Buying Second Hand Guitars

Often cheaper than a new guitar and just as ready to rock out, a secondhand guitar could be the perfect addition to your collection or the perfect thing to start you off, but how do you know that your potential purchase isn’t a potential dud?

The truth is that some fantastic guitars, while expensive when new, are relatively cheap secondhand. Sometimes you can find a custom or a limited edition guitar that someone is selling quickly for the cash and you can often get a real bargain if you know what you are looking for. It really pays to do the research before thinking about buying a second hand guitar as some sellers will push their price up to cash in, especially if they know they are selling to a beginner who may not know much about guitars.

So, as a beginner who may not know much about guitars, what should you look for when inspecting a secondhand guitar?

Let’s just say that you have found a secondhand guitar in the musical instrument section of the weekly classifieds and you are quite keen to go and take a look at it. Below is a list of hints that will help you when inspecting the guitar and talking to the seller:

When talking to the seller, ask them the following:

The make and model of the guitar – It is best if you can do some research on the guitar model to find out the asking price elsewhere, both new and used, and whether or not other people are experiencing problems with it. You can find reviews for almost any guitar submitted at Harmony-central.com/Guitar or you can go and ask at your local music store.

About the condition of the guitar – If they are honest, the seller may tell you about any damage that is undetectable upon rough inspection.

How long they have had the guitar – If they have had it for a long time, they should have a good knowledge of its history of use, repairs and maintenance etc. If they are not forthcoming with that sort of information, they may be trying to pull one over you.

When inspecting the guitar, check the following:

The overall condition – Look the guitar over and make note of any obvious damage – guitars often take a bit of wear and tear and if its just small scrapes and scratches then the guitar will probably be fine. Look for rust also , not on the strings, but on the hardware that is holding the strings and the pickups. If there is any rust in these places… run! It’s not worth it. What good is a guitar that may fall apart on you in the near future? Trust me – leave it alone.

The neck of the guitar – the neck is really important. Here are some areas to look at:

Make sure that the neck is not warped or out of shape in any way.

Check the area where the neck joins to the body of the guitar – look for cracks where it may have been broken in the past.

In the same fashion, check the area where the neck joins the head of the guitar.

Check the action. Action is a word that describes how close the strings are to the fret board starting at the head of the guitar all the way down to the bridge. It is preferable to have the strings very close to the fret board as to make it easier to press them down (not so close that they are touching of course). If the strings are nice and close to the fret board all the way along, you would say that the guitar has a good action. Pictured right is a guitar with poor action. Notice that the strings sit quite far off the fret board. Guitars with poor action are harder to play and don’t sound very good. You can fix the action on your guitar by taking it to a guitar technician, but it will cost you between $20 and $50.

The Intonation of the strings. Intonation is a word that describes the accuracy of each individual note that the guitar can produce on any string. If the intonation is correct, every note on the guitar will be the correct pitch – If it is out, the guitar will be impossible to tune and it will sound horrible. To roughly check the intonation, play the E shape barre chord on each fret of the guitar. As you move towards the bridge of the guitar, you should hear the chord keeping its pitch – if not, the intonation is out and you will need to get a guitar technician to work on the problem.

If the guitar you are looking at is an electric, you must plug it in and see how it sounds through an amp. Ask the seller if you can play it through your amp and if you don’t have one, ask someone if you can borrow theirs. Try the following when testing an electric guitar through an amp:

Turn the amp up to a fair volume level and then play with the volume and tone controls by turning them to full and then back to zero. Test the pickup selector by flicking its switch back and forth. Carefully listen to any sounds that are being made while doing these things. You are looking for scratchy sounds or clicks that might indicate old or worn electrics.

Strum a single chord and while the chord is ringing start playing with the controls like before, still listening for scratches or clicks or any other nasty sounds. Guitar technicians can fix these problems and most guitars need to be done about once every 5 - 10 years. Just be aware of this fact or you could find yourself spending more money than you first intended.

Check the sound of the guitar – Before you buy, you want to know that the guitar sounds like it should? Once you have tested the guitar sound, go to a music store and ask to play on a new model of that guitar. If at all possible, use a similar amplifier to the one that you tested the second hand guitar on, and see if you notice any BIG differences. There is a simple rule that I like to follow: If you’re not happy with the guitar sound… Don’t buy it!

The most important thing to remember when shopping for any guitar is... Don’t shop impulsively. A guitar is a major purchase and you want to get the right one. Leave yourself time to go away and think about the purchase. If you have doubts when checking out a guitar, you are probably better to leave it and hold out for something that better suits you.

If you are new to the guitar and a little worried about testing guitar in public – don’t worry. It is important to remember that you are not there to showcase your playing ability – you are there to discern whether your proposed buy is a good deal or not so just go for it.

If you are still worried, take an experienced guitarist along with you when you are looking at a possible purchase. See if you can persuade a teacher or a friend – most musicians love to help newbies. Not only will they be able to offe helpful advice – they will be good moral support when it’s time to pick up the guitar and test it out in public.

Comments

[slann101]

good article. i just wish it was written about 6 weeks ago when i was looknig at second hand basse's.

trust me, you can get some great deals secondhand. i picked a 7 year old bc rich and 30 watt amp for £50. a ittle dented, but rarely played and with a new setof stringsits great

[batiboy06]

was planning to buy a second hand guitar for my second axe. thanks man nice article

[linus.d]

Great timing, dude..

I was right about to go test a 2:nd hand guitar before I saw this

Thanks!

[Realturka]

I figured most of these out by myself and VOILA! I have a scratchless ESP Ltd F-250 sitting in my room

[Hentsik]

Im going to try and maybe buy a second-hand LTD EC-1000 tomorrow. The price is about 530 Euros while the new one is 999 Euros. Its 4 years old and some of the gold plating is worn off from the TOM and a little from the knobs. Do you think its a good deal or not?

[stevo192]

an excellent column

[pag_slash_2]

very good article, thanks.

[Zeppelin Addict]

good stuff matts great article

[CobbZ]

To "Hentsik", the point of this article is to show you WHAT a good deal is. Surely you can work this out for yourself?

By the way, EXCELLENT article.

[Lefty7Stringer]

great article, but is intonation and action that big a deal? you don't need a tech to do that, thats like inspecting a guiar and saying"i wont buy it because ts out of tune, or because the volume knob isnt all the way up" completely adjustable haha

great arcticle though

[nemayasleads]

Lefty7Stringer wrote:

thats like inspecting a guiar and saying"i wont buy it because ts out of tune, or because the volume knob isnt all the way up" completely adjustable haha

great arcticle though

You gotta remember though, some guitars tend to fall out of tune very easily while playing even simple licks. If you don't want to spend a whole lot of money off the bat, this guitar may not be the one for you, and therefore resulting in intonation being a problem.

[qotsa1998]

Nice article. Getting a guitar second-hand is a great idea. I got a very nice, discontinued DeArmond Starfire second-hand. It retailed for around $1,029, and i got it for about $150. With a case, too. What a steal!

[cap'n curry]

Lefty7Stringer wrote:

great article, but is intonation and action that big a deal? you don't need a tech to do that, thats like inspecting a guiar and saying"i wont buy it because ts out of tune, or because the volume knob isnt all the way up" completely adjustable haha

great arcticle though

intonation is a big deal, i don't think your understanding it completely. The guitar may be in tune when its open strings, but you want each fret to be in tune as you go up the neck. had a crappy first guitar and it had horibble intonation, so if i tried to solo, it would sound horrible. But luckily i bought a better guitar before i started all that

[Cuddrow]

Good article! There's one thing, however. Using your ear to check intonation is hard, especially for a beginner. I would not recommend ANYONE to check the intonation by ear, as even a skilled musician will not be able to make out the few cents it might be off(unless you have perfect pitch). Use a tuner for checking the intonation. Except for that, it's all good.

[PimpedOutSquier]

cap'n curry wrote:
intonation is a big deal, i don't think your understanding it completely. The guitar may be in tune when its open strings, but you want each fret to be in tune as you go up the neck. had a crappy first guitar and it had horibble intonation, so if i tried to solo, it would sound horrible. But luckily i bought a better guitar before i started all that

I don't think you understand intonation. With a hex key or a screwdriver (depending on your bridge) you can correct all but the most severe intonation problems.

[Bobbito315]

PimpedOutSquier wrote:

cap'n curry wrote:
intonation is a big deal, i don't think your understanding it completely. The guitar may be in tune when its open strings, but you want each fret to be in tune as you go up the neck. had a crappy first guitar and it had horibble intonation, so if i tried to solo, it would sound horrible. But luckily i bought a better guitar before i started all that

I don't think you understand intonation. With a hex key or a screwdriver (depending on your bridge) you can correct all but the most severe intonation problems.

I think you DO understand intonation.

[axeshredder99]

Pretty informative.

[King ofKumbucha]

Bobbito315 wrote:

PimpedOutSquier wrote:

cap'n curry wrote:
intonation is a big deal, i don't think your understanding it completely. The guitar may be in tune when its open strings, but you want each fret to be in tune as you go up the neck. had a crappy first guitar and it had horibble intonation, so if i tried to solo, it would sound horrible. But luckily i bought a better guitar before i started all that

I don't think you understand intonation. With a hex key or a screwdriver (depending on your bridge) you can correct all but the most severe intonation problems.
I think you DO understand intonation.

lol +1

[shadowsofbodom]

I dont think that the part about the action is entirely correct. If the strings are high off the fretboard, the guitar allows for much easier bending. High action is not necessarily bad but does cause problems when detuning. However, being too close to the frets is usually unfavorable because it will cause insane amounts of buzz on an amp (with a rather shitty guitar of course).

[ticklemeemo]

i was thinking of going to a pawn shop or something to see what they have. ill make a checklist from this because i will definitely forget all of it. thanks for the article though.

[Cutlass_253]

PimpedOutSquier wrote:

cap'n curry wrote:
intonation is a big deal, i don't think your understanding it completely. The guitar may be in tune when its open strings, but you want each fret to be in tune as you go up the neck. had a crappy first guitar and it had horibble intonation, so if i tried to solo, it would sound horrible. But luckily i bought a better guitar before i started all that

I don't think you understand intonation. With a hex key or a screwdriver (depending on your bridge) you can correct all but the most severe intonation problems.

I think he means that some really crappy guitars have intonation problems with the spacing of the FRETS in general. Even if you tune it up to where its pefect open and perfect at the 12th fret, if the spacing is off it will kinda sound like ass. I don't think this is a common problem, but I think it's an issue that an unexperienced guitarist should be aware of.

[LastAuramancer]

I dont think that the part about the action is entirely correct. If the strings are high off the fretboard, the guitar allows for much easier bending. High action is not necessarily bad but does cause problems when detuning. However, being too close to the frets is usually unfavorable because it will cause insane amounts of buzz on an amp (with a rather shitty guitar of course).

high action DOES NOT mean easier bends, the higher the action, the harder the guitar is to play, the action should be as low as possible without creating fret buzz

[iml84myd8]

one time I saw a guitar and the action was an inch off the fretboard. No joke. he got the neck off an old squire and did a homemade transplant. Shittiest thing to play. Did NOT make bending easier, you crazy fool. A lower string gauge will help you bend better. But that's all I can think of.

[TheMars]

I still think the best thing to do, if you can, is to take someone knowledgeable about guitars with you to inspect it.

[Lukeydoodly]

Quite helpful.

[cap'n curry]

Cutlass_253 wrote:

I think he means that some really crappy guitars have intonation problems with the spacing of the FRETS in general. Even if you tune it up to where its pefect open and perfect at the 12th fret, if the spacing is off it will kinda sound like ass. I don't think this is a common problem, but I think it's an issue that an unexperienced guitarist should be aware of.

yea, thats what i meant. Its only with REALLY crappy guiars and not too common, but a beginner might not know this

[Kalas]

cap'n curry wrote:

Cutlass_253 wrote:

I think he means that some really crappy guitars have intonation problems with the spacing of the FRETS in general. Even if you tune it up to where its pefect open and perfect at the 12th fret, if the spacing is off it will kinda sound like ass. I don't think this is a common problem, but I think it's an issue that an unexperienced guitarist should be aware of.

yea, thats what i meant. Its only with REALLY crappy guiars and not too common, but a beginner might not know this

It can also happen when the neck is bent out of shape

[Diamond Dave]

great article, only bit i disagree with is about the action, most prefer a lower action but there are also benefits of a higher action as well such as a clearer tone and being able to bend strings higher before they fret out

[dogismycopilot]

You're a god damn genius! Why didnt i think of making something like this.

[[B]C [R]ich]

i bought a second hand guitar (a supposedly super rare, laravee electric, which hadnt been made since the 80s) from a guy who gave it to me for 50 bucks. brought it in to the shop and the guy started freakin out sayin that thing could be worth 2 grand to someone who collects them kinda guitars. guess ive been lucky so far

[rmfranca94]

hey
how many € would i have to pay for a decent bass guitar???

[tanguyen]

Excellent and relevant article.

[Aaron_Yeo]

Oh my, what's this?

http://www.blguitar.com/lesson/beginner/buying_used _guitars.html

[m1chael w0rkman]

Oh my, what's this?

http://www.blguitar.com/lesson/beginner/buying_used _guitars.html

lol +1

[12345abcd3]

Oh my, what's this?

http://www.blguitar.com/lesson/beginner/buying_used _guitars.html

Nice find!

Plagiarism = not good

[cjimil419]

good article but just so you know, anyone can adjust their action with an allen wrench.. thats not to say theyll know what theyre doing but its pretty simple

[deknisely]

well, even though this is supposedly plagiarised, it's helped me...so idc. lol.

[High_o]

one time I saw a guitar and the action was an inch off the fretboard. No joke. he got the neck off an old squire and did a homemade transplant. Shittiest thing to play. Did NOT make bending easier, you crazy fool. A lower string gauge will help you bend better. But that's all I can think of.

dude, within limits. a really low action mean it is easier to press the strings down, but harder to "scoop" under the strings when bending. also, really low actions will fret out when bending on the higher frets. higher actions also generally have better sustain than guitars with low actions, and you can adjust this kind of thing really easily, particularly if you have a TOM bridge

[urik]

cap'n curry wrote:

Lefty7Stringer wrote:

great article, but is intonation and action that big a deal? you don't need a tech to do that, thats like inspecting a guiar and saying"i wont buy it because ts out of tune, or because the volume knob isnt all the way up" completely adjustable haha

great arcticle though

intonation is a big deal, i don't think your understanding it completely. The guitar may be in tune when its open strings, but you want each fret to be in tune as you go up the neck. had a crappy first guitar and it had horibble intonation, so if i tried to solo, it would sound horrible. But luckily i bought a better guitar before i started all that

Most intonation problems can easily be fixed by yourself and a setup tutorial. Same with the guitar action.

[Rogue Hermit]

i bought a close to 20 year old peavey impact guitar a few years back. it only required some minor adjustments but plays better than many new guitars i've played. i prefer playing it over gibsons and fenders, and sounds great through my marshall. i see no problem buying a used guitar as long as i make sure it's not made in china and falling apart.

[chillrock]

i saw an ad for a Gibson 1959 Les Paul. 300,000 British Pounds.

i didnt buy it

[axe_2_grind]

"get a second hand guitar, chances are you'll go far..." - BTO

[strat0blaster]

Basically, this article told me "When buying a second hand guitar, use common sense."

Which is something I already knew.

[mkg813]

Should have known it was plagiarized.. It says something about the picture to the right, but there is no picture. However, there is a picture in Aaron_Yeo's link...

[HighFlyingGuita]

Basically, this article told me "When buying a second hand guitar, use common sense."

Which is something I already knew.

Some of that information isn't common sense for most people.

For example, Turn the amp up to a fair volume level and then play with the volume and tone controls by turning them to full and then back to zero. Test the pickup selector by flicking its switch back and forth. Carefully listen to any sounds that are being made while doing these things. You are looking for scratchy sounds or clicks that might indicate old or worn electrics.

Some people wouldn't have know that could be worn out electronics.

[Johnny Quest]

i never bought a second hand guitar, i love playing new guitars in and i like a clean fretboard. second hand guitars sometimes have dirty fretboards.

[Matts2007]

This was from
http://www.blguitar.com/lesson/beginner/buying_used _guitars.html

[Aaron_Yeo]

Matts2007 wrote:

This was from
http://www.blguitar.com/lesson/beginner/buying_used _guitars.html

Just because the convicted admits he's the murderer doesn't mean he gets away with it.

[Aaronrockstar15]

Great article with great tips
I bought my bass and electric second hand and it was way more than worth it i got a Washburn G-2V older modle but perfect condition along with a duel 12in amplifier all just for 250. and the bass for 75 bucks i got A washburn lyon and an older create amp but for 75 bucks i can say i got way more than i spent.
again great seconhand guitars for a great price

[Matts2007]

Permission has been granted from Jamorama.com.

[Matts2007]

This wasnt from BLT Guitar and I have permission from Jamorama.com.

This was from
http://www.blguitar.com/lesson/beginner/buying_used _guitars.html

I missed typed.
Please view
http://support.rockstarrecipes.com/view.php?ticketref=6675 -ERVN-4738&pass=dJXyFLDi
for the truth

[ILoveGuitar07]

great read for people who are newer to guitar.

good job

[Fecaco]

that's a good article im gonna buy a second hand guitar and that gave a clue thanks

[akhileshrao]

helpfull thanks man

[FenderStRaT RS]

2nd hands are great if u know what u are getting.I got me a 13year old richie sambora sig stratocaster just for USD$440

[shinedown98]

yea good article, i was impulsive when i bought a used jackson dinky that had no strings on it, haha. However unlike MOST times, this guitar ended up being perfect for me and i love it, I did however clean it up a bit, i put new strings on it, and i also changed out the stock pickups for a new set of seymour duncans (jazz neck, 59 bridge), but for the 145 i paid for the guitar cuz the kid was tryin to ditch it, i took the chance on it, and it turned out good, and its the one i always grab....THIS TIME.

[JessicaGonzo]

I got an epiphone Les paul standard for $250. Just needs to be set up and some new knobs.

[ultrablue]

maybe check the fret wear. re-fretting costs upwards of £100, so add that onto the price before you think you're getting a bargain

[anothershredder]

Lame. A blatant cut and paste job from guitarchordsmagic.com It's not the article that's lame, it's the author who doesn't cite his reference and thus, takes it as his own. Blatant plagiarism. Lame.

[Bringroftorture]

anothershredder wrote:

Lame. A blatant cut and paste job from guitarchordsmagic.com It's not the article that's lame, it's the author who doesn't cite his reference and thus, takes it as his own. Blatant plagiarism. Lame.

Thanks for cutting and pasting then, I'd never find it otherwise lol :P

[adamjowens]

Johnny Quest wrote:

i never bought a second hand guitar, i love playing new guitars in and i like a clean fretboard. second hand guitars sometimes have dirty fretboards.

you could always clean them up with lemon oil

[Kallegubben]

Great article!

[RichieKotzen]

There was rust on my pickups and I swapped em out. It was fine for me.

[Hentsik]

So I bought a second hand LTD EC-1000 for about 530 Euros instead of 999 Euros. Im happy with it. Otherwise i would had got an Epi Lp Custom, but I liked the LTD more even when I saw that it was a little worn. Some frets aren't as nice as new and there's some buzz, but im still happy.

Also 2 day's ago I got a Crybaby 535Q for 100 Euros instead of 200 Euros. Im happy with that too.

Im convinced that ur able to get a good condition item for a good price when you get it used.

[ISAACTRIO]

my fav guitar is 2nd hand