IS THIS A GOOD GUITAR?

Every so often someone asks me a simple, and yet intriguing, question: Is this a good guitar? The question may seem obvious in its implication, but it really isn´t.

In my opinion, there are at least three levels at which a guitar can be “good”.

Technically Good Guitars

Correct Neck to Body Fit

Functional Neck Tension Rod

The plane of the fretboard must be nearly flat, or adjustable to such a state. Most modern guitars have an adjustable tension rod in the neck. This enables subtle tensioning of the neck to afford the preferred profile of the fretboard while under full string tension. A properly functioning adjustable tension rod will enable a range of curvature, from flat to slightly forward bowed, regardless of string gauge. A properly functioning neck tension rod is another feature of a technically good guitar.

On guitars which do not have an adjustable tension rod (pre-1985 Martin guitars, and some others), a neck which has an appropriate profile under either light or medium tension strings is considered acceptable. If a guitar without an adjustable neck tension rod has too much forward neck curve, or too little, the remedies are either to re-fret ( to adjust stiffness), to heat bend the neck,or to replace the fretboard. The fact that these more extreme remedies may be necessary to bring Martin guitars into functional playability, does not, in my opinion, disqualify them from being technically good guitars. But I would also note that there are many other older guitars, particularly at the lower end of the quality scale, which were built without adjustable truss rods. Taking the more elaborate measures needed to correct neck problems in these guitars is often not worth the time and expense.

Correct Intonation

A technically good guitar will either have, or be adjustable to achieve, correct intonation up and down the playing area of the neck. The factors which impact on the ability to achieve good intonation are:

1. THE FIT OF THE NUT
2. THE PLACEMENT AND CONDITION OF THE FRETS
3. THE HEIGHT OF THE STRINGS OVER THE FRETBOARD
4. THE LOCATION OF THE STRING SADDLES

If the nut is not correctly fitted at the end of the fretboard, or if the strings to not bear cleanly off the fretboard edge side of the nut, the intonation of the fretted notes will be inaccurate.The fit of the nut can be adjusted or corrected by a competent repairperson.

On most modern production guitars fret placement is not going to be an issue, and only rarely will it ever be an issue, but frets must be properly located for good intonation. In addition, frets must be properly shaped (“crowned”) so that the fretted string bears off the center point of the fret location. As frets wear, the point at which the string bears off can shift forward or backward enough to affect intonation. Worn frets can either be re-crowned or replaced by a qualified repairperson.

The higher a string sits over the fretboard, the more the string is stretched when pushed to the fretboard. This stretching tightens the string slightly and can sharpen the actual note relative to the intended note. (The thickness and tension of a given string also bear into the deviance from the intended v. the note achieved.)Particularly with playing styles that may dictate a higher string height (Bluegrass players generally want higher strings so they can “dig in” with a pick for more volume), a player may prefer higher string action. But in some cases, either the neck-body fit, or the curve of the fretboard, or both, may be the cause of the high strings. Regardless of the reason, intonation may be negatively affected by excessive string height. Except in cases of poor neck to body fit, or unadjustable excess forward curve in the plane of the fretboard, most guitars can be adjusted to play in tune within a range of string heights. This leads to the last factor affecting guitar intonation- the positioning of the string saddles.

By design, on most guitars, string saddles are positioned slightly further away from the frets than the actual scale length dictated by the frets, (luthiers refer to this as “compensation”). This set-back serves to help counter the sharpening affect of string height over the fretboard. You will notice that individual string saddle locations vary from string to string. On most modern production guitars, the bridge saddles either are, or have some range within which they can be, correctly positioned- but this cannot be taken for granted and should be checked when evaluating any guitar.

It should be noted that on older guitars, particularly acoustic guitars by various manufacturers, there are sometimes intonation problems directly related to the position of the bridge saddle/s (Martin guitars of the 1970´s have intonation problems) which can only be corrected by repositioning of the bridge.

All of the above qualities are features of a technically good guitar. Interestingly, having these qualities is no sign of the monetary value of the guitar. There are plenty of guitars which meet each of these criterion, and yet are not valuable guitars. This leads to another meaning of a good guitar.

Valuable Guitars

Sometimes when I am asked the question- Is this a good guitar? The intent is to elicit my estimation of the monetary value of a guitar, or whether it is worth the price paid. This is a fair question, particularly with older and small maker guitars, and many of us do see our purchase of a guitar as an investment.

Just as with a new car, nearly every guitar purchased new from the manufacturer instantly drops in resale value as you carry it away from the store. Not even vintage re-issue models escape this fate. But there are many guitars that maintain and even increase in value over the years.

The guitar buying and selling community is as advanced as any, and there are a number of “Blue Book” reference books that are updated each year. While these are just a starting point in determining the value of a given guitar, they are an important reference. The basic conceit of all of these reference guides is that the market dictates the value of vintage musical instruments. Consequently, the publishers collect sales information from a range of established instrument sellers and distill these numbers to come up with a value.

So the first thing I will do if someone wants to know what their guitar is worth, in dollars and cents, is to look it up in a couple of the industry accepted Blue Books. For most guitars this is a good beginning frame of reference. Next, I will research recent sales and listings of similar guitars. As I said before, the market dictates the value of a given guitar. Finally, I will evaluate the condition of the instrument. Condition can be a huge factor in determining the value of any guitar.

But while condition is very important in determining the value of an instrument, it is important to note that the fact that a guitar is unique, old, or technically “good” does not necessarily mean that it has or will maintain value, or will increase in re-sale value over time. Monetarily, the most important factor in establishing value is demand by buyers for a given guitar. In most cases, guitars that hold or increase their values over time are technically good guitars, but often they also have been produced during significant periods of a guitar makers history (for example- Pre-CBS ownership Fenders and Brazilian rosewood Martin´s).

So, we have at least two categories of good guitars- Technically good guitars, and Valuable guitars. But there is another category of good guitar-

Guitars That You Like

This may be the most important quality a guitar can have. On the assumption that you are not buying a guitar with concern about long term value, the most important quality a good guitar has is that you like it. It doesn´t matter what anyone says, it doesn´t matter whether it is technically good, it doesn´t matter that it has no monetary value, if you like it, if it does what you want it to do - it is a good guitar.