Cool Guitar Purchase

  • Thread starter Thread starter Milnoque
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Milnoque

Milnoque

Resident Curmudgeon
So my daughter decided it was time to buy herself a guitar. She had about $500 saved and asked me to help. We hit some shops and figured out quickly that she was going to want something about the size of a Martin 000. We tried everything we could find in three shops including some used Martins and had a few prospects when we ended up in a GC. As we were finishing up with their inventory, I picked up a little Ibanez that had not gotten a second glance from me. ( I had never played an Ibanez acoustic that deserved one). This guitar little box had more gumption than anything we tried. $250 price tag minus a $50 buck discount for shop wear. She went home with a terrific little guitar.

I have often advised people to ignore the logo and choose a guitar with their fingers and ears. This is just another case where it was true.
 
Milnoque said:
So my daughter decided it was time to buy herself a guitar. She had about $500 saved and asked me to help. We hit some shops and figured out quickly that she was going to want something about the size of a Martin 000. We tried everything we could find in three shops including some used Martins and had a few prospects when we ended up in a GC. As we were finishing up with their inventory, I picked up a little Ibanez that had not gotten a second glance from me. ( I had never played an Ibanez acoustic that deserved one). This guitar little box had more gumption than anything we tried. $250 price tag minus a $50 buck discount for shop wear. She went home with a terrific little guitar.

I have often advised people to ignore the logo and choose a guitar with their fingers and ears. This is just another case where it was true.
Click to expand...

Life can get interesting when we find ourselves first ignoring, then taking, our own advise, eh?:)
 
In the last two months I took both my nephew and my sister in-law to buy guitars and I was surprised how nice an acoustic guitar I could get for so little.I'm not a guitar snob by any means,I will probably never own a Martin or a Taylor or any acoustic costing more than a grand,but I've always been skeptical of sub $300 guitars.I respect people who want to own expensive guitars right up to the point when they start holding their nose up at cheaper guitars.The average non-musician can't differentiate things we obsess about on these forums daily.



I got a used thirty year old Yamaha for my Nephew that looked awful,played good and sounds great for $99.I Picked out a new Takamine parlor guitar for my sister in-law that was a looker for $299.I also picked up a used Seagull 12 string at $250 awhile back for myself.At the lower price ranges it's all about separating the wheat from the chaff.
 
I buy a lot of chaep guitars, and I usually come up with a gem. On the other hand, I bought a $100 Johnson 12-string on a whim, and it sucks big time. Now I remember why I got rid of my other 12-string. By the time I'm done re-tuning it every time, I'm out of the mood to play it.
 
That's interesting to me, motCardio, because for a time during my marrage, I was not playing at all. I'd get a bug to start playing again, drag out the only guitar I had- the '68 Telestar (Jap-made) hollowbody- try to tune it up, often pop strings, realize I needed new strings, go buy some, put 'em on, tune it up... and then I was either totally out of time, or went through so many changes I would blow it off... for another six months.

But, the paradox is that it was a Ventura 12-string I got for $35 at a garage sale that got me playing, again. I had to re-string it, as I play lefty, and yes, it was a PITA to tune up. The thing even started bellying big-time, and I paid a guitar tech at Werlein's Music in New Orleans to install a Bridge Doctor in it (but it started bellying again, said guitar tech volunteered to refund my money,) but even with all that, I still played every day, and got interested in playing, again.

I sold that 12-string, but I loved the natural chorus 12's have, so I bought another- this one a Arbor lefty. Yes, Arbor is a cheap brand, but damn, this one has more produced (over- and under-) tones than any other guitar I have ever heard, and sometimes, I just play one note on one string and marvel at the other notes that seem to be coming out thin air. I got lucky on that one.
 
For me, it's kind of....I grab a guitar, just about any guitar and as soon as I have it in my hands, I start feeling good inside o'me. Then I rub my left hand all along the neck in order to feel it and then let my fingers toy around anywhere they feel.....one blues scale here at fret 5, a few chords and strums there. I start feeling the action of the guitar, re-tune the baby, re-strum and a few riffs later I get into the mood and start playing good on it to see what it's good under the hood, so to speak.
That's how passionate I am with guitars.

And many times I discover unbelievable surprises with guitars you would have expected sh*t out of it.

For example, I go at my friends place he has a 6 years old daughter, and she has a 50$ walmart kind of small guitar for beginners. I grab the thing, tune it and start jamming. O'course, it'll never sound like an Ovation and whatnot, but it gives me a cool sound, cool intonation, it's different and once tuned, my chords give me the notes I expect and the sound is just....unusual, maybe kind of "Mickey Mouse" but who cares, a tone is a tone.

When I go at my folks place and I couldnt take my guitar with me, they still have the very first 6 string they had bought to my brother, some 30 years ago, a darn cheap twinger. Well people who hear me play with it cant believe their ears how good it sounds. This example reminds me of another factor to count in, with those very old guitars examples: the aging process of old and intensively played guitars, with years and years of vibrations imprinted in the wood grain. The soul of a guitar.

I'll stop here, I'm becoming too mellow and romantic here ! ahahahahahah
 
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