Cheap guitars – but how cheap?

Cheap guitars are easy to come by, but you want a guitar that’s affordable and will stay in tune for more than two songs.

If money isn’t your issue you want to go straight to the top name brand guitars like Fender, Gibson, Dean, Yamaha, or Ibanez.

Although these companies gain their popularity by their electric guitar models, they also make acoustic guitars that are worth what you’ll pay.

If it’s your first acoustic guitar you’re going for you’ll probably end up getting a much less popular, but more affordable guitar name brand – or if you’re like me, you’ll get a guitar that has no name brand.

I bought my first guitar for around twenty dollars off of e-bay.  It wasn’t much to look at, but it was enough to get me started.  I keep it around (in the back of the closet) just to remind myself where I started and how far I have come.  I am sure that I will never get rid of it, unless I pass it on to one of my kids in the future.

Most importantly, the following is what you want to look for before paying for a guitar:

 

Does it stay in tune? – This will be easy if you’re experienced with playing songs and/or have a good ear for note pitch; if not, ask the seller to play you a tune or two. If you notice them re-tuning the instrument afterwards, it is possible that it may just need new strings, but if its really bad, this should be a turn off for your love of that guitar.

Have the strings been changed lately – well used strings will sound muffled, and will have corrosion or rust if they’re really old; new strings will have a very bright sound and appearance, as well as a long lasting sound. The good news is that this is easily fixed; expect to be changing your strings every few months or so, even more so if you’re performing regularly.

Frets and Pickups – the frets of a guitar are the metal bars across the neck that help you play, and the pickups are what help create your sound on an electric guitar. For beginners, don’t worry much about the number of frets on the neck. As for more advanced players, you’ll be looking for 22 or 24 fret guitars, because as you progress with melting face with your soloing, you’ll use these higher notes more.

Appeal, does it look good? – Of course scuffs and scratches, dents or chips show if a guitar is well used or not. However, compare this to the look of a car: a new coat of wax will make it look good, but it won’t affect the performance much. A thing to look for with acoustic guitars is any major cracks in the body, because this will affect it’s durability and ultimately determine its lifespan.

Obviously if you are looking to buy a cheap guitar a lot of this is not going to matter much because if you are anything like I was in the beginning you don’t have much money to invest in a quality instrument.  Since my very first guitar though I have found that the above things are what you should be looking for no matter how much money you have to spend.