My personal acoustic guitar buying guide, Introduction

Introduction

I recently purchased my third guitar over a time period of 7 years.

I started out with a classical nylon stringed Yamaha c-70 I got for my birthday. This got me learning guitar, thank you yamaha. After 4 years I switched over to a steel string Epiphone EJ-200 super Jumbo model. I just loved the sound and the looks. Getting the EJ really improved my playing because every song I played sounded new to my ears compared to my old guitar. After another 3 years it was time for a new guitar. Although I loved me EJ and I got attached to it, the sound couldn’t compare with an all solid guitar and because I could get a good price for it… I traded it in for an Eastman AC320CE which is a dreadnaught model. It did not have the flair of the EJ and I don’t like the looks of a dreadnaught much, but the sound was unbeatable. And that is first and most important thing about buying a guitar. Use your ears, they don’t lie and only they can tell you what the best sound for you is. And what is the point in buying an instrument that you don’t like the sound of?
I’ll end this section with a quote from Justin referring to scales over at justinguitar.com (amazing site by the way!):

If it sounds good, it is good

If it sounds bad, it is bad

The pointers

1. Use your ears

Your ears are two very complex high quality receivers. They will tell you more than a brand or price tag. Before I bought my EJ all guitars would tend to sound alike. So I went to the store multiple times and let my ears get used to the different sounds that guitars have. And by doing that I developed a liking for certain sounds and without a doubt the EJ-200 had the right sound for the right price for me.

That’s it for now. In my next post I’ll be looking into form factor and woods