Is it So Difficult To Find A Good Acoustic Guitar At Low Price?
July 14th, 2009 by Francois Arcoix
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As a beginning guitarist, have you ever thought of quitting your guitar? Why your guitar sounds bad no matter how good you squeeze the fretboard? Why your fretting fingers can’t stay longer on the fretboard without having pain?
These problems may be related to the guitars they used. Some parents for example bought cheap guitars thinking that if the children quit they would not lose much. This idea is not completely true because picking wrong guitars can also lead to a big frustration.
You can buy budget guitars as long as they meet some criteria below:
Check for warped guitar neck. Press one string at the first and 12th fret and look at the gap between the string and the frets on the fretboard. You should see a little tiny gap only between them.
Other important factor to check is the guitar playability. You should feel comfortable playing any chords at any places on the fretboard without difficulties or suffering muscle tension and fingers pain.
To find out an acoustic guitar with good playability you should measure the action. Take a measurement from the bottom of the thickest string to the top of the 12th fret. Ideally 3mm to 4mm distance is needed. For beginners this action setting will help a lot because it decreases the strings tension.
The last thing to check is intonation. Good intonation means each note pressed on any fret across the fretboard should stay in tune. A guitar may sound OK when you play open chords but once you are moving your chords along the fretboard you may experience out of tune chords. This is a due to bad intonation and nothing related to the guitar tuning at all. Use guitar tuner to take some measurement in case you are in doubt.
It is quite difficult to find cheap guitars that can meet those criteria, especially for beginners. Get an experienced friend to guide you in the guitar store and let him/her recommend some guitars for you to try. Choose one that feels right in your hand and don’t pay attention too much on the guitar appearance. You don’t need a fancy good looking guitar. It may fool you easily.
If you follow this tips correctly you can get a fairly good guitar at a reasonable price. Don’t waste your money for something you can’t play.
