Most beginner guitarists nowadays target affordable guitars. They try to get the most of an instrument that produces sound, feels nice to play and looks decent. They don’t care about the tone wood, nor the hardware quality while on budget. All that matters is something that works fine out of the box so they can plug and hit their first strum in a minute.
We should know that a guitarist would have a clearer idea of their requirements comes time of the second guitar purchase. But before doing so, I would like to shed the light on 3 aspects that I think every guitarist must consider before they purchase any guitar.
- Playability and Comfort
- Durability and Quality
- Features and Aesthetics
for this part, we will tackle Playability and Comfort
Playability and Comfort
Playability comes hand in hand with comfort. It is very important for beginner and intermediate players to read guitar reviews about playability and comfort before making their purchase.
It is also highly recommended to visit music stores and try to hold a few guitars in their hands, put them in their laps and inspect them even if they don’t understand the bits and pieces. This allows you to get a feel for the instrument that you cannot gauge by reading reviews.
What to consider?
Body Size and Style
You would want a guitar that matches the size of your arms and probably sits well on your lap. There are several styles in the market, of which the most famous are Teles, Strats and Les Pauls
Weight, Balance and Ergonomics
The weight of a guitar is determined mainly by the density of the wood that is used in the build. It is very important to understand that heavier guitars might make you tired especially if you intend to play them strapped around your shoulder while standing.
A well balanced guitar has its weight distributed evenly between the bottom of the body and the top of its headstock where the center of gravity lays somewhere in the body above the lap rest.
Unbalanced guitars give their players hard times causing neck dives and soon the player starts considering resistance by lifting the neck up again to a playing position.
And finally, Ergonomics are defined by the contours of the body — you would no want sharp edges where your body meets that of the guitar.
These are broken down into three main cuts:
- Tummy cut — this is usually a cut in the wood at the back of the body in order to accommodate players with bigger tummies.
- An arm rest — similar to the tummy cut; it is a shave in the wood at the front of the body where your forearm lays.
- The heal joint — which is at the back of the guitar where the neck is attached to the body.
Some guitars have them sharp where access to the high notes becomes a little uncomfortable as the corner of it keeps touching your palm and other guitars have it well contoured and you can barely feel it.
Neck Profile and Finish
The neck profile is the shape of the neck at the back where your left hand (if you are right handed) touches.
There are different selections of neck profiles but in modern guitars, the most common profile is a C shape which is not as bulky as the rest.
The neck finish also affects playability as the glossier it is, the stickier it becomes to your hand.
Modern players interested in playing fast aim for a Satin finish rather than a glossy one.
Fretboard/Fingerboard radius
The fretboard radius is how arched the guitar fretboard is. Read more about it here.
Why does it matter?
If you want to play chords a lot, a smaller radius — rounder fretboard might suit you better.
Whereas if you intend to play the lead and execute some killer bends, go for a bigger radius — flatter fretboard
Scale Length
The scale length is the distance between the nut of the guitar and the bridge. To be more specific, it is the length of the part of the strings that vibrates.
Why is this important?
Well, the shorter the scale is the easier bending the strings become. With a long scale, the tension on the strings to be put in tune becomes higher. Imagine installing a guitar string on a bass guitar that has a very long scale. If you try to tune the string to pitch, the string ends up broken before reaching pitch because of the tension you are applying to it.
One more thing to know that is affected by the scale length is the fret distances. If you have a long scale guitar, the distance between its frets is normally bigger than those on a shorter scale guitar.
Why does this affect playability? Well in my experience that does not affect it much because eventually you will develop a preference based on the evolution of your playing style. But if you have big hands and long fingers, I recommend to go to the store and try different guitars with different scale lengths. Read more about Scale Length here.
String Gauges
A string gauge is the thickness of the string. The thinner it is the less tension there is; however, thicker strings are much less likely to break because they can withstand higher tension.
This is probably not very important in the beginning as you can always change the strings and get the gauges that suit your fingers and playing style best. But also, I recommend to visit the store and try different gauges.
That’t it for Part 1. In Part 2 I will write about Durability and Quality. Stay tuned…
