Once you get fully into playing guitar you’ll most likely want to get more guitars as there are many different types and styles and they actually do have different features, they sound different and they even feel different to play.
Buying used guitars can allow you to grow your collection faster for less money but you want to be careful not to buy lemons or guitars that have too much wrong with them to make them worthwhile to fix up.
There are many different places to find used guitars to buy including online places such as eBay, Craigslist, and Kijiji but I would highly recommend you buy your first couple of used guitars locally so you can see, hold and play the instrument first so you can be sure what you’re getting.
Used guitars can be found in local music shops, pawn shops, flea markets and the local classifieds so start there and go see as many of them as you can. To become great finding the best used guitars for the best prices, you need to know what people put them through before they sell them and then you can move your used guitar buying to the online world.
You want to assess the guitars wear and condition in case you have to make repairs to it or have it repaired in order to play it or resell it. Check the body for dings, chips and scratches in the paint. While some people love the vintage guitars and actually pay more for that rough road worn look, it’s not usually a desirable feature for a guitar that’s only a few years old to have Uncle Ted’s belt buckle gouges in the back of an otherwise killer looking guitar.
Check the neck for warping and other damage. Hold the guitar up with the end of the body on your chin so you can look up the neck toward the headstock and tuning keys. What you’re doing here is called “sighting the neck” and you’re looking for high spots which will appear as shiny spots on the frets. If one area of the frets appears to stick out from the rest as being extra shiny, then the neck likely has a high spot there. If there is a dark area, that would be a low spot. A neck can be adjusted to bend backward or frontward by adjusting the truss rod inside the neck but it cannot be adjusted side to side. If it’s warped, it’s junk.
Check the frets themselves for wear. Fret wear can appear as dents or pits in the fret metal, flat spots, rust and burrs or sharp spots. Rust can be removed with steel wool and sharps spots can be filed down, but dents, pits, and flat spots will indicate that the guitar needs new frets which will run over $100 so make sure you really want to invest that kind of money if the guitar needs frets.
Most everything else on a guitar can easily be repaired. Small scratches can be buffed out with automotive scratch remover or rubbing compound. Wires can be re-soldered or pickups replaced and strings are cheap. Your main concern is the neck followed by the condition of the body and lastly by whether or not the instrument feels good in your hands.
