What do you value when buying a guitar?

What we buy is quality.

"I know some guitarists have five or six guitars in a few years. They are never satisfied and keep buying new ones. When they stop buying, they will spend enough money to buy the best guitar. "

All the musicians we interviewed have the same advice: buy the best guitar you can afford. Playability and reliability are the key to measure quality, and there is no other shortcut. In this highly competitive guitar market, the only way to reduce the cost of guitar is to use cheaper and inferior materials, inferior parts and cheap labor. The result is that no matter how you look at it, it can only be a "inferior" guitar. No matter where you perform-on the stage, in the recording studio, or at home-it is unacceptable for you to buy an instrument that disappoints you because you give in to quality. You will never regret spending money on quality.

Rule number two Confirm that there is security and service.

"A good guitar should be like a good friend. It (her? You should follow your life. (or I think it's not a friend but a wife? Haha) "

You should ask the merchant to show the guarantee or user manual. It is best to find a lifelong guarantee, which can show that manufacturers have complete confidence in their own musical instruments.

It's not surprising that a brand-new guitar has a lifetime warranty. Many of the first guitars produced by Gibson in the 1930' s can still work very well and live longer than their original owners. Manufacturers who only guarantee the workmanship and material of guitars for 5 to 10 years may feel that their products will have problems after the warranty period.

Consult the reputation of manufacturers in parts replacement and after-sales service. Maybe you will want to repair and correct your instrument in time after something goes wrong.

Rule three. Investigate manufacturers

"We have produced a lot of guitars, so we have enough experience. We know what problems will lead to in the future. "

Experience is the best teacher for making guitars. A manufacturer who is not fully experienced in materials and manual production will always have some big and small problems when making. The simplest fact is that without a good history, there is no better future for guitars.

Rule 4

"I think you may buy any Gibson's classic guitar in the future, but you'd better not want to sell it for a new one. Such behavior can't get what you want. "

You bought a guitar just for fun, but you should also want to have an instrument you can enjoy. No musical instrument can compare with a 1959 LES PAUL STANDARD (I guess they are still talking about guitar, and the price of classical instruments is not terrible). At first, its list price was only $250, but now it has exceeded 100000 in the classic market. Of course, you have reason to believe that a high-quality musical instrument will soon be more valuable than the money you pay.

Generally speaking, the better the equipment, the better the guitar, but there are some famous exceptions, such as 1958-60 Rising Sun LES PAUL STANDARD or 1958-62 point neck ES335, which are better than LES PAUL CUSTOM and ES335 expected by fans in the classic market. Even a cheap but well-made guitar like GIBSON LES PAUL JUNIOR is 10 times more expensive than the original price in the 1950s.

Craft is also an important factor to measure a guitar in the future. The cost of wrapping, painting, hand polishing, inlaying and other similar work is getting higher and higher, which is affecting the value of guitar now and in the future.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Second, the importance of materials.

Rule five. Good wood

"Every guitar is made of wood at first. If you don't know the function of wood, you really need to start all over again. "

Although the sound of an electric guitar seems to be emitted entirely through a pickup, that kind of wood plays a very important role in timbre and support for the piano body. "Acoustical wood"-high strength and good stability-is the best material for making electric guitars and acoustic guitars. Mahogany and maple are the most common materials for making the piano body. Of course, Ash, Adler, Korina (I don't know) and many strange trees are also commonly used. Different types of electric guitars need different wood and manufacturing methods.

Hollow piano (such as early electric guitar) is a typical original vocal music with a pickup directly added.

Hollow piano (such as early electric guitar) is a typical acoustic instrument with a pickup directly added. These guitars are used to play the sound of xylophone. The advanced version of this piano is pure spruce veneer and pure maple veneer and back. If you agree, all sides will be made of compressed maple boards.

The semi-hollow piano electric guitar has a little acoustic output, but there is a wooden part under the panel to block the vibration that causes feedback sound. Maple can be used in this part, and some GIBSON models also use a light but high-strength wood called Chromyte. This kind of piano often uses compressed boards to improve its strength.

Solid guitar in order to support the body to the greatest extent, reduce feedback, and minimize the vibration of the body. The strength and density of wood will lead to subtle differences in timbre. Generally speaking, the timbre produced by mahogany is warmer than that produced by maple, and the high intensity and density of maple will produce brighter timbre.

Compression board is not a bad word in the production of electric guitar. If compression is to strengthen wood, then compression treatment will have higher strength than pure wood.

Gibson's ES335 is a good example; It uses a three-layer compression plate, and the middle layer is composed of particles (transmitting force vertically to the outer layer). Of course, if the wood is pressed or assembled with small pieces of broken wood just to reduce the cost, the quality and value will be greatly reduced. Similarly, when a piece of plywood is used instead of a whole piece of wood for decoration, the manufacturing quality also drops.

Mahogany and maple are also common materials for the neck. The wood selected for fingerboard will affect the strength and stability of the neck, thus becoming an important factor affecting the timbre. For example, the ebony fingerboard makes the neck stronger than the soft rosewood fingerboard, thus producing sharper and brighter timbre.

Rule 6. Make sure there is no noise (to be honest, I think this is used against FENDER's single-coil pickup).

"There is an old proverb that the strength of a chain depends on its weakest link. Inferior electronic equipment will make the piano sound inferior, no matter how good the other parts of the piano are. "

The pickups on guitars and basses should not be affected by external electric fields to produce noise. The pickup should be isolated with wax or epoxy resin to prevent feedback sound.

The quietest pickup is the HUMBUCKERS (which should be double coils), which was invented by Seth Loew of Gibson in the 1950 s.

HUMBUCKERS is a dual-coil pickup, so it can eliminate external noise. It is named after the oral "buck hum" caused by electronic interference such as rheostat and fluorescent lamp. Moreover, they will release stronger signals and produce fuller timbre.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Third, the art of manufacturing.

Rule 7. Comparison of production processes

"Machines can do some work accurately, but some work can only be done by human hands. I recommend our semi-mass-produced guitars to compete with other people's handmade guitars to reduce defects. We don't allow flaws to exist. "

In order to produce, we need a repeatable precision, such as sawing and transportation assembly lines, which will be run more efficiently by automated machines. Of course, to make a musical instrument different from ordinary musical instruments, skilled technicians must operate it. The final polishing and setting of LES PAUL panel and SUNBURST color painting are examples. A semi-mass-produced guitar-which combines automation and hand-making-has the best value.

Rule 8. Check the combination of the neck

"I like to glue my neck, because it can keep the angle accurate. I have seen other guitarists put the cover of speed dial or matchbox into the neck joint with screws to adjust the neck and get the correct angle. "

The neck connection should be very tight and firm, so that the vibration of the strings will not be transmitted to the neck. If the neck joint is loose, the vibration energy obtained by the strings from the neck will be weakened, resulting in a decline in timbre quality.

Many electric guitars or basses are connected by screws, because it is easier and faster to do so, but a traditional and suitable bonded neck is stronger.

A Gibson's neck is determined at an appropriate angle, and then both sides are positioned with measuring equipment. Then stick it on the piano and keep the two parts connected forever. Other fine tuning can be done on the adjustable bridge.

Rule 9. Complete function

"It sounds like an obvious fact, but it's amazing that so many abnormal guitars have been bought."

The pillow and head should be designed to have enough downward pressure to keep the strings stable without moving in the pillow. This is also consistent with the bridge and the tail. The cutting angle and neck root of the piano should not only look good, but also facilitate the hand to reach a higher position. The baffle should meet the requirements of blocking the pick and protecting the panel. Electronic control components (pickup converter, knob and the like) should be easy to operate and arranged in a more scientific position. Fine-tuning should be easy to operate without a certain degree of disassembly.

Traditional designs, such as Gibson's Tune-0-matic bridge, actually do not mean that they are "traditional". They are still widely used because they have stood the test of time.

Rule 10. Attention to detail.

"Attention to the smallest details can establish an accurate evaluation of the guitar. You can hear the difference, and of course you can feel it. Sometimes it doesn't take much time. If you spend 30 minutes or 1 hour on a detail, you can get a much better guitar. "

The evidence that manufacturers cut corners in production to reduce costs lies in the details. From the outside, there may be some good places on the wood, such as rough edges or uneven grinding. Those rough characters or unstable lock strings may have many serious problems. Any obvious problems that can be seen indicate that the quality requirements of the manufacturers are not strict, and there may be more potential problems in the guitars they manufacture.

Rule 1 1. Looking for innovation

"Many people can make a good guitar. I want a guitar made by a company looking for a better guitar. "

Who assembled a decent guitar according to the instructions, and who is really making a better guitar? The answer can be obtained from the innovation track of manufacturers. The long history of innovation-such as Gibson's arched panel design, adjustable truss bridge and Humbak pickup-shows that manufacturers have been working hard to improve the quality of guitars. At the same time, a manufacturer who produces different models of standard-bearer products, such as solid guitar, semi-hollow guitar and hollow guitar, obviously has rich guitar knowledge. A company that has a full understanding of guitar and can stick to its own R&D department can find the perfection of materials and design.

Combination method.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

4. Manual testing

Rule 12 ... Check the neck of the piano.

"My ES335 has a great neck. It is perfectly connected with the piano body. The sound is so accurate, as if a bird is singing. I can tune the sound, put it back in the box for a week or two, and then take it out. The voice is still so accurate. "

The chord height of electric guitar is relatively lower than that of acoustic guitar. The strings of an electric guitar should be low enough to be easy to play, but not so low as to cause poor performance.

Jumping may also be caused by high-quality silk. This is an important factor in judging quality and should be paid enough attention to.

After the guitar is tuned, every part of the neck should not be out of tune. This is called intonation. There is a simple test to judge the pitch, and you can even test it when the guitar is not tuned. It is the well-known overtone of 12 and the sound of 12. If they are the same, they are accurate. (Note: Generally speaking, the musical instruments produced by manufacturers conform to the general way of playing. But if you play harder than usual, there may be some noise. If you are used to using hard strings, maybe your strong grip on the strings with your left hand will lead to the loss of accurate pitch. )

A guitar, if the pitch is out of order or the chord is too high or too low, can generally be adjusted to a better state, but this is a sign of the manufacturer's wrong behavior of selling products without adjusting to the correct state.

Rule 13 ... continuous testing

"If your piano doesn't have enough sustain, you can't play the guitar like a bell, as Chuck Berry said."

Different types of guitars have different sustain characteristics, but a universally applicable rule is that the more vibrations on the strings are transmitted to the guitar, the shorter the sustain.

A stronger and heavier guitar (such as a solid piano) will be more durable than a weaker and lighter guitar (such as a hollow piano with an arched surface). In order to test the piano sustain more accurately, it is best to compare it with similar guitars: hollow guitar VS hollow guitar, solid guitar VS solid guitar.

Don't plug in the electricity at first, listen to the empty string sound of each string. If a guitar has a soft sound and a short duration, it may be that there is something wrong with the neck joint or the strings are slotted at the occipital neck.

Then plug in both pianos. The magnetic field of the pickup exerts a binding force on the vibration and support of the strings. The pickup of the guitar may be placed very close to the strings to get a stronger sound, but this force will reduce the sustain. Compare other pianos, too.

Rule 14 ... Listen carefully to the noise from electronic equipment.

"The invention of effector is for a reason. No one wants to be surprised by the strange noise made by the guitar. "

Insert the piano into the amplifier, and then put the piano near the speaker. If the pickup truck is prone to make unwanted noise, there will be some noise and screaming feedback.

Turn the knob, listen to the noise from those dirty potentiometers, and shake the wires in the socket at the same time to get a tight position. (a little confused)

Rule 15 ... Check the lacquer painting of the piano.

"If a guitar producer doesn't pay attention to piano painting, maybe he is also very careless in other production procedures."

Look for scratches or "orange peel" on the piano during polishing-these are the last signs of carelessness of polishers and inspectors.

The traditional guitar painting is nitrocellulose lacquer. In fact, all Gibson guitars are made of paint. This is a very time-consuming process, which requires many layers and many days to wait for the paint to dry. Carbamate is widely used because of its low price, and it is illegal to spray nitrolacquer in some areas. Although carbamate has good strength and durability, the coating of carbamate cannot be repaired like nitrocellulose. Repairing a small spot on urethane requires repainting the whole piano.