Buying Advice

Whether buying an instrument for a beginner or a better instrument as a professional, there are some key points to look for.
As a repairer, I have many customers bringing in guitars that they would never have purchased, had they known it had an issue that was going to cost extra to rectify.
If you are a total beginner, maybe very young, go straight to the bottom of the page.

Price

Is it cheap?

Why is it cheap?

Before buying, even if you have an instrument lined up, you must take a look on the various market sites to see what the going rate is for your instrument.

If the one you are looking at is cheap, then it is very likely to have something wrong with it.

Ask yourself why would anyone sell an item for less than the going rate?

They are very kind and want to give joy to strangers.
They genuinely do not know its worth.
It needs work.

Do not be tempted by a bargain . . . . or, I'll see you later. Bring your wallet.

Since most electric guitars have multi-adjustable hardware, they are a pretty safe buy.

Most of the advice here is aimed at acoustic guitars.

String height

The main issue with any guitar is excessively high strings making it difficult to play.

The height of the strings above the frets is technically called the 'action'.

If you can measure the distance from the 12th fret to the underside of the strings, it should not be more than 2mm for guitars and 2.5mm for basses.

If it is higher, it may be perfectly OK and need adjustment to the bridge and/or the neck so don't refuse an instrument if the action is higher than 2mm or 2.5mm but do check it out as shown below.

Adjustment on most electric bridges is easy but if it is an acoustic it is more involved.
Neck adjustment is fairly straightforward for an experienced repairer.

In addition to the bridge and neck, acoustics can develop a bulge on the top and/or a neck misalignment, both of which can cost £80 - £100 or more, to fix.

Let's start with the basic things to look for.

Look for the basics

String height / action

To measure the distance between the 12th fret and the underside of the strings, put two bank cards together and see how they fit, sliding them under the 6th string at the 12th fret. Two cards together are just under 2mm.

Do this with the 1st string (thin) as well.
If both strings are 2mm or less (2.5mm for bass) then give the instrument a play.
If it plays well and feels and sounds good, you are good to go but it would be useful to try the next steps as well just so you know exactly what condition the instrument is in.

Break angle

This is for acoustics.
When the strings get high due to structural issues, very often someone will have taken out the white bridge saddle and sanded the bottom off to make it lower.
But, this can have a bad effect and is not ever going to address the actual cause of the high strings so beware.
The break angle is the angle of the strings where they come out of the bridge pin holes and rise up to the back of the saddle.
With a nice saddle height, the strings will come up at a fairly steep angle. If they are coming at the saddle almost flat you can bet that the saddle has been sanded and you know that this guitar suffers something structural that causes excess string height - something that you may end up paying me to fix.
Seek an expert opinion.

Neck relief / bow

The neck should have a bit of a downward bow or scoop. Think of the strings like a skipping rope. The rope can slap against the pavement if it is too low. The strings can slap/buzz against the frets if they are too low or if the neck is too flat. A little bit of downwards bow in the middle allows the strings to be nice and low without buzzing.

To measure, you need three hands or a capo.
Hold the 6th string down on the 1st fret with the capo or a third hand.

Hold the 6th string down on the last fret.

If you don't have a capo, someone else will need to do the string holding while you do the measuring.

We are looking for a gap around the middle of the neck where the string does not quite touch the frets, so the middle has a slight downbow.
If you can get a credit card under the string, there is too much relief (bow).
If so, this would require excess sting action height.

You should be able to slide a piece of paper into the gap between the string and the frets but not a credit card.

Tap the string in the middle with your free hand. it should make just a small clicking sound where it hits the frets.

If the string is touching all the way along, no clicking, the neck is flat or even back-bowed and will also require the strings to be too high.

Whatever you find, if the guitar has a truss rod, the relief (bow) can be adjusted as long as the truss rod works and the neck doesn't have a fundamental fault. If it is out of adjustment, try to get confirmation from the seller that you can return it if it will not adjust.

Neck angle

We'll look at an acoustic for this as it is not so important on an electric, which has a lot of adjustable parts.

Imagine the neck angle as it meets the body as the flight-path of an aeroplane landing from the headstock end. If it approaches the body too steeply it will crash. That means the neck is sticking up at an angle.
To test the angle you need a straight edge at least 2 feet, 60cm long. A lot of people who do craft things have a long straight edge or rule.
Place the edge of the straight edge/rule on the frets between the two middle strings so it can slide along the frets. Slide it along to the body end; see where it touches the bridge.

When you slide it along the neck toward the bridge like it's coming in to land, the rule should just touch or be a little higher than the bridge wood in which the white saddle sits in its groove.
If the rule collides with the wood plate, the neck angle is too steep, as if the plane crashed into the ground (I hope you're not off on holiday; if you are, try to forget this).
The repair is to remove the neck, re-shape its socket and re-fit it. This repair starts at £100.

Bridge lifting/top bulge

This applies to acoustic guitars.
Take a look at the wood bridge. Look at the rear edge. Is it glued down tightly or is there a gap developing?
This causes the bridge to tilt upward and raises the action.
To remove and re-glue is from £80.

How flat is the top of the body around the bridge? Is it bulging upward?
Even if the bridge is glued down nicely, time can cause the top to pull upward into a bulge and this also causes high action.
The repair process varies but is going to be at least £100
How much bulge is bad? There isn't a defined measurement. If the bridge is leaning forward noticeably and the action is high, seek expert advice.

Fret wear

The frets eventually get dips in them where over time the strings get pushed against them.

Looking straight at the frets from above, these dips show as shiny 'scoops'.
If the scoops are too deep, the strings may buzz unless the action is raised up quite high.

But there may be good news.
This way of looking at the scoops is actually misleading. The scoops reflect the light as little concave mirrors and they appear much deeper than they really are.

You need to look along the neck from the headstock end.
Put the body on a table to support it and hold the headstock up toward your face so you can look along the fretboard toward the body - like that plane landing.

Angle it so all the frets merge into one shiny image.
Most of the scoops you saw from the front will disappear from this angle.
You are now looking at the frets from their back edges and if you still see the scoops as pronounced dips, then the wear needs to be fixed.

If you don't see any dips then the scoops that appear like bright spots from the front, probably aren't too bad at all.

There are various repairs for this.
One is to file the tops off all of the frets (levelling) until they are all as low as the scoops. Then each fret top has to be rounded off to the correct shape (profiling/crowning). The whole thing is called 'fret dressing'.

The filing removes a lot of the fret metal so can usually only be done once at a cost of perhaps £80.

I don't do fret dressing as I think it is a waste of money when for £150 you can get new frets, and if the guitar is really unplayable then a dress won't make loads of difference.
My Pro Setup includes enough fretwork to make it playable until the next refret anyway.

Classical guitar

It is an acoustic guitar so much of the above advice is good, except, a decent instrument has the neck fitted in such a way that it cannot be removed for a neck re-set.
Cheaper student instruments usually can be re-set but are not worth the cost.
If you are looking at a professional quality instrument that is properly constructed, avoid it if the neck angle is too steep. There are ways to make it playable but why would you spend money on repairs rather than on an instrument in good condition?

Acoustics with electrics

The main thing is the preamp module. That's the thing with the volume and tone controls.
If there is no output to an amp, seriously consider passing by this guitar.

What could be wrong?

Most likely is the battery.
Next most likely, sadly, is the preamp module.
They can rarely be repaired and usually replacement is the only cost effective fix. £50 upward, usually upward of £100 by the time I've found one that fits the hole or have modified the hole.
Jack socket. Beware of sellers saying "it's probably only the jack". A duff jack usually makes some noise when the lead is wiggled. New strap button jack £35.
"It's only the transducer - easy to fix".
Maybe £25 - £50 - £80 'easy' depending on the make.

If the instrument brand and model going rate, with working electrics, is in the lower, student range, like under £80 in good working order, leave it and buy one that works.

Electric guitars

As they have very adjustable necks and bridges, there is some leeway in most of the above and the electrics are only going to cost £25 - £35 ex parts to get working properly.

That's not bad at all. Don't be put off by bad electrics.

Total beginners and youngsters

Cheap acoustic guitars are usually unplayable, even painful, not only on the young fingers but also on the older ears.

No brainer: get a cheap electric guitar.

Get a real cheap one and get a real cheap little amplifier that has a headphone socket.

The cheapest electrics have adjustable everything and if it happens to be really bad, it can be made very playable with a basic setup at £25.

If you need a classical or acoustic, go for a nylon strung classical.

Easier on the fingers, and due to the low tension nylon strings, they don't suffer any of the neck, bridge, bulgy stuff mentioned above.

If you get that brilliant cheap electric but can't use it for school guitar lessons, get a £10 nylon strung classical from Marketplace for school only. You could even leave it there if the school Music Dept. has somewhere to leave instruments.