Now that you have enough information to know what is the right guitar for you, we want to talk about a couple more terms, that affect the playability of your Guitar. The first one is perhaps the most important, and it’s what we call ‘the action.’ The action is the height of the string from the fret. When I go to push this string down [Pushing the string down], it’s what we would probably say, a medium action. If this guitar had a higher action, then the string might be up higher away from the fret, and when you go to press down, it’s a lot more work. This is often the case with acoustic guitars. Especially when they come right from the factory. They’re often not set up to play very easily. A lot of electric guitars, their action might be too low, and as a result, the strings can sound buzzy, when you go to play it. There’s two things that affect the action. One is the Saddle here, that is this white strip. The saddle, if it were higher, will give you higher action. If it is too low, it would give you too low of an action. So, the height of the saddle is very important. And the other thing is down here, the Nut. Earlier I’ve mentioned that the nut has slots cut into it for the strings. If the slots are not cut to the right depth, that strings could be too high, or too low. That is also another important thing. The next term I want to talk about is, what we call, the scale length. The scale length is the length of the string from the saddle to the nut. Longer scale lengths mean that the whole neck is going to be longer, and as a result, the frets are going to be spaced farther from one another. So, if you have a small hand, it could be an issue to stretch for those frets. Longer scale length also mean that there is more tension on the strings, so the strings are going to be a little harder to press down. Typically it will be a little bit louder, but often times it’s not worth the extra work. Another term is the string spacing. The string spacing is basically the distance from one string to the next. Nylon String guitars naturally have a wider string spacing, and that is because it is easier for your right hand fingers to play on. And a lot of the things you play with your left hand, are helped out by wider string spacing up at the Nut. The string spacing on this guitar is pretty normal. It works for a pick or Fingerstyle. But, usually, it is better for the pick. That is because you don’t have to travel as far to get all the strings ringing. If you are playing a Chord, or what have you. [Strums a chord] That is the string spacing. The last thing you might want to consider is, whether or not, to amplify your guitar. If you’re having electric guitar, or you are buying electric guitar, it’s a given. They have Pickups, and require an Amplifier. But, this is something you can do for your acoustic guitar, as well. An acoustic guitar, such as this one, can often have a pickup, and there is a jack for you to enter a cord, like so. Now I can take this cord, plug it into an amplifier, and amplify this guitar. This one, actually, has controls on board here. So, I can control the volume, or the tone and so forth. If you have a straight up Acoustic Guitar without a pickup, you can actually have one put in after the fact. So you don’t have to make that decision right away. But it is something to consider. Those are the main considerations that you want to think about when you are buying your first guitar. And what you should try to do is to negotiate for a free setup. A setup is the term we use for when you take your guitar to a professional, who works on these types of things. They will adjust the action, they’ll make sure it plays nice and even across the neck. This is something that can range anywhere from $50 - $150 in value. So it is a good idea to ask if they ‘ll include the first setup for free.

Does it make sense to spend $100 - $150 on a guitar setup for a $200 guitar? Whoa... $100 - $150 is a little steep! We suggest you call around and find out what other stores are charging for a set up. In our experience, $50 - $75 is the average cost. If you find a guitar you like it is also a good idea to play it for a month before getting it setup. After playing with your guitar, you’ll notice what needs to be adjusted and can save money by only making adjustments you want. I read about something called "neck relief". What is that? Neck relief is the term to describe if the neck is bending slightly from the tension of the strings. Depending on the guitar, this can be a good or bad thing. However, excessive neck relief (bending) is not good. On most guitar you want a little to no neck relief at all. This is something that should only be adjusted by a professional, by adjusting the “truss rod.” Is it a good idea to buy a used guitar on online? It depends a lot on the price and type of guitar. For solid body electric guitars, if everything is in working condition, it’s hard to go wrong for less than $200. These types of guitars are made of a single piece of hard wood and tend to be built well. Buying an acoustic guitar online can be more complex. Yes, you might be able to get a good deal buying online, but there is risk more risk of buying something damaged when purchasing an acoustic guitar. If it's at all possible, it’s best to have an experienced guitar player check out the guitar for you before buying.