Unless you can travel back in time to 1958, there has never been a better time to purchase an electric guitar than today. Even the cheapest of instruments nowadays play and sound great, but with so many good options like the Gibson SG, you can easily get distracted from finding the perfect electric guitar.
So, how do you pick a guitar that matches your style and needs? Well, we have listed 10 things to keep in mind before giving your hard-earned money to the local music instruments shop.
1. Good Licks
If this is your first time buying a musical instrument, you’ll want to bring along a person who knows how to play so that they can help you make a sound decision. However, it is still smarter to wait until you can play relatively well so that you can make the best choice. Oh, and there’s a vital tip: Unless you want to be chased away and banned from a music store, do not play ‘Enter Sandman’, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ or ‘Eruption’ while in there.
2. Good Looks
When going through the seemingly endless options at the local store, allow your instincts to go wild and just pick the guitar that catches your eye fast. A good-looking electric guitar will probably inspire you to play more than an ugly one. However, you do not want looks to be the primary factor to consider when purchasing an ax.
3. Try it Unplugged
Before you plug in the electric guitar, consider testing its acoustic features by playing a few single-note lines, open chords and barre chords while unplugged. It should be lively, sparkly and loud. If a musical instrument has a good inherent acoustic tone when unplugged, it will sound better when plugged in. However, it sounds dull or dead from the get-go, you are better off browsing other options.
4. Know the Materials
The materials used to make a guitar have a substantial effect on the tonal properties. Mahogany, often used for bodies and necks, provides a warm sound and smooth sustain. Maple, often used for fingerboards, is heavy and produces a bright tone. As for guitar bodies made of light woods such as basswood and swamp ash have lively acoustic properties. Before you commit, ensure you know more about wood than the average joe.
5. Heavy Necking
Firmly hold the neck with your fretting hand and then run your fingers up and down the frets. The neck contour ought to fit comfortably in your palm, and the frets should be smooth, without rough, protruding, or sharp edges. Keep Johnnie Cochran’s statement in mind, ”If it does not fit, you must quit.”
6. Body Shop
Guitars with a solid body come in just about every shape. A guitar that looks like a medieval torture instrument may look cool on stage when playing death metal, but your nether regions will have a long day when you try to play it while sitting down. If you want a great all-round electric guitar for both practice and performance, ensure it feels comfortable when playing it sitting down or standing up.
7. The True Value of the Hardware
Closely check every detail of the instrument’s hardware and learn how to identify high-quality parts. You’ll want to stay away from guitars with misaligned parts, a nut that is cut too deep, screws driven at weird angles, and loose-feeling knobs, switches, or pegs. You might get a steal on an inexpensive guitar with lousy hardware, but buying upgrades will not guarantee that you will end up with a perfect electric guitar.
8. Plug and Play
When you first test the instrument through an amplifier, do not head straight to the mega-distortion mode. Instead, dial in a clean tone, set the EQ controls to moderate, and keep a close eye on the instrument’s overall tonal properties, i.e fat/thin, weak/powerful, dull/lively, dark/bright, etc. You will also want to check for sustain or lack thereof. Excessive amplifier distortion makes the guitar sound better and so, do not allow the retailer to dial up the gain before determining the fullness or flatness of the ax’s natural sound.
9. The Pickup Guide
Pickups tend to influence an instrument’s sound quite significantly. Single-coil pickups usually have a moderate output and bright tone, while humbuckers have a higher output with fat and warm sound, which is why most metal players prefer them.
10. Go Through Your Options
The last thing you want is to pick an electric guitar solely based on your favorite player’s instrument of choice. While most people go for solid-body guitars, many hollow-body and semi-hollow models are worth considering, particularly if your music taste leans toward rock, jazz, or the 60s style. Back in the 70s, Ted Nugget proves that it’s possible to play a fat hollow-body jazz box and still come out as hard as any other rocker. So, go for an electric guitar that feels right for you or your playing style. As earlier, mentioned there are numerous options, so take your time.
Chad is a professional journalist specializing in Hip-Hop culture and writing music reviews.
