How to Examine The Bridge of a Used Guitar: Part 1

Video Transcript

"KIP BRADFORD: Hi, my name's Kip and I'm here on behalf of Expert Village. Today, we're taking a look at used acoustic guitar and trying to determine whether or not the guitar is worth purchasing. We just looked at how to determine whether the top and sides--top, sides and back are solid woods or not. Now, if we've determine they're not solid woods, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's not a good purchase because we, at this point are thinking that we're just getting something to play. There's a difference between buying a guitar to play just for fun and to learn on and buying an instrument for its vintage value, and that's a whole different video and a whole different topic. So the next thing that I'll do is once I've determined what quality of instrument I'm looking at, which is based on the solid woods, and then, you know, if the price is right, I'll continue even if it's a laminate or a plywood top, is I'll take a close look at the bridge. This is typical of the way that you'll find a used instrument at a garage sale. A lot of times if the strings are completely off or some of them, you're going to be missing bridge pins. Bridge pins run about a buck a piece. So you're looking at six bucks already to invest in this instrument to get it into playable condition. If all the strings are off, there's a good chance that the saddle is missing as well. Being as an instrument has to be set up certain way and all instruments are different. You can't just go down and pay three dollars or ten dollars depending on if you get a bone or a plastic for a saddle and stick it in and have it work properly. It needs to be measured and shaped and so forth to fit the specific instrument. So that again is going to be another $15 to $25 or so. If you've gone to that length, you had to do this, then a full set up is in order as well and that maybe another $20 to $30. So, at that point, if this piece is missing and you don't know how to do that kinda work, then, you know, you might want to pass anyway. If you want to learn how to do that kinda work, go to www.greatnutshells.com and you can purchase inexpensive download videos of a reasonable quality that'll show you how to do full guitar set ups on acoustic, electric and so forth. So take a look at that."