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Conference napalm::guitar

Title:	GUITARnotes - Where Every Note has Emotion
Notice:	Discussion of the finer stringed instruments
Moderator:	KDX200::COOPER

Created:	Thu Aug 14 1986
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	3280
Total number of notes:	61432

293.0. "Test Driving Guitars" by ERLANG::SUDAMA (Living is easy with eyes closed...) Mon Jul 13 1987 13:15

    I'd like to get some opinions (I'm sure I will) about how to "test"
    a guitar before buying it.  I'm not talking about checking the neck,
    electronics, body, etc.  I'm talking about the *sound*.
    
    I've seen it mentioned numerous times in this notes file that "if it
    feels right and it sounds right, buy it".  Feel is one thing, but
    it seems almost impossible to me to try a guitar out once and tell
    how it is really going to sound for the rest of your life.
    
    For example, go into the typical music store and ask to try out some
    guitars.  Assuming you get past the sales-hungry clerks, etc., they are
    probably going to set you up in a corner somewhere, plugged into a
    rental amp, with a noisy patch cord.  In the first place, this is
    obviously not a conducive environment to try out the thing, unless you
    are a natural-born showboater.  The store probably has lousy acoustics,
    and if you play at any volume at all everybody in the store is going to
    be giving you dirty looks the whole time.  Secondly, the strings are
    probably dirty and rusty, the guitar will definitely not be set up they
    way you would like it, if it is even in a tuneable condition, and
    the amp is probably nothing like what you would be using.

    On top of all this, conditions are going to vary significantly from
    store to store, so what sounds good in one place might sound lousy
    in another.  The same basically holds true for buying used equipment.
    You typically sit down in somebody's living room or basement and
    try the guitar on their equipment the way they have it set up.
    
    The bottom line is, how can you really do comparative shopping and
    choose a guitar for the quality of its sound under these circumstances?
    The ideal thing is obviously to know people who use every type of
    guitar you might be considering and are willing to let you borrow it to
    try out on your own.  Even in this kind of a dream world you still
    aren't going to be able to narrow it down to the specific axe that you
    will want to buy, unless you buy one of your friend's.  The same
    things apply to buying acoustics, although there may be fewer variables
    to account for.

    One suggestion that I have for this is to take along a guitar whose
    sound you are thoroughly familiar with and use it as a point of
    comparison with others.  That provides some kind of a "reference
    standard".  Another suggestion would be to try to arrange to rent some
    of the final selections for a couple of days before making a choice, so
    that you can try them out more thoroughly (I've never heard of a music
    store providing "demo" guitars, the way some tennis racquet stores do,
    but it wouldn't hurt to ask). 
    
    I also wanted to make a point that one of the reasons people tend
    to buy guitars based on the name (Fender, Gibson, Martin, etc.)
    is precisely because of this problem.  You place some trust in the
    reputation of the manufacturer, because it is so difficult to tell
    anything from a test drive.

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
293.1	sound rooms	CSSE::CLARK	I'm not Beethoven	`Mon Jul 13 1987 13:23`	6
	well, some of the fancier music stores (notice I didn't say nicer) have separate amp rooms that are soundproofed. You can check out guitars and amps at 'reasonably' loud volume. Kurlan's in Worcester is one place that does this. -Dave
293.2	I did it MY way	DREGS::BLICKSTEIN	Dave	`Mon Jul 13 1987 15:42`	19
	The way I try out a guitar for SOUND is to plug it directly into an amp with a good clean sound and only moderately loud (i.e. loud enough for me to hear myself over the guy at the other end of the store blasting out "Eruption"). I then try to go through as many possible settings that guitar is capable of as I can (tone, volume level, pickup combinations, coil taps, polarity, preamps, etc.) Thus, for me, I find the atmosphere that most stores provide to be quite acceptable. But one visit to a place like Daddy's Junky Music and you'll find that mine is the minority opinion. You will find the majority of people checking out guitars by plugging them into cranked up Marshall stacks. If you ask me, this is the way to SELL guitars, not the way to BUY them. db
293.3	try to bring your own amp.	HAMSTR::PELKEY	Goodnight Ms Kalabash, wherever u r	`Tue Jul 14 1987 12:01`	22
	Two practices I've used. And the first has really helped out. 1 Bring your own amp. Then there's no doubt in your mind as to how the axe will sound through your amp. It's right there. (this is a drag, and maybe impractical if you have a large amp BTW) And don't worry about how impressed they'll be with your playing. Everyones trying to play a ba-zillion-notes-a-second these days. Just be concerned with the sound clean, and overdriven. If the voice is what you're looking for, you can "erupt" out when you get it home. 2 Ask if you can put a new set of strings on it if the exsiting ones look like hell. Maybe just an alchol wiping will clean them enought, but not usually. Any guitar thats been hanging for a few months, will have dead strings. The air and dust alone will kill em just as quick as greasy hands playing it. If they really want to sell it, they'll usually oblige and let you put on a new set on it. Afterall, when you think of it, if it was my store, I'd be tickled pink if someone would do that to some of the better guitars when they needed to be restrung. I'd doubt too many people who came in to try the cheaper ones would even notice the grunge on the strings anyway.
293.4	Shop during off hours !!!	MORRIS::JACQUES		`Tue Jul 14 1987 15:44`	19
	One more suggestion for test driving anything musical. Stay away from music stores during prime time, ie. Friday Evenings 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm, saturday late morning to early afternoon. If you go into a music store during prime time hours your going to be in competition with every other customer in the store. If your considering a purchase as important as a new axe, take a day, or at least an afternoon off from work on an odd day, like a tuesday or wednesday afternoon, and visit your favorite store. You will find the stores are pretty much empty at this time, and you can play around all you want with the equipment, plus the sales help is free to help you or answer your questions when the store is empty. If you think its tough shopping in music stores during prime time hours, try doing it with a 6 month old baby under your arms. The loud noise tends to scare the baby, needless to say, you can't stay in the store long enough to try anything. Being a new father, I have been faced with this problem a lot recently.
293.5	try some phones	NEXUS::DICKERSON		`Tue Jul 14 1987 17:18`	17
	In a crowded, noisy store it is often useful to bring along a good set of circumaural headphones ( i.e. phones which form a tight seal around your ears ). This eliminates distractions from noise in the store and also eliminates the speaker(s) in the amp as a variable. I also agree with replies above recommending new strings. This is essential when auditioning an acoustic guitar. A "generic" set of strings costs a store less than a dollar. If they are unwilling to invest a dollar in a customer who's contemplating a purchase of several hundred to several thousand dollars, find another store. Happy shopping! Doug Dickerson
293.6		RHETT::MCABEE	Support live music	`Wed Jul 15 1987 10:38`	8
	You can sorta get around the dead string problem without replacing them. Wound strings can be briefly brought back to (semi-)life by just loosening and then retuning them. Won't do much for the rust, though, and won't do anything for unwound strings (except maybe break them). Bob
293.7	Wurlitzer's Boston store is the worst	COUGAR::JACQUES		`Wed Jul 15 1987 17:34`	19
	The absolute worst music store in the world for trying out anything is Wurlitzers in Boston. A freind of mine bought a Gibson ES artist there about 5 years ago. Fortunately, he was already sure he wanted one before he got there. He went there mainly because they had the cheapest price. He asked if they would change strings and set up the intonation before he left the store with it and the salemen said no problem. He then proceeded to change the strings and set the action and intonation right on the store countertop with people breathing down our necks the whole time. The worst thing was that with all of the noise in the store, he actually had the nerve to set the intonation by ear. We asked him if we could take the guitar into a quiet back room somewhere and set the intonation with a quartz tuner. He replied "this is it, there is no back room". We're talking about a $950.oo purchase here. If the price hadn't been so reasonable, theres no way he would have gone through with the purchase. We felt like telling him to stick the axe where the sun don't shine. He ended up buying it and brought it to Mcduff's Music in Shrewsbury and had Rich set it up for him for $10.oo.