Brain Fertilizer

This is an excellent time to buy a guitar...

Why? I’m not sure, but I think the reason is computer design, drafting, and manufacturing processes have allowed entry-level guitars to be mass-produced to tighter tolerances (and thus higher standards of quality) than in decades past.

Just a few months ago I purchased an excellent strat copy electric with low action, smooth fingerboard, heavy body (for good sustain), and decent pick-ups from a pawnshop for just $100. I felt like I was getting a $400-500 guitar in new condition: what a bargain! Then I went on the web and found out I could have gotten the same guitar with a practice amp shipped to me for a total of $110. I wasn’t such a great bargain-hunter as I thought.

…then again, a guitar is intensely personal, and every guitar is slightly different. You should never purchase a guitar you haven’t played for at least a few minutes.

Acoustic guitars are another interesting case. Seagull Guitars started the movement for inexpensive quality guitars a few years back…but now they’ve gained a good enough reputation that their “$800-quality for just $230 price” guitars are now costing $400-500. Rats. That’s too expensive to bring on a deployment to a desert climate that might ruin it.

So I went looking for a decent guitar at a price that wouldn’t leave me upset if it ended up warping after a few months in the Middle East.

I checked out some of the cheaper ones…I usually hate the acoustics painted with colors, preferring a more natural varnish look. But there was a green Takamine with an electronic amplification system. The action was low, but no fret buzz, booming bass like I’d expect on a Martin…and just $200!

So now I have a $200 acoustic guitar I like too much to let die in a desert. Sigh.

Anyway, based on that, I’d recommend a Takamine. Taylor, Martin, and Guild are generally considered the best mainstream acoustic guitars. And they price them accordingly. There are other, smaller companies…more exclusive, and even pricier, like Larribee, et al. And then there is the Seagull Guitar level: nearly as good quality as Taylor and Martin for about half the price. Other companies are following where Seagull blazed the trail. The other nice thing about Seagull is they are extremely beautiful guitars…

But the bottom line is, well, the bottom line: $2000 is a lot of money to spend on a guitar that might get scratched when the cat runs through the room and knocks it over, or when your child wants to strum for a while, or if you stand up too quickly. The difference in sound, quality, and appearance from the best guitar to the worst is, these days, far smaller than the difference in price. That’s to your advantage.If you want the top of the line, well, it is the best for a reason, but you pay as much for the name brand as for the guitar.

But there is one other choice rather than buying a guitar, if you have the time, patience, and dexterity. For about $400, you can build your own with a Stew-Mac kit. It doesn’t sound too hard to do, and you end up with a guitar of the same quality as a $2000-3000 guitar, from all accounts I’ve heard.

Aside: They used to have archtop jazz guitar kits; I’m disappointed they seem to have dropped that choice. But I may have to try that violin kit.