I had a chance to record my son’s band, Lungs They Burn this weekend. Same deal as last time I talked about recording ; a low budget, cheap guitar deal all the way.

But what I wanted to talk about today was an interaction that took place between the guitar player, singer/songwriter Sean and myself. He gets this whirring, twirly type of sound that I’ve always sought after. In fact, I’ve bought pedals trying to attain that sort of sound.

But half way through the session, Sean wasn’t happy with his sound. When that happens, there is no smoothing over it. Particularly if it involves recording where the sound will live on long after the moment.

I’m pretty sure the sound that I like and the sound that Sean dislikes is the sound of tubes going bad. Both Sean and I play Fender tube amps. These are neither cheap amps nor expensive amps. But the thing they have in common with all tube amps is that the tubes degrade over time and as they degrade, the sound changes.

How this all relates to cheap guitars is that beauty of sound is in the ear of the beholder. Sean switched to my Fender amp and was immediately happier with the sound. To my ear, I preferred the sound of Sean’s amp.

Its not a right or wrong sort of situation. Its a matter of personal choice. The same goes for playing a cheap guitar. If it sounds the way you want, if it plays the way you want it to play, then what difference does it make how much you paid for it?

In fact for me, it sometimes works in the opposite direction: If I’m playing an expensive guitar, I feel pressured to sound “great.” But if I’m playing a cheap guitar I feel as though nobody expects much of anything out of me.

So Sean will be getting his amp retubed sometime soon I’m guessing. And I’ll wait for my tubes to degrade to the point where they sound like Sean’s old ones. One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.

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This particular segment of Cheap Guitars Blog we’ll be looking at functionally qualifying your prospective cheap guitar purchase. In other words, we’re not going to be looking at qualifying collectible guitars. I am a guitar enthusiast. In the course of that enthusiasm, I collect guitars primarily focusing on interesting, playable instruments. But I’m not a collector in the sense that I look for pristine museum pieces or ones from a certain manufacturer from a certain period. I am concerned about value somewhat, but I’m not necessarily looking for a bargain basement investment that I can later sell for a profit. In fact, often quite the opposite. I kind of get a kick out of the odd ball instruments that I’ve never heard of and maybe no one else would want but that “speak to me.” So we won’t be talking about original hardware, serial numbers, decals, finishes, etc. Not today. Maybe another time I can get someone who knows that stuff enough to talk about it.

I guess the obvious place to start would be a playing test, right? Does the action of the neck seem to your liking? Twiddle all the knobs and switches. Do they all work? Are some of them “dirty”

sounding? Is there a constant hum or one that either starts or stops when you touch the pickups? If they guitar has multiple pickups, what happens to the noise levels as you slowly turn each up and down with the others fully up?

Here is how I think about the noise problems: First, its not likely to be anything too serious. But it can run into a little money having a tech run down the source and possibly if the volume and tone pots are what’s noisy, there is the cost of replacing them. Sometimes matching older pots is an is

sue. Finally, some noise problems just may be inherent within the wiring/pickups of the guitar. Like my Gibson Ripper bass always has some noise to it. No big deal playing live but maybe something that would steer me towards another instrument for recording. Single coil pickups like typically found on Fender Stratocasters, Telecasters, Precision basses, etc. almost always have some noise. Thus the invention of the “humbucking” pickup. Generally I decide if I can live with the noise level before going further in the inspection or negotiations. I might choose to do something towards fixing the situation, but if it never improves, I’ve got a cheap guitar I can have fun with regardless.

Something like my Rivoli with the cocked neck

The neck action takes some experience to really sleuth. The neck could be bowed, or the bridge/saddles could need adjusting. The neck could need shimming, the nut on an acoustic or the saddle might need replacing. Or it could be that some of several of these need fixing. If the neck is severely bowed or worse, you see something of an “S” are probably things to steer away from. Theoretically, you should be able to adjust the truss rod to bring the neck back into adjustment. But what if the truss rod is already fully cranked in one direction? Or sometimes the truss rod is broken altogether. I’d steer clear of a badly bowed neck. Same way, if the saddles are at an extreme setting just to get the guitar playable, I’d look elsewhere. Nut and saddle issues aren’t such a big deal but will cost you either money or time or both.

So at this point we’ve determined that the guitar is playable, but we’re still not out of the woods. Next you need to inspect for physical flaws. First place I look is the joint where neck meets body. (Some guitars don’t have this joint though.) Is it solid? If glued, does the glue look to be intact? Looking down on the guitar as it lays on the floor or table, is the neck at a perfect 90 degree angle to the body? I recently bought an old Rivoli bass from the 60s that had been massively rebuilt. Unfortunately the neck is just slightly cocked and it bugs me enough that I never take the guitar out which is a shame. Someday…

Another thing to look for is a broken headstock. This must be a really fragile or vulnerable point on a guitar which makes sense: Its where there is the least wood probably. Anyway, I’ve seen quite a few guitars with a repair here. I shy away from even a well done repair job. It seems likely to snap again and the loss of integrity here must impact sustain to some extent. NOTE: I’ve also seen head stocks snapped and repaired above the tuners. This sort of re

pair doesn’t bother me as long as it satisfies me visually. After all that isn’t going to impact the playing condition of the guitar.

On an acoustic, its important to look at the body from the side: Is the bridge pulling away from the body? Or maybe has the internal bracing begun to come unglued causing the top to warp up? I’ve got a custom acoustic with extremely fragile bracing that I’ve had to have work done on a condition like this twice now. (The bracing I mean.) Let me tell you, it ain’t cheap. Resetting the bridge isn’t that costly but still might be something to avoid unless you are absolutely in love with that particular guitar.

String condition I wouldn’t worry about too much. I always replace the strings on a guitar and frequently do on basses as well. If the gauge is drastically different from what you’d want to play you might think about how that might impact the neck. One thing that might concern me is if a lot of strings are missing. Every now and then you run into a guitar completely unstrung. I’d be extremely leery of one without strings because you never know how the neck will react to the extreme tension of stringing and tuning.

Intonation is something to check. A simple test is to play each open string and its octave. They should be in pitch with each other or close. If you can’t tell by ear, bring a tuner with you so you can get its verification. If the intonation is off, check that the bridge sad

dles aren’t already at their extreme setting. (When changing strings, particularly gauges of strings, you will need to check and adjust intonation again.)

Finish issues: Older acoustics and some electrics will get little “spider” cracks in the finish. I don’t worry about these at all and consider them “character” marks. Cracks that go through the wood are more problematic but still I don’t worry about them too much if they seem to have been there awhile and the wood has remained stable. Missing knob tops are easily replaced unless you are a stickler about exact replacements for the originals.

OK, I’ve gone way long on this post and there is probably much more I could still say. I didn’t realize this would be such a lengthy topic! I might get into specifics and do some “howto” articles in the future. But for now this at least gives you some of the basics of what to look for when shopping for a cheap guitar.