What do you play when checking out a new guitar?

I've been pretty much in the same boat as you and I think most beginner's are.

You can have one of the guitar techs at the store play it for you if you want to hear a particular style of music your inot but can't play yet.

I looked at it this way. Since I'm really a beginner I didn't plan on buying the guitar of a lifetime the first time, since I have no idea what sound/tone I was looking for.

I think I looked more at the style/type of guitar, then went in and really checked out the feel of the giuitar more than anything.

When I started a bought an Epiphone SG copy mainly because I liked the looks and once I got it home it was great. I always wanted a Strat so when I was looking for a Strat I just went in an tried a few for fell (they all pretty much felt the same) and then picked a color. The guitar is great and I'm glad I got it.

Come up with a list of criteria that's important to you and if it includes playing some stuff that you can't right now someone can help you out, otherwise if your buying a guitar from a reputable mfg like Fender or Gibson etc., I think you'll bve pretty safe.

PS - If you can try the guitar with a strap and see how it feels while standing. If I had done that I would never have bought my SG, the SG's are really nose heavy so when you stand up the fretboard wants to take a dive to the floor, so you have to always hold it. The Strat is beautiful it just stays right in place. But those are the things you can check for while your in the store.

I don't think I have ever played a real song while trying out a new or different guitar. I typically go through some scales, maybe a couple of short riffs and some open and barred chords. The idea is to just test the basic feel and tone compared to what you already have or others in the store.

I was in the Guitar Center the other day and played just about every guitar that they already had plugged in and never played a song. I noticed that most people sounded better than me. I also had one guy who sounded pretty good comment positively on something I did and all I was doing was a basic strum on a D, A, Em, G progression.

The bottom line is that if you know a few chords you are armed with everything you need to determine if you like a guitar or not so go for it.

every single note on the fretboard.

all the open chords (well not all of them, but you get the idea)

barre chords all the way up

Songs? I pick three, one flatpick, one strummed and one fingerpicked

for instance:

flatpick - just a closer walk with thee
strummed - Melissa
fingerpicked - silent night

They are easy to play and they don't make you concentrate too much on your playing abilities. You want to hear what the guitar can do, not impress the guy next to you, right?

I follow Nick's list, with a few additions:

I play harmonics at 3,5,7,9,12,15,17 and 19 on all strings to see how responsive it is

I slide up and down on all strings to see how the frets feel

I do some double note bends (eg a double stop at 3rd string 7th/2nd string 8th, where I bend the 3rd string note) which gives me an idea of how playable it's going to be on tougher things

I play a few extended chords, like this Cmaj7:

12
12
9
x
10
8

to see how easy it is to do fairly spread out fingerings.

Those sorts of things give me a gut feel of how good the setup is for my playing. If it feels raunchy doing those, I'll look at how high the action is, how good the intonation is, and decide if it can be improved or if I should reject it.

So the moral of the story?

Stay out of the guitar shop when Nick and Noteboat are in there!

Couldn't resist it.

Matt

HA!

I went to guitar center the other day (bought a Beringer amp I'd seen good reviews of and 6 sets of strings). I was gonna check out some guitars, but there were too many people already picking away.

To their credit, no one was playing Stairway to Heaven.

The most popular thing people were playing seemed to be pentatonic scales.

One was a teenage boy with a posse around him ooohing and aahing over his chops. I thought he was pretty sloppy, but I listened... because he was plugged into the amp I wanted - then I just had the clerk get one still in the box :)

To their credit, no one was playing Stairway to Heaven.

Do alot of people play that? It's funny you should say that, because just the other day I saw some record commercial on TV, and that was one of the song clips played, and I thought..hmm, that might be something easy enough to learn.

This is a problem I've had but I've finally given up on playing anything in particular. I usually mess around with a few simple power chords and play around in the pentatonic scales when trying out electrics. On acoustics I play with some real basic chords.

To me the important thing is that I play the same thing (or close to it) on all the guitars I play in a visit. That way I have some real form of comparison.

To their credit, no one was playing Stairway to Heaven.

Do alot of people play that? It's funny you should say that, because just the other day I saw some record commercial on TV, and that was one of the song clips played, and I thought..hmm, that might be something easy enough to learn.

Well, I think word is getting out about it being...against proper guitar store ettiquite. So people aren't playing it as much. Basically, the opening measures to Stairway are usually somthing that guitarists learn early on. So a lot of them end up playing it in the stores. Just imagine this: You work in a guitar shop for 8 or so hours per day. If people keep coming in and playing the same damn thing over months and months it's going to get agravating.

So it's best to go in with somthing either you wrote or somthing that everyone else isn't using. Pick somthing unusual. I've personally got a certain riff that I like to play.

I'm not telling, everyone will go use it if I say. :P

Thus far I have been conscious of playing in a guitar store.
Well not any more, this weekend the audience at sam ash on route 27 gets my entire repertoire of blues scales. :)

I've been pretty conscious of what I play in stores. First things I played on one of the guitars I was looking at - the intro riff to Johnny B. Goode and La Bamba. The clerk was pleasantly surprised.

Not even 4 months later, I've got a few songs that I can pull off well, along with a better sense of rhythm and scales, a nice winter break coming my way, and a few guitars I'd like to check out. Fun time. :)

I DON'T play "Smoke On The Water" - I'm not into "suicide by guitar-shop owner" :lol:

Come As You Are by Nirvana is also starting to get banned status.

Go rent the first Waine's World movie. You'll understand the Stairway to Heaven remark.