play it the way you anticipate that you WILL play it. If you're going to be doing a lot of strumming, then strum it. If you plan to play leads on it, then take some of your favorite licks out for a spin on this new instrument (in fact, this is a GREAT way to compare action and playability on various instruments). If it's an Ovation (or any other brand you plan to play primarily through a PA), then ask the salesperson to get you plugged in. Also ask yourself about your own playing environment. Is your band's stage volume pretty much out of control? Then see how the instrument handles high volumes. Is feedback a problem? Don't be shy about asking these questions; it IS, after all, their job to sell you an instrument, and anything that assures you of a suitable candidate should be considered.

In an E-mail to me, Len Humbird reminded me of a shopping technique that had frankly escaped me when I was first putting these pages together (Thanks Len!!). This is especially helpful if you're a relative newcomer to the guitar, but can be of use to even the most seasoned player. If you're REALLY planning to sit down and evaluate guitar sounds, it can be useful to grab a fairly expensive guitar off the racks and listen to THAT one for a while. Then, play ones that more closely approximate your desired price range. By comparing what SHOULD be a great guitar tone (on a pricy instrument), with an affordable guitar tone, you'll be better able to evaluate the pros and cons of the rest of the instruments.

I got still ANOTHER great idea from Bill Childers, describing how HE managed to pick an instrument between his three favorite guitars. I'll let him tell the story:

Bill's idea is, of course, a wonderful way of letting your ears do the talking without having your fingers interfere with your brain's ability to listen to the guitar's sound.

If you're going to be playing the guitar in a studio environment, then try to find a quiet corner of the store to give the instrument a good listen. If they have a soundproof room, go use it. It's often hard to tell exactly WHAT your instrument really sounds like if you are listening to it in a noisy room. The BEST situation, of course, would be to see what the guitar sounds like on tape; however, not many stores I've been in make a recording booth part of their sales gear.....

When you finally get your guitar, take it home, and give it a good, realistic workout in the type of environment in which you intend to use it. If it sounds like hell in your bedroom studio (or wherever), then exercise your rights as a consumer and take it back. You shouldn't have to pay for something that isn't going to work for you.

And finally, the issue of aesthetic appeal. What does it look like? In some ways, I consider physical appearance to be the least of the issues. I've seen some butt-ugly guitars that sounded pretty damn good, as well as a few beautiful finishes on sonically unremarkable instruments. Of course, you might be shopping for an instrument to be featured in the guitar-smashing portion of the show (a la Pete Townsend or, oddly, Garth Brooks), then the cost and visual appeal may outweigh the instruments' sonic merits. But the way I look at it, since I'm buying the guitar to play instead of to look at (theoretically), then the visual appeal of the instrument will always take a back seat to its sound.

Of course, I still haven't found myself a cool Iceman-shaped acoustic guitar with a trem arm, so there's no telling.... I might have to buy that one on the spot, regardless of the sound....