If your guitar plays, sounds and looks like you want it to, you will play it more often and for longer periods of time when you pick it up. This will help you become a better player. Besides, your desire to play it is why you spent your money on it in the first place, so you might as well have something you enjoy playing.

For most people, budget is a primary consideration, but for nearly any budget, there are a wide variety of choices available, if you're willing to dig a little. Unfortunately, the days of the $100.00 old Strat or the $250.00 Martin are largely gone, but that doesn't mean you have to settle for an unplayable guitar, just because you don't have thousands of dollars to spend. There are many fine guitars being produced outside the U.S., particularly in Asia that are excellent values. The best things a guitar buyer can do is look at and play as many guitars as they can before they make a decision. Try out instruments that cost less than you can spend, as well as trying out instruments that are beyond your budgetary limitations. This will give you a much better notion of what you can buy with your money. If you have friends that will let you play their instruments, that, too, is a great way to become acquainted with different types of guitars.

In order to narrow down this wide variety of choices, you should consider what you want the guitar to do. A guitar is simply a tool that allows the player to express him or herself musically, and the music is the most important consideration. What kind of music do you want to play on this instrument? Certain guitars are often associated with certain types of music, although there are no hard and fast rules. For example, Telecasters are frequently associated with country music, yet one of the guitar gods of rock, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin used a Tele for a large part of his career, as did blues great Albert Collins. Likewise, Les Pauls are often thought of as rock guitars although Roy Nichols, guitar player for country great Merle Haggard, played one throughout most of his long career with Merle. So the question is: what works for you?

Do you want to play acoustic or electric guitar is probably the first question to answer. Many players play both, and most will tell you that though the fingering is the same for each kind of guitar, the approach a player takes is generally quite different from one to the other. An additional consideration is that with an electric guitar, you will probably need to buy an amp, especially if it's your first electric and you don't already own one. This may be a budget stretcher. (See our discussion on how to buy an amp, contained on a different page.) This may necessitate you compromising the quality of the guitar so you can afford an amp, also. Consider tradeoffs as they pertain to quality vs. price. For example, you may wish to buy an acoustic-electric guitar. At the price you can afford, you can either buy a mediocre acoustic guitar with a pickup system built in or you can buy a decent acoustic guitar with no pickup. You might then ask yourself, "How will I be playing this guitar the most, plugged in as an electric or simply as an acoustic?" If you are going to play it most of the time as an acoustic, you might want to consider getting the better acoustic guitar and adding a pickup to it at a later time. You might discuss these options with your dealer to see if they can install pickups and what kind they recommend, as well as how much it will cost.

When buying a guitar, whether it's your first or your twenty-first, you are best off buying from a reputable dealer. This way if the guitar turns out not to be what you thought, or you have problems with the instrument, you have someone to go to about the problem. Also, if the dealer is truly reputable, they will be charging a reasonable market price for the instrument, not trying to get what they wish it was worth.

When buying a guitar, look it over carefully. Look to see if there are any major cosmetic problems, especially in places that you wouldn't normally see as a player or an audience member. Ask specific questions about the guitar. To the dealer's knowledge, are there any structural or playing problems with the instrument? Does it come with a case, if so, what kind? What kind of warranty does the dealer and /or the manufacturer give? Sight down the neck. Look to see that the neck is not inordinately bowed, either forward or backward. (See our discussion of action for a description of proper neck set up.) If it is, you should ask your dealer to adjust the truss rod to the correct amount of relief. Also look to see that the neck is not twisted. You can see a twist in the neck by comparing the treble side to the bass side as you sight down it. The two sides of the neck should look the same with respect to the amount of curvature/straightness. There shouldn't be any pronounced humps or dips in the neck, although sometimes acoustic guitars have a slight hump around the place where the neck joins the body. If the guitar plays all right, this is normal.

You should also look at the action (string height) and compare it to the bridge height. If the action is high, but the bridge is low, the guitar probably has a bad neck angle. It is best to avoid guitars that have this type of problem. You should have a reasonable amount of bridge adjustment available, so the action can be adjusted either up or down, depending on your needs as a player.

Play the guitar. How does it feel in your hands, on your lap, hanging from a strap? Is it comfortable? Is it comfortable to play? (If you are buying your first guitar, the answer to that question will probably be "no", since becoming comfortable with playing a musical instrument usually takes time. See our discussion about action and string height for specifics about playability.) Does the guitar play cleanly all the way up and down the neck? If you are going to be bending notes, does it allow you to do that without fretting out? If there are fretting problems, can they be repaired? Ask your dealer if they will repair these problems at no cost to you before you buy the guitar. Does it have the gauge and type of string on it that you will use? If not, and you are seriously considering buying the guitar, ask your dealer if they'd mind slapping a set of your old favorites on there. (You might offer to pay for them, though your dealer ought to gladly bear that cost for a serious buyer.)

If everything checks out to your satisfaction, by all means go for it. Although guitars are made by humans from wood, plastic, and metal, and are devices that obey the laws of physics, there is a certain mystical quality possessed by musical instruments and they have unique personalities. Finding one that really suits you, the person who will be playing it, can be challenging, but when you find it, you will learn how to play better more quickly, and the music that you want to express will come out more easily.