How to Choose a Good Guitar

Video Transcript

"So this is a Martin D35, which is basically kind of like, it's a good Martin, and Martin is kind of an industry standard. It's like the Budweiser of guitars. So this is a quality guitar. There's much better guitars and there's much worse, like much worse. So talking about like what can define a guitar or how to kind of tell if a guitar is well built or made of good materials, some things to look at are...I'd say the most crucial thing to look at is the body of the guitar itself. This is your soundboard. This actually affects the sound of strings. So a lot of cheap guitars are made of, they have a plywood soundboard, which you can tell if you look at the wood in the sound hole, you'll see that the wood's actually composed of stacks, like stacks of particle board, the way plywood looks. So you want to look for actual wood grain on this part of the guitar, and that will allow you to tell if your top is made of solid lumber. Other things, you get the same thing happening, like a lot of times a decent guitar will have a solid wood soundboard but the sides and back will be made of plywood. Although the sides and back aren't quite as crucial to the sound of the guitar, from what I understand, they still matter, so you want to find something that's actually all solids, all solid wood. That's kind of crucial. If you're buying a new guitar you shouldn't have to worry about fret wear. But guitars, kind of like cars, they wear. After so much use you have to replace all of your frets, and it's a pretty expensive job. It runs around $250. Like I said though, if you're buying a new guitar, it shouldn't be an issue. Other stuff? I guess type of wood for your top. I think this is...gosh, I think this is maple. They also make guitars that have mahogany tops. It's all kind of like what the actual material you're buying or the material that your guitar is made out of, people have differing opinions on the sound. You can find really expensive guitars made out of all kinds of wood, spruce, maple, mahogany, and different people like different sounds, also different looks, because the mahogany would be a nice cherry color. Let's see. Other aspects of a high quality instrument? This is something that's purely aesthetic, but you're on stage so aesthetics matter. This is the binding. I've got a nice design in my binding. I've got a pretty rosette here. I've got nice, ebony bridge. These things are mostly aesthetic. Also the make of a guitar, that also matters. Martin's a reputable brand. Taylor's a reputable brand. I think Seagull is a very reputable brand, they make cheaper instruments but they make them with solid woods. Let's see, what else? We talked about this earlier. We have tuning pegs up here that don't wobble. That's good. Another thing is like to play guitar for awhile and see if it holds a tune. That means things aren't moving, your glue joints are solid. And then just listen to it, that's the main thing."