When You Are Ready For An Upgrade On Your Guitar?

Well, I don't really sell my guitars, so whenever I look to buy one, I look for a keeper. When should you upgrade? That's a bit of a subjective question - when you find a different guitar really affects your playing, you should probably upgrade or get an additional guitar. It can also be a motivating little reward for a long period of hard work. I'm looking to get a jazzbox in the next year or two - never owned one yet, but since getting into playing jazz, there are certain tones that they have that I just can't get with my current lot. May take me a while and I may go with a higher end model, it all depends on a bunch of stuff, including how much I progress with various musical skills I'm working on (note to self - go and do some sight reading if you really want that Sadowsky...). But I don't really see it as an upgrade per se. For acoustics, I have a Martin D15 and an Ibanez electro-acoustic. By most standards, the Martin would be considered an 'upgrade' on the Ibanez, but I play both frequently and judge them equally - they have different sounds, and I use them for different applications. I don't get the 'upgrade' concept as much as most, I guess.

why is it that beginner guitars are typically hard to play? the action is high, the pickups are muddy and cheap, the fret wires stick outside the neck and crave up the hand.
when I upgraded to a really nice guitar all those cheap things disappeared and I found guitar playing a lot easier.
if you can afford the upgrade, don't torture yourself any longer. upgrade.
many times I have traded up. and sometimes I just acquire a better guitar; I keep the the old one as a backup.

to upgrade the tone on my guitars you just need a better guitarist playing them.

I think once you can tell the difference in tone or feel or whatever it is your upgrading to, that is when you are ready. If you can't tell a difference, there is no reason to upgrade.

go to a store and try out some new guitars. if your guitar is hard to play or sounds bad compared to the guitars you're looking at, by all means consider buying a new one. if there's not a lot of difference, don't just change to change.

Thanks guys really like your comments on if you can motice the difference in sound, and feel with the guitar your lookikng at then upgrade if you can't hear the difference then don't.

Another comment I liked was the one about the cheap high action beginner guitars and how they suck I would still keep my first anyway, even if I upgrade. I find I can play most chords but still can't do barre chords and I think the high action is preventing that as I have an electric guitar and it is easier to do as the action is lower??

Thanks Daza.

the great thing about keeping the beater - when you want to learn about how to do set ups and repairs, you'll have a beater you don't care much for to experiment on. :wink:

plus, it's always useful to have if you e.g. go camping or to a festival and don't want to take your good guitar for fear of it getting stolen or broken/damaged. failing that, tune to open G or D (there'll be lessons about open tunings on the site), buy a slide, and start playing some blues on it! 8)

If one of the things that is bothering you is the high action of the guitar, than you should take it in to get a good setup. A good tech will adjust the neck and intonation. If its was way off you may feel like you ended up with a new guitar. A setup in the states cost of 40-60USD depending on the area. Its certainly cheaper than buying a new guitar and if you keep it than you have two guitars that are in playable condition.

-- Rob

After "Upgrading" numerous I have come to believe that it is not the guitar but the guitarist that needs improving. Depending on what you are currently playing of course.

If possible rent a guitar you are interested in. My local store rented a MIM Tele to me for a month for $30 and it was a great infestment. I got a lot of time to experiment with the guitar and had not commitment. I am committed to keeping a minimal number of guitars in my house so if one comes in one has to go out so purchase is a significant decision. If it is possible rent a couple of guitars for a week or two each and see what you like best.

This is an easy one :

Consider why you quit on and off with the guitar ?

If the answer was :

Because it was hard to learn bar chords and playing an open " F " chord on the 1-2-3-4 strings .

Then a better action on a guitar would be the denominating factor .

Electric guitars if you use a lot of distortion and FXs cover up mistakes and to some this means an " easier " approach .

Me - after I made a cheap ugly sounding nylon sound decent and was able to make chord changes on a $#it guitar a fellow musician heard me and said :

" Your doing O . k . so far as see you struggle with [ THAT ] guitar . What you really need is a guitar with lower action ".

He mentioned that it would be a world of improvement too . He also said get a steel stringed acoustic too , it will strengthen your arm and hand too , if you go electric first you won't likely want to pick up an acoustic ........So .

I got a ( yeah it does cost ya some $'s ) better guitar to the tune of $575.00 ( was listed at $899.00 ) and that guitar made the difference in my guitar playing life . It's got a rosewood body and sides with a solid one piece Alaskan spruce top and rosewood fretboard . From there once I made it work out really good I went on to my electric .

And of course the anti $-wise is escalated too - - My electric cost me $1700.00 ( listed at $2400.00 ) not to mention an amp up to the caliber of the electric to do it justice .

Good hunting :)

Hurricane Ramon

Hi

I have a electric guitar, which is a budget one and i am looking to upgrade it.

Could you guys tell me which guitar parts shall i upgrade first?

P.S. - I can't afford to upgrade the whole guitar at one go.