What makes a guitar good

[flatlander]

How it sounds and feels. Then looks.  Of course the player makes makes any guitar sound better but conversly for me I think a better guitar makes me play better as well. For just one example, a lot of not good guitars just don't ring out up the neck and I would naturally limit going up there and losing the sustain and fullness I think is important, and thus that would limit my playing.

[DuaneD]

...took the words right out of my mouth, figuratively speaking of course.

Yeah I think you missed the mark on what I was gettin at.  If you are the player who is buying a guitar what do you look for?  Someone else to play it for you??

Yes a player makes all the difference but that is not what I was putting out to debate.  For example someone was telling me yesterday that he was in Nashville at a song writers show case and the guy with the best sound was a guy playing a Art & Lutherie parlor with a Fishman sound hole pick up.  I assume there were others with their $5000 plus guitars but the guy with the $200 made it sing. 

I will read comments that say if it sounds good it is good.  And then read a comment that  says guitars are not made of plywood.  Ok but that plywood can sing and is only $200.    So when picking out a guitar what do you use your ears, your hands, your financial situation or does ego come first.  Intersting to see what people had to say and how................

[DuaneD]

it's a good guitar if I bond with it. I have had some beautiful, well-built guitars that sounded great, but I just never bonded with them and spun them off.
they weren't "good" for me.

How true.  I have played "GREAT GUITARS" and never been impressed.  When I was in a store recently trying out guitars with my son who is only 14 said "nice guitar but it just doesn't move me"

This is how I feel.  In discussions here about various guitars some of the negative comments on guitars I think miss the mark on what a "good guitar" is.  As for the player who is it that I assume is the one buying it??

[bluesman67]

  My sense of humour and Duck's got lost.  Sorry about that.  I think there are a lot of good points on this thread.  For me, it starts with tone, a very VERY subjective topic.  After that, the guitar needs to feel good.  Looks come into play, but not as much for me.  I admire simplicity and it's my 1st choice, but I also appreciate craftsmanship and bling that is in good taste.

[mrrinse]

I like your response best so far.  I bunch of stuff I dont worry about.  From reading posts on this forum I sense that a number of people  would disagree.  I dont need to know who painted a piece of art to determine if I like it or not.  What the painter had for lunch doesn't matter to me.

Thanks. I like your analogy. To extend it a bit further, what paint the painter used and what someone else paid for it / is prepared to pay for it is also unimportant to me.

Whilst in a sense you would think sound ought to be the most important, for me I have a great sounding guitar (a Taylor 510) and have played other great sounding guitars, but because they don't feel right in my hands, I'm not interested in them. (The Taylor's nut width it too narrow - that apart it's great). So feel comes first. Then sound.

Karma mojo vibe has to be in there somewhere (though if I was feeling less "karmic", I'd say that that is a combination of feel, sound and looks).

Looks are at the bottom of my list (the rest are unimportant), but I guess still a bit of a factor. I have, for example, a guitar I'm not keen on the looks of (my Parker NiteFly) - but it plays like a dream and sounds great, so I bought it. Had I liked the look more, that would have been a bonus. I'm not keen on the looks of the Composite Acoustics guitars, but it they played well and sounded great.... Conversely, I'd never buy a guitar simply because it looked great.

In terms of feel, I guess there's two issues: how it feels in your hands and how it feels in relation to the rest of your body (arm/shoulder position, balance, lower bout cutaways, etc). Perhaps also how you physically feel the vibrations of the guitar. For me, hands is the most important of the lot (e.g. the Parker isn't comfortable against my chest because of the design of the cutaway... but I can like with it).

Dan

[DuaneD]

My sense of humour and Duck's got lost.  Sorry about that.  I think there are a lot of good points on this thread.  For me, it starts with tone, a very VERY subjective topic.  After that, the guitar needs to feel good.  Looks come into play, but not as much for me.  I admire simplicity and it's my 1st choice, but I also appreciate craftsmanship and bling that is in good taste.

Bling is a guilty pleasure of mine.  I look at that sparkle around the sound hole and start thinking how I need one of those.   I hope I have learned my lesson and made enough mistakes in buying guitars for the wrong reason(and the wrong guitar) time will tell.   At first I thought those Blueridge gits were overdone but now I think I dig it.

[Yoyodyne]

It makes me want to play it. All other factors pale in comparison...YMMV.

[DuaneD]

It makes me want to play it. All other factors pale in comparison...YMMV.

Ok I'm game.  What makes you want to play it?