New Guitar Inspection: For What To Look

[CBA]

Fiends,

I'll spare you the back-story and just ask:

When you're buying a brand new guitar, what sort of things do you usually look for as far as build and aesthetics? I know that every guitar will feel different, and look different, and play differently, and that you're supposed to try them all and get the one that feels right... but then as far as shit like hardware/build/etc.

For instance, my friend told me to look at where the neck meets the body... that it's a really snug fit, and that it doesn't look like it's too small or loose or something.

What else might you recommend?

P.S. It's a Fender American Standard Telecaster with a rosewood fretboard and black finish.

C

[hclapp219]

Play up and down the neck, listen for any weird buzzes. Check the neck for straightness. Do some bends to see how well it stays in tune. Make sure none of the hardware looks weird (tuners, bridge, pots). See if the cable fits snug in the output jack. Make sure strap locks are tight. Always do a really close inspection of the body of the guitar for finish oddities that wouldnt affect the playing of the guitar but might get the seller to knock the price down a bit. I know this is weird, but smell it to see how smokey it is. Umm, yeah, that's what I usually do.

[dubkitty]

play all up and down the neck to check for bad frets etc.; particularly, bends on all the top strings on every fret from 1 through 15. pick some hard notes on the wound strings from frets 10 to 15; often guitars, especially used ones or ones with bolt-on necks, have a hard-to-detect deflection in the neck/fretboard where the neck joins the body that makes strings buzz out, especially on the D and A strings. on guitars built outside the US listen carefully to the electronics...any crackle, onsy/offsy problem with the switch, or other happiness will have to be replaced and should pull you a discount. make sure nothing's missing; if a guitar's been on display for long, especially in a high-volume retailer, there's a chance that some kid's nabbed a knob, switch tip, or other doodad, and i've seen instruments at GC missing things such as one of the adjustment screws on a Tele bridge saddle. and as noted by folks above i'd look for any defect, large or small, which might net me a few dollars off. but mostly i look for a sound that makes me play something i wouldn't normally play. i have a stock set of riffs i always play when i try out new guitars: some cowboy chords, some Stephen Stills-style clipped blues riffs, some chicken-pickin' country on the treble PU, a few jazz chords, some Bob Mould/Kevin Shields power-chord/unison screech, etc., and if i start playing something outside the box i know i have a contendah.

[CBA]

Thanks to the both of ye so far.

I'm particularly interested in the kind of things you would test/look for without actually plugging the guitar into an amp... I'll peruse your advice for things like that, but feel free to add some more if you think of any.

C

[devnulljp]

Check the nut too. Those are a PitA to replace -- make sure it's cut properly. The strings shouldn't be buried in the slot or you'll have lots of tuning problems as the strings will snag.
Check the frets are level and not worn or coming up at the corners (I've seen a lot of Squiers like that).
Neck should be straight.
Machine heads should turn smoothly and not slip or catch.

[dubkitty]

Thanks to the both of ye so far.

I'm particularly interested in the kind of things you would test/look for without actually plugging the guitar into an amp... I'll peruse your advice for things like that, but feel free to add some more if you think of any.

C

for ease of thought i'm going to write all-guitar i.e. new and used acoustic and electric criteria...we're out of coffee here. it's kind of weird to break this out into written form because it's become a kind of instinctive process for me that happens in about 1 and a half minutes tops. i can check out and reject guitars in 45 seconds.

i guess the first thing i do after picking a guitar up is hold it at arms' length and give it a visual once-over. any visible defects? cracks, major scratches, dings, belt-buckle rash? finish problems from the factory like runs in the clear-coat, orange-peeling, poor-quality sunburst or color application? poor-quality wood, i.e. lousy grain in a spruce top?

next i look at the quality of the components and construction. is the wood used for the fingerboard of decent quality? this can be a deal-breaker...there's a ton of shitty rosewood (or "rosewood") out there nowadays. does the plating on the hardware have that cheap bluish poor-quality Chinese look? do the tuners even have a brand name on them, or are they so bad that they must hide? were the assemblers competent enough not to strip the screw heads?

then i look at the neck. is it reasonably straight? when i sight down the neck from the nut are there any obvious frets sticking up or other visible weirdness? is the amount of neck relief reasonable when i check it by fretting at the first and 12th frets simultaneously? if the guitar is used, how worn are the frets? if it's new, how well are the frets finished? are there any sharp fret ends at the edge of the fingerboard?

if we've made it this far, then the guitar has to pass the most important test: can i play it comfortably? does it sit properly on my abdomen when played with a strap? can i reach the low F on the E string with the instrument sitting in my lap? does the neck dive like a submarine? can i reach around the body of that 17" archtop? or hold up the Jimmy Page-style doubleneck without dislocating something in my back? is the neck too narrow, or too wide? can i palm-mute with the Synchromatic bridge, or rest my hand on the Floyd Rose without making the tuning wonky? am i going to hit the PU selector switch or one of the knobs if my strumming becomes overly excited?

at this point we're crossing over to plugging in and starting more purely musical kinds of tests like tuning, intonation, etc.

[CBA]

Hey hey thanks all you dude burritos dubkitty, devon julip, and hclapp.

I went through each of your posts and did JUST what you said one by one. This particular Telecaster is built VERY well. I'd say it's an almost perfect specimen... there is a bit of fret buzz here and there, but I wonder if that's just because it needs to be set up after coming straight out of the box. Other than that... no flaws on anything, and I triple-czeched that shit. The fretboard is supernice, and the neck and frets have no dips or bumps or bonks.

Now with the sounds.


Thanks again... really truly big help.

C