Blog #5

What I Need in a Guitar…

As a prospective guitar builder and luthier, I have my own qualifications for a great guitar. That is if I am buying one and not building one. As an instrument purchaser, I want a guitar with a quality build; which is both a complicated and a subjective assessment.

To being my assessment, I look at wood quality. Now, this can be difficult with solid color finishes and with veneer tops. However, I would like to add that wood quality is not an intense weeding-out process; in fact, many guitars in a lower budget will have good mahogany and alder slabs for the base of the guitar. So how do I tell, well the wood and the construction should collaborate to make a resonance and tone that separates the overall quality from the guitar next to it (even if it is the “same” guitar that is being compared). Every model of guitar could have a different feel or a .00001% added mojo that makes it better than the serial number above or below it. Every guitarist should know what I mean, sometimes the one olympic white strat is better than the fiesta red one despite having the specifications. I’d like to think it is because the construction and the wood quality can vary. The manufacturing process is meant to have the very consistent results but every tree is different, so almost every plank of wood will mimic that. You can feel it. The vibration in the body when you strum an open chord without plugging in an amp is unique to that guitar. That’s why there are some excellent examples of every model and some “bad apples.” Well that and any set-up thoroughness or lack thereof.

The next thing I pay attention to is the neck profile. I will talk more about this in a future blog, but I like fatter necks as I stated before. When I go into a guitar store, I want a guitar that needs little aftermarket parts because that helps me justify my purchase and not just stay at home and start a project. So, I want a neck that speaks to me. Not any fat neck will do; for example, Epiphone had a 57′ Les Paul custom that sounded great with their “Pro Buckers” and had a huge-chunky neck. So far, it sounds like it passes my criteria. But the neck had a lack luster feel. It had a sticky lacquered neck that felt like top of a baseball neck. Now, many guitars have this profile but they still feel like they compensate to the ergonomics of the human hand. Not this specific example, it felt like there was a handful of wood and the fretboard edges were not rounded at all. I compared this to the one right next it, same model but it had a ‘blemish’ so it was discounted. That one felt dramatically different than its identical twin, the profile felt wider horizontally so my thumb could be placed on the fretboard for some blues chord chugging. Additionally, the edges were rolled like a cuban cigar. it felt like I could grip that beast all day.

To me, a lot of the other aspects are just a rainy Sunday project away from getting close to exactly what I want.

I know, its pretty lackluster of a list but I encourage more guitarist to feel all their options. It’s one of the few things in life where you can touch all your options and not feel weird about it. Then, try to justify if the feel is good enough to work with.

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-ZAC