List of things to check on a new guitar to make sure it's not a dud or needs repair?

DiedTrying

DiedTrying

Inspired
Lets say your brand new Gibson Les Paul Standard has just arrived. You take it out of the shipping box and want to check it out to see if was put together well at the factory. What is the list of things you check out? How would you go about it? I'm not really talking about the set up necessarily because that is user preference, but things that have to do with the integrity of the guitar, things that degrade the guitar's potential - the build quality.

I imagine one of them would be to carefully check all of the frets with a fret rocker tool.
 
Just play it, if it sounds good, and feels good, then it is good

I’ve had lots of “perfect” guitars I didn’t bond with, and some downright beaters with a host of things “wrong” like neck pocket, fret edged etc that just sounded and played great

It’s like a dog, a pound mutt can be a wonderful dog, an AKC breeders $2500 pup can have the perfect measurement of tail to floor length, angle of ears and whatever things judges care about, and be a horrible pet.

No point getting out the microscope and calipers on a guitar as long as it plays well
 
I'll take your advice thank you!

Actually I'm really not that picky about flaws. I think that some people will rebel against a tiny spec of microscopic dust that got in the paint at the factory and send the guitar back. I'm not like that. I did receive a Gibson Bass years ago that looked like it had vice grip marks on the fret board - now THAT I did not care for at all, yet the bass played really well so I kept it without a complaint.
 
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I have an actual list I use. It won't all be relevant to you, but you may find some of it helpful, or funny haha!

  • Lively response unplugged
  • 22 Stainless Steel Frets
  • Check for notes that fret out just from regular playing
  • Feel for upper fret access
  • Dead / Wolf Notes
  • See if middle pickup is in the way of picking
  • Do wide bends on every note to check for bad frets
  • Check that trem stays in tune with dive bombs, aggressive wiggling, pull backs, and regular left hand note bends
  • Check that G string stays in tune: Do double-stops with D & G string 4ths and 5ths dives and pull ups, and do double-stops with G & B string 4ths and 5ths dives and pull ups
  • Check for sustain in general, this goes with checking for dead notes
  • Check for any echoes from trem when you abruptly mute a power chord with high gain. Do they go away if you dampen the strings behind the nut?
  • Look for grain of neck to be quarter sawn, not flat saw
  • Make sure there is no harshness at low gain. Play open wound strings and see if pick attack is harsh.
  • Similar relief in neck on Bass and Treble sides
  • Play natural harmonics to see how they ring
  • See if switching pickups causes pinging sound

And for me it's not about finding something that fulfills all this, but just making sure I have an answer to each question and am okay with that compromise. I get too excited initially, so I can easily forget to look at the nitty gritty and end up unhappy later.
 
PatrickWD said:
One important ting to check is that the truss-rod works. If the guitar plays great at the moment, but the truss-rod is at the moment completely loose or tightened all the way, you won’t be able to keep the guitar playing great if something changes.
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Adding that to my list. Thanks!
 
PatrickWD said:
One important ting to check is that the truss-rod works. If the guitar plays great at the moment, but the truss-rod is at the moment completely loose or tightened all the way, you won’t be able to keep the guitar playing great if something changes.
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This is something that I have made a habit of asking sellers directly when purchasing online (Reverb). I want a record of them telling me that the truss rod is functioning properly before the sale so that I can get a refund if it ends up being a problem when I get the guitar in hand. I always check truss rod functionality within the first day of delivery. Thankfully I've not had an issue in this regard, but it would be a nightmare situation to complete a transaction and then realize later down the line that the rod had been snapped or the nut had been stripped once you no longer have recourse for a refund.
 
Truss rod for sure as mentioned above, but also, though most other things can be changed or may add to the character, I still want to know:
  • see how worn the frets are, or if there is levelling to be done.
  • check on what mods were done, if any.
  • look for any structural issues (ie neck pocket movement) - PS I bought a used strat once in person from a guitar shop and did not notice a hairline crack at the neck/headstock joining point. The headstock had clearly broken off at one time and re-attached - a professional job, but none-the-less, I was pretty P.O.'d the shop never mentioned it (can't imagine they did not know).
  • test for any electronics issues (no biggie - I'd deal with it my self but I'd want to know).
  • If new, it should be pretty perfect - if not I'd expect a discount.
 
The thing is, what is a perfect guitar for the factory doesn’t necessarily make it be perfect for you, me, or the rest of the people who play it. Right out of the box it needs to talk to you, to sing to you.

My Taylor acoustic was found after auditioning six others of that model, including pulling unplayed ones from their unopened shipping cartons from the store’s back room, and she was in the last one that the store had. I hit a chord and knew immediately. She sings.

Every one of my guitars has been reworked/adjusted in some way or another except one, my PRS 509. And even that one got there by a circuitous route. I bought it used, and the neck pickup wasn’t at the right height according to the PRS specs, assumedly because the former owner adjusted it to their taste. While raising it one of the coil wires pulled out of the pickup. PRS doesn’t sell them for repairs anywhere else but at the factory, so I shipped it back and while it was there had them do a full setup on it because I was curious exactly how the factory would do it. It came home and it actually is perfectly set up, for me and I haven’t felt a desire to change it.

A lot of companies have a specification that puts the strings too high or the pickups too low and we have to use experience and knowledge to know what it should be. That information is usually easily found on the internet.

It also helps a lot to have a really good guitar tech nearby who knows how you like your guitars to be setup and who happily will put down whatever they are working on to inspect it and give their opinion, and then wonder out loud why TF you bought THAT when you already have other great guitars, and when you thank them for their review and reach for it to stick it back in the case they hold it back and begin adjusting it to fit you just right. Good quality guitars should already be in the ballpark for what is acceptable so it takes a little bit of adjustment to make them great, and the tech is done in a minute or two.
 
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Never understood the sometimes heard view that bad setup-adjustment (or even setup-adjustment just not to taste) is an issue that should not happen on a new guitar. No guitar has ever really "sung or spoke to me" out of the box or off the shelf (maybe I don't know how to hear it). All my guitars had to have their setups worked and reworked (luckily I can do it / am not paying for it though maybe a pro could find more magic for me) in order for them to start "singing" or "speaking" to me (I have a couple of guitars where it took me years to happen on that magical setup sauce enabling me to suddenly enjoy playing them). Maybe its a lefty thing since there's so little choice for us, but I kinda chuckle at folks running around trying to find that "magical one" off the shelf with little setup. All my guitar purchases have been based on the spec / type / style / quality that I want ("Quantifible" ((doh - controvercial word) stuff) . Once I can get that - give me the least played / least in-store-abused one available (for leftys, that's often the one put on order, and arriving in the box untounched since it left the factory) - From there, I'll get it set up to be as magical as it can be for me.
 
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sprint said:
Never understood the sometimes heard view that bad setup-adjustment (or even setup-adjustment just not to taste) is an issue that should not happen on a new guitar. No guitar has ever really "sung or spoke to me" out of the box or off the shelf (maybe I don't know how to hear it). All my guitars had to have their setups worked and reworked (luckily I can do it / am not paying for it though maybe a pro could find more magic for me) in order for them to start "singing" or "speaking" to me (I have a couple of guitars where it took me years to happen on that magical setup sauce enabling me to suddenly enjoy playing them). Maybe its a lefty thing since there's so little choice for us, but I kinda chuckle at folks running around trying to find that "magical one" off the shelf with little setup. All my guitar purchases have been based on the spec / type / style / quality that I want ("Quantifible" ((doh - controvercial word) stuff) . Once I can get that - give me the least played / least in-store-abused one available (for leftys, that's often the one put on order, and arriving in the box untounched since it left the factory) - From there, I'll get it set up to be as magical as it can be for me.
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I feel for you lefties. I think that's what it is. With right handed guitars there are just so damn many you can get real picky if you want.
 
State of Epicicity said:
I feel for you lefties. I think that's what it is. With right handed guitars there are just so damn many you can get real picky if you want.
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+1 - the mindset I described above probably comes from the typical experience of going into the guitar shop to peek at the 3 leftys (among x00 guitars there). If I played backwards (🤣) I guess I'd be in there like a dirty shirt, swapping between 5 seemingly identical axes, feeling for the one with that magic mojo.
 
Based on the duds that I’ve bought in the past, I always look for dead spots. For some reason, on electric guitars, I usually find them on the G string anywhere from the 12-14th frets. With acoustic guitars, I usually find them around the 8-9th fret of the A string. Bass guitars, around the 7th fret G string.
This is a deal breaker for me. I’ve bought some high end guitars with wolf tones. The worst of them could only hold a note in the dead spot for less than a second. When I talked to the manufacturers’ customer service about it, they told me it’s normal and not a warranty issue. Who would buy a piano and accept that a note or two may be missing?!?
 
Especially with Gibsons -- make sure the guitar stays in tune. They're notorious for tuning instability due to: less than optimal head stock design; wobbly bridges; poorly cut nuts (and that are not compensated nuts); etc.
 
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