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Buying Guitars Online
You can find some of the best guitars from
the Stratocasters to the Les Pauls online but the brand
doesn’t really matter if you know what you want. There are
different aspects that you should consider while buying a
guitar and hence we are going to provide you with a guide to
buying a guitar.
The Fretboard/Neck
One of the most important aspects is the
fretboard or fingerboard and neck of the guitar. There are
different components in the fretboard itself but the first
thing that you need to identify is what wood should it be of.
The different types of wooden fretboards available are:
Rosewood :
Rosewood is a heavy wood and is available in multiple
varieties. The most popular is the Brazilian rosewood, which
is quite expensive and rare as well due to extreme
deforestation. The reason why Rosewood is used for
fingerboards is due to the smooth and hard surface it has.
Most of the Paul Reed Smith collection of electric guitars has
rosewood necks and fingerboard.
Maple :
Maple was used by Leo Fender in his first solid-body electric
guitar, which became famous as the Telecaster. Maple has
medium weight and is of medium hardness and hence it doesn’t
make the guitar neck too heavy. Fender also uses maple on
their guitar's fingerboard.
Pau ferro :
This is the replacement for Brazilian rosewood and the name
stands for iron wood. Pau ferro wood is normally quite heavy
as well as nonporous and this is why it is easier to apply
finish on the Pau ferro fingerboards and neck. Warning: Pau
ferro causes allergies.
Mahogany :
This is one of the most popular forms of wood used for
guitars. Mostly, acoustic guitars use Mahogany on their neck
as it can last for a long time. It is a little more flexible
as compared to maple and lighter too. One of the distinctive
features of Mahogany is that it has a dark natural color,
which makes a guitar look more attractive.
Basswood :
Basswood is considered the good wood for both acoustic and
electric guitar because of its softness.
Body Style
Body style makes a lot of difference and is
important because different people have different comfort
levels while playing a guitar. All electric guitars have three
standard body styles and they are solid-body, semi-hollow, and
hollow-body. The body style matters when you are looking to
create multiple effects and loud amplification and hence the
most commonly used guitars are the solid-body guitars. On the
other hand, hollow body guitars are mostly used for jazz as
they are able to provide an acoustic sound.
Scale Length
Scale length can influence the tonal
quality of the guitar notes as well as the tension in the
guitar strings when you are playing at a particular pitch. It
refers to the vibrating length of a guitar string. This can be
determined by the actual distance between the nut and the
bridge saddle. Most of the modern electric guitars employ two
different scale lengths, which are the Gibson scale, at 24-5/8
and the Fender scale at 25-1/2. There is also a third scale
length, which is 25" used by Paul Reed Smith.
Intonation
Intonation is a determining factor for
quality of sound. When you move up and down the neck of the
guitar, the notes that you play needs to be in tune. If they
are not then there is something wrong with the guitars
intonation. When you are in the market to buy a guitar, you
need to play the guitar chosen by you to check the intonation.
Some of the other parameters that you need
to check while buying a guitar include the number of frets
(electric guitars have 22 frets), finish, bridge (two main
bridges- tremolo and stoptail), and pickups (applicable for
electric guitars).
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