FUQ (eff -yu - cue) - FAQ's with an EDGE

Tagged As: Guild Electric Guitar

Question:
I just purchased a Guild Bluesbird Guitar with a AAA amber top. The guitar quality in general is excellent. The maple top of the Guitar however has a small knot in the wood (tree characteristics). I have heard rumors that this is usually not good for an acoustic spruce top guitar but have never heard if it affects an electric solid body (chambered) guitar. The guitar has a magonany neck and back with a maple top. The grain of the top is also not as easy to examine compared to a acoustic (where you are looking for an even grain flow with cross grain, etc.). (See the Guild site: http://www.guildguitars.com/solid/aaablues.html for a picture of the guitar (tabacco finish instead of amber)). Also in general, what should I look for to verify the quality of an electric guitar. All I really know to look at is the neck and frets which appear to be in good shape. The action is great as well (although I realize it can be adjusted, it is nice to see that out of the box it's nice and low Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have been playing acoustic guitars for a long time and don't know jack about electrics. This is my first and probably last electric guitar (until the wife approves another - long time) and I want to make sure I didn't make a bad purchase especially considering I only have a day or so to decide whether or not to keep it).

Answer:
Wash your hands and play it for 6 hours straight. Make sure you wipe the strings every 15 minutes or so. Put on some radio songs and play along with them,( or play your standard repertories), if your amp will play a good sound at low volumes, or if you can crank your stereo. Make a tape of it, if you can. If it's the right guitar, it will play better and better the more you play it. If it's not, it will be clear that it isn't, after a while. If you really don't like the finish, send it back, although for less than $5000, you can't expect to get a truly remarkable finish and an immaculate action, so I tend to favor finding the best playing guitars vs. the best looking ones. Electric guitars are more forgiving in terms of materials and such in regards to their playing tone. Even a plywood guitar can have great tone produced acoustically from it, so body wood is not such a big factor,as long as it doesn't have cracks in it. Chances are,unless it's just a bad guitar, that it's pretty good playing and sounding, as Guild does not possess a major share of the market and they are still in business.