Cheap Guitars

 I recently ran across a somewhat-frothy online article advocating gifting someone a cheap guitar for Christmas. The droning went on for a page or two about all the famous guitarists who had to start somewhere. Unfortunately, there was no discussion of the difference between a cheap guitar and an inexpensive instrument.

   I've briefly auditioned literally hundreds of acoustic guitars during the almost 60 years I've been playing and would venture to guess perhaps only 5% were what I would call really good guitars; maybe another small percentage of the total were playable to some extent. My point is that regardless of price, brand, appearance or most other characteristics, the one most basic requirement is a guitar, especially an acoustic, has to be playable. If someone cannot make music of whatever style to the potential player's satisfaction with a particular guitar, you might as well throw that piece of kindling into a fire; it's useless to them. That having been said, many unplayable guitars can be brought into playability with enough loving care. Whether or not such a rejuvenated instrument would be a good choice for a neophyte depends on finding a qualified luthier, what it costs to get it to playability and whether it will remain so. Most anyone can manage to strum a chord or two on the most crude of instruments, but if a guitar won't stay in tune, the string action is so high it cuts your fingers or the neck so ratty it leaves splinters in your hand, hat guitar will probably not get played very much.

     I am an acoustic player and have been blessed to own a number of very fine Martins over the years as well as a few Yamahas, some Guilds, an Ovation or two, an Augustino parlor guitar, one Taylor 12-string cutaway and a Gretsch wood-bodied 6-string resonator. Except for a mail-order vintage Guild 12-string, I played each guitar before I bought it to determine its playability. FYI, I've also gone into music stores with a dozen or more new Martins hanging on the wall and not found one I considered either good or even playable, although I should probably add that for new high-end guitars, the standard is undoubtedly somewhat higher than it wou ld be for a flattop of lesser quality. A good friend once gifted me an inexpensive Blueridge 6-string acoustic. While it lacked the tonal depth, warmth and resonance  of my previous Martins, I was going through a rough patch at the time and very gratefully played that guitar for quite a while. It proved to be a very good guitar indeed, most appreciated and finally, lovingly donated to a deserving charity when I could finally afford to upgrade instruments, ultimately to my current Martin HD-28, a truly magnificent guitar.