Checking a guitar before buying

[cukaracha]

hey there.

i'm relatively good with guitars, but still i'm sure theres plenty of room for improvement.

so i'd like to ask what are some of the things that people tend to miss out when checking the guitar at the shop. eg. paint scratches/dings/cracks at less conspicuous places like the neck joint etc.. so what else is there that we sometimes overlook??

thanks

 

[Crawldaddy]

Hmm.

things I check for whenever I play a guitar:

1. loose parts (e.g. nut, saddle, tuning machines, jack socket)
2. electronics > just play and roll the knobs and use the pickup switch to see if there's any noise
3. neck straightness > look down the neck to see if there's any irregular warping / bending of the neck.
4. tuning stability > tune guitar and play bluesy bends / wobble the tremolo bar
5. strap pin stability > you don't want the strap pins to be wobbly / loose right?
6. sharp fret ends / irregular fret height

 

[lightice]

Check for dead spots on the neck, fret rattle etc.

 

[Snikrs]

I had a bad experience one when purchasing an acoustic, the truss rod was not installed properly and it was unreachable, needless to say, the neck was as good as useless should it warp. Check the fingerboard too, especially rosewood ones. Sometimes, the fingerboard is so dry that it actually develops cracks or in some cases, humid that mould starts growing. (Eww.) So, it helps if you can get the help of the salesperson to check these parts of a guitar too.

Also, guitars are supposed to be shipped/sold with their repair tools. Don't forget to ask the salesperson for it too.

Adding on to the electronics, make sure that the pots aren't scratchy. You can test this by muting the strings, turn the amp volume up and turn the pots. You should be able to tell if they are scratchy. Scratchy pots can be easily fixed using contact cleaners.

 

[RockerJ_77]

Bro. What you mean by scratchy?

 

[jskadiang]

He means they crackle when turned.