Acoustic Guides

Acoustic Guitar Structure

The top half of the acoustic guitar is made up of the neck and the headstock. The headstock consists of tuners (or machines)that allow you change the tension on the strings to get the guitar in tune. At the bottom of the headstock is the “nut”. A nut is a piece of material where there are grooves carved out as a guide for the strings to the tuners.

The neck joint or “heel” is where the neck is glued and sometimes bolted to the body. The neck is an important part of the guitar’s feel and how well it plays to you. You don’t want the neck to be too big for your hands. A fretboard (or fingerboard) is wood that is embedded with the metal “frets” that make up the top of the neck.

There’s a metal, what’s called a truss rod, which is inside the neck and runs the length of the guitar. The truss rod is there to keep your neck from bowing caused by the tension your strings put on it.

The fretboard runs down the front part of the neck. It’s a really thin piece of wood that’s glued to the neck and embedded with metal “frets”. The most common wood used for fretboards is rosewood and ebony.

Next is the body of the guitar. The body of a guitar will be different depending on what type of acoustic guitar you use. In an acoustic guitar the body of the instrument determines the quality of the sound. The vibration of the strings is passed through the bridge and saddle through a sound board. A sound board is usually made of spruce or cedar and is about 3mm thick.

The sound hole of an acoustic guitar is designed to project the sound of the instrument. The sound hole is usually a round hole on the front of the guitar, under the strings. The sound of the guitar is projected through the sound hole. The air inside the body of the guitar vibrates as the guitar’s body and top is vibrated by the instrument’s strings.

And finally the strings. A normal guitar has six strings. These strings come in different sizes and you have to determine which is best for you. I suggested you get the lightest ones at first because they are easier to press down. The benefit of the thicker strings is they give you a little more volume.

The bottom string is the skinniest and has the highest sound. It is an E note. The bottom string is also known as the first string. The second string is a little thicker than the first string and is the B note. The third string is G, the fourth string is D, the fifth string is A, and the final, sixth string is an E. It has the lowest sound and is the one that is closest to you. If the guitar is tuned correctly, the first string and the sixth string are the same note but in different pitches. An easy way to memorize the string position and values you can use a mnemonic devise such as Eat All Day Get Big Easy.

Buying a Guitar Online

Let’s talk a little bit about buying an acoustic guitar online. First, I’ll discuss the one drawback.

A number of years ago, purchasing a guitar  online probably wasn’t a viable option. However, the internet has changed the way we do many things, including how guitars are bought. You can look at the E-bay guitar auctions to see just how many guitars are being bought and sold every day.

There are some possible ramifications to buying an acoustic guitar online. When buying from eBay or Craigslist for example, there are some hazards attached to buying a guitar online from someone that you don’t even know. The most current reviews of vendors are found on Eopinions.com. On this site you can enter the name of the vendor you are thinking about buying from and do some research.

Here’s reviews from epinions.com for the Online Stores I use on my site.

Guitar Center
Musicians Friend
zZounds
Music 123

As you can see they all have good ratings and that is the reason why I don’t mind sending my readers to any of them.

You can here stories of shipping problems as far as the instruments arriving with dings or dents. I’ve got to tell you though, I read hundreds of reviews as a put together this site and I gotta tell ya this is more the exception than the rule.

The most intimidating part of buying an instrument on the internet is that you will not get a chance to play the guitar before you purchase it. Many people who have played guitars in music stores know that quality varies a great deal from guitar to guitar. Any product made from wood will have different degrees of quality. Because of this, you may get a guitar that does not have the quality you want. In this case, most retailers online offer a return policy that will allow you to send back a guitar you don’t want. However, all retailers I deal with on this site have at least a 30 day – no questions asked – return policy.

zZounds – 30 day, no restocking
Musicians Friend – 45 day, no restocking
GuitarCenter.com – 30 Day, no restocking
Music123 – 45 day, no restocking

The good thing about buying online is the huge range of availability. There’s just no way a brick and mortar store can carry such a huge inventory. Let’s say you’ve been doing your research of the particular acoustic guitar you want then you can’t find it in your local guitar shop.

Another thing is, like cars, new acoustic guitar models are coming out all the time. Most of the time brick and mortar’s will not bring in the new stuff until the old models are all sold. I’ve worked in retail for many years and know this to be true.

You don’t have to worry about shipping either because most online stores offer it for free. Many times you don’t have to pay sales tax. And finally, online stores have big selections of clearance and out of stock items that you can receive gargantuan discounts on.

Once you have weighed your options, and you still want to your acoustic guitar online, you will have to search for that perfect guitar. There are a number of sites that can help you find certain guitars.

Four online websites I recommend you look into are GuitarCenter.com, zZsounds, Musicians Friend, and Music123.

Musicians Friend has an extremely large collection of guitars and guitar equipment. This site is one of the most popular music retailers on the internet. The site features internet deals and weekly articles. Music123 is a large online music retailer and sells different instruments. There are many guitar brands for sale on the site at good prices. zZounds is another site with a large selection of guitar brands. This site has contests and free giveaways. They don’t offer international shipping.

And don’t forget eBay. You can get HUGE savings on your next acoustic guitar at eBay if you already know what you want. On every review and listing I have on my site I add eBay listings also. There’s no worry buying on eBay when you buy from a reputable seller. The best thing to do is look at the seller ratings. Those ratings can’t be manipulated in anyway and are written by buyers of that seller.

So there you have it, have no fear of online buying!

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