Some thoughts from somebody who has a bit of experience buying and selling collectible guitars...

I'll concentrate first on electric instruments, as acoustic instruments are often subject to a completely different set of criteria.

The first thing to be aware of is that folks selling vintage instruments are generally doing it for a reason. Commonly this is to make money. Often it is (also) because they don't really care for the instrument. If they did, they wouldn't sell it for any amount of money in the world. This is something you need to guard against, because you might soon find that you don't care for it either.

Now examine your own motives for buying such an instrument. Are you buying it to play music? Or are you likewise buying it as an investment - to make money? The answer to this question can greatly affect your purchase.

If you are buying the instrument to play, you need to evaluate the sound and playability - and placing lower priority on looks and finish blemishes.

If buying for eventual resale, looks and finish are everything. Especially take note of any cracking (as opposed to finish checking, which is normal for an aged instrument).

A common mis perception is that older instruments sound better than newer ones. There is some truth to this, as time affects the bonding of the lacquer finish with the underlying wood; which affects the instrument tone. On electric instruments, this turns out not to have a great deal of importance, since tone can be synthesized and enhanced electronically. It is also argued that vintage pickups sound better than new ones. This is entirely bogus. While vintage pickups in a vintage instrument might have some value, if you're after sound, there are pickups available today which have gone through years of evolution and sound better in almost all cases than older designs. 

The brand name and model is extremely important for resale, however here you are falling prey to speculative bubbles, which could collapse at any time. A lot of '68 Strats and older Les Pauls are on the market, and could be termed speculative. Supply and demand is what ultimately affects price. One of the most collectible guitars of all time is the original '50s Flying V - of which less than a hundred were ever made. These sell for whatever the market will bear. Any modern V, Les Paul, or Strat - are commodity items. Beware the bubble. It can bite.

The guitars which ultimately are sought by collectors are those that were quality instruments, but which failed in the marketplace and hence have limited supply.  There are lots of modern day analogs to the Flying V - and you can generally pick these up for a pittance; hold on to them, and eventually sell for large sums as they vanish from the marketplace.

If you're buying an older instrument to play, ignore the pressure to buy completely. Only buy the item if you decide that it has the sound and playability your style of music requires. If it doesn't - pass it by. There are usually lots more out there to choose from in the same price range. Keep playing them until you find the right one.

Don't ever buy a vintage instrument sight unseen or through mail order.

For acoustic instruments, Martins usually do well in the marketplace. But here, the sound and playability are much more important than for electric instruments. If an instrument sounds like cardboard, it isn't worth the cardboard it's made from. In the acoustic category, you'll find the most impact of the natural bonding of wood and lacquer which makes for a prized sound. Usually the sound improves ('mellows') over the first ten years of life, stabilises for about twenty years, and then things start to fall apart, literally. A hundred year old guitar doesn't necessarily sound great - but can be a valued investment as a museum piece. You probably wouldn't buy one to play professionally as the fragility also increases with age. Finding replacement tuners for a 50 year old instrument can be a challenge, and will detract from the value if you replace any of them. The gears are often soft brass, and don't hold up well over time. 

The 'categories' menu had to be split in two. One section for forums, and another for news. This follows the general site philosophy that categories are individualized and personal namespaces. OK, it also fixes a little bug which wouldn't display mixed category results precisely because of this general site philosophy.

The menu likewise multiplied and now contains a 'Tools' section for some of the stuff that was starting to clutter the main menu.

Seems like I'm always googling 'unit convertor' to find something to convert quanities of one thing into another. Problem is that I never bookmark the good ones and so half the time I end up on a mortgage convertor or some other weird thing which doesn't have the units I'm looking for. 

So I solved that problem. 

I also felt that a guitar chord dictionary would be a useful web tool. Mine isn't as pretty as some of the others out there, but it is reasonably complete. You want a hundred different ways to play an E chord?  Go here. What's this got to do with social software? Absolutely nothing... unless of course you're a guitar player who sometimes needs to figure out where there's an E7b13b11 somewhere around the eighth fret when you're using an open tuning.

Publication Date: Friday, January 13, 2006

On downtowns and downturns

By Don Frances

I'VE BEEN on the market for a new guitar for a while -- an acoustic with a pick-up, maybe a built-in tuner. So on a recent lunch hour as I walked down Castro Street, and noticed the "Going out of business sale" sign out front of Sonica Music Co. I stepped inside to look around.

There I found Mike Macgirvin, owner of the store, standing behind the counter and looking unhappy. The place was bustling. Nobody wants you when you're down and out -- unless you're holding a liquidation sale.

I asked Macgirvin when the store was closing. "I don't know," he said. I asked if he had an acoustic with a pick-up.

Alas, there was only one: a beautiful Crafter that was out of my price range, even after the markdown. I bought a couple packs of strings, and tried not to be tempted by the many well-priced amps, or the thousand-dollar drum kit.

Despite the deals, the closing of Sonica isn't cause for bargain hunting but for reflection. Some version of the store has been in Mountain View for half a century, providing instruments and music materials to people from all around. My wife, who grew up in Los Altos, remembers going there as a child to buy sheet music for school auditions. As Molly Tanenbaum reports (see page 1), the fond memories, and regrets at the store's closing, are easy to come by.

But nostalgia doesn't pay the bills. It's no secret that the influx of large chain stores has many mom-and-pops on the ropes. And as they go, they're taking the downtowns with them.

So far, Mountain View's downtown has remained relatively strong thanks to its restaurants (you can't big-box a Thai eatery). But city officials are worried about the lack of economic diversity along Castro, and offer numerous tax breaks to anyone wishing to open a retail store here. Even so, as Longs Drugs, Best Buy and all the others continue to move in, the number of independent stores seems to be decreasing all the time.

Many believe this is a horrible trend, and I'm among them. How can the little guy make a living in a corporate-dominated economy? Where is the personal, human-scale service at Wal-Mart? Of course, the smaller stores always offer better service, and therein lies the challenge for mom-and-pops: How many of their customers will forgo savings in favor of better service, human contact, and a sense of community.

It's a tough spot for them, and I'll bet the pricier the merchandise, the worse it gets. Jewelry, bicycles, computers, guitars -- the savings at larger outlets for these items can be in the hundreds of dollars. But even as we bemoan it, many customers, when faced with a choice between supporting local business, in all its abstractions, or a few hundred bucks, take the latter.

I'm not casting any stones. Last week I went to Guitar Center in San Jose, where I found an Ibanez with a built-in tuner for $150 less than the Crafter.

Since then, the Crafter got marked down again into my price range. Last I checked it was still hanging there, along with several other handsome instruments at huge discounts. If you ever wanted to visit Sonica, you better hurry. ...
SO ARE the days of the porch-front community gone forever? I hope not, but it sure seems like people are using different, grander means to get together. Take the Community and Interfaith Celebration Honoring the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to be held Sunday, Jan. 15 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at First United Methodist Church in Palo Alto. Last year, organizers say, the event attracted more than 350 participants from all over the lower Peninsula. This year's featured guest: CBS 5 news anchor Dana King. The program also includes other local speakers, a "community and interfaith choir" led by the Rev. Isaiah Jones, and refreshments. MLK Day, by the way, is Jan. 16. ...

Channel 5 seems to be taking an interest in our region of late. In a Wednesday airing of "Eye on the Bay," the show's reporters combed the Peninsula in search of a decent meal for under $10. Naturally, their quest led them to Colonel Lee's Mongolian BBQ on Castro Street. Congrats, Colonel, you deserve the publicity.
Don Frances is editor of the Mountain View Voice. His column will appear on a semi-regular basis. Send any items, tips, nods or feedback to dfrances@mv-voice.com.

For those folks landing here looking for Sonica Music Company or the Mountain View Music Center, I regret to inform you that Sonica closed down earlier this year - yet another victim of the stagnant Silicon Valley economy. 

However, there is still a music store or three in Mountain View.  I'd like to recommend Norm's at 1901 Old Middlefield Road - 650 968-4800. Here you can find quite a variety of quality musical instruments and expert advice.

Tell Norm that Mike sent you. 

You are also encouraged to use this site for anything related to music in Mountain View or Silicon Valley. Musicians classifieds, instrument advice, etc. I'll be glad to help where I am able. There don't seem to be any other places for local musicians to hang out....

Rolling Stone magazine released its 1000th issue today.

Which reminds me, I've got a copy of issue 68 - October 13, 1970. This is the memorial to Jimi Hendrix edition following his death in London.

If this has interest to you, $50 and it's all yours.  The pages are a bit yellowed, but what do you expect from a 36 year old newspaper? (in 1970 Rolling Stone was loose-leaf and resembled a newspaper more than a magazine.) 

[contact details removed]

One of the most asked questions when I was running a music store was 'How do I choose a guitar? There are so many of them.'

Allow me to distill a lot of experience buying and selling guitars...

First of all, you must ask yourself some deep questions. What are my real goals in seeking a guitar? What is it that makes me do this? Is it for personal enjoyment? Is it for harmonious living? Is it for fame, fortune, and or money? Is it an instrument to play or am I seeking an 'investment'? All of these things will play an important role in your decision.

But there are some common properties of guitars (and any musical instruments, actually to any products at all).

The first is quality of purpose. The purpose of a guitar is to produce sound, so here we are judging this ability. Does it sound good? Does it sound acceptable for my purposes?

This is a deeply personal judgement. The sound I like might sound horrible to you. And you must never judge a book by its cover. If you were to play six guitars of the same model produced on the same day in the same factory, you will find that they each sound different. You have to play each one to find out.

For an example of what you are listening for, here are a few qualities representative of some of the instruments I've played.. "Boomy" has a deep sound on the heavy (low) strings. 'Crisp' is where the high strings ring out, also could be described as 'bright'. Some of the mass produced import models could be described as having a 'cardboard' or muffled sound. This is not always the case!

One out of a thousand guitars will have a sound which hits you deep and personal - if you are lucky enough to find it. But don't overlook everything else on a quest for this magical instrument. It took me 35 years to find my first one. I've now found three. You might need something to play in the meantime.    

Next is quality of manufacture. We aren't going into 'brand names' here - those belong in a category called 'cosmetics'. We are merely judging how well the thing was made. Is the finish good? Is the neck straight? Or does it seem inferior and shabby? How does it feel? Is it easy to press the strings, or very difficult?

Now we get to looks or cosmetics. Here we can talk about brands. This is about image. Does this instrument project the image you wish to be associated with? Does it look cool? Is it a rare instrument? Is the color appealing?

Our final category is cost. Can I afford it? If this is for an investment, what is the rate of return?

These are the major buying factors, and the reason why you need to be honest about your intended purpose. You will often find that the last category (cost) is always a tradeoff with the other factors - its suitability. The more expensive instrument will usually be the more suitable one in most of these areas. If cost isn't a concern, it is a lot easier to find the right instrument. But cost usually is a concern, which is why you need to acknowledge it. The right guitar for you might cost $20,000. But if your entire music budget is $200, you're going to have to make tradeoffs.

The first and probably most important tradeoff is the sound. An instrument that sounds great is going to make you a better musician. If you like what you hear, you're going to play more, and if you play more, you'll get better and make better music. It's a vicious circle, and a very good vicious circle for a musician to be in. If your purpose is to create joyful harmony, you won't be able to skimp here.

If your purpose is to impress your friends with feats of fast fretting, you might wish to trade sound for looks or playability. This is where performance and audience will determine your priorities. A folk musician, a heavy metal musician, and a country musician have different audiences. These will require different looks, no matter what the sound. In fact to the professional musician in this day and age, sound is secondary. Image is the most important factor. This isn't a critique or judgement call. It is an acknowledgement of the way things are. if you wish to succeed in the business aspects of music, you are going to have to focus more on image marketing than producing good sound.   

If you are playing only for yourself and maybe a friend or two, and this is your only desire, get yourself the best sound and playability that you can afford. Forget about looks.

If you're looking for an investment, you can likewise probably forget about sound. You can even forget about quality. Rate of return dictates that you'll be looking for a couple of specific models by a couple of specific companies. But I would like to stress on you that the reason that instruments have had high rates of returns had nothing to do with sound or even quality. The highest returns come from instruments which nobody liked when they were created, but which grew into favor years later. This makes them rare. If you are buying a rare investment grade instrument, you must always be considerate of the fact that for some period of time nobody wanted this instrument, and the cycle might repeat.

The exception to this rule is hand made instruments. These are rare because each one is unique. In this case you need to examine all the details. Does it sound good, play good, and/or look good? Just because it is rare doesn't make it a good investment. It has to be desired by somebody who will actually buy it from you - usually for one of these reasons. 

If you are just learning to play, and you don't know what sound you are looking for, go for playability. You want it to be easy and not painful. Painful is bad. If it hurts - you aren't going to play it every day and it will only be a matter of time before you stop playing completely.

Acoustic or electric will depend on your desired audience, intimate or public.  If you want to be a rock star, and you want to play for thousands or millions of people, get an electric. If you want to sing love songs to a particular person, get an acoustic. The acoustic guitar is more spontaneous and intimate because there isn't any setup time or extra equipment needed. The electric guitar requires a bit of technology expertise, but can produce a much wider range of sounds. Each has its purpose. 

Hope this helps somebody.

If you have an acoustic guitar which does not allow horizontal adjustments, the only (economical) way of correcting the intonation is to use different strings.

You will need: a precise electronic tuner. While it is possible to adjust intonation 'by ear' it is not very precise and therefore not recommended.

First, put new strings on your guitar. Oxidated or dirty strings will often not be consistent along their length. This is also why you should change strings with some regularity. We recommend changing strings at least every six months - more often if you play professionally.

Set the guitar on a flat surface and tune the first 'E' string exactly to 'E'. Now press the string down at the 12th fret (the octave mark). Observe the reading on the tuner. If the reading is sharp (higher than 'E'), you will need to move the bridge backward (toward the base of the guitar). If it is flat (lower than 'E') you will need to move the bridge forward (toward the frets). This is accomplished by turning the adjustment screws with either a small flat screwdriver or allen wrench. Adjust it until both the open note and the fretted 12th fret note read exactly the same.

Repeat this procedure for the remaining strings, except you will be tuning to the appropriate note instead of 'E'.

What to do if your bridge does not adjust enough to make the guitar play in tune at the open position and the twelfth fret? There are only two options: (1) physically move the bridge (usually requiring expensive shop work), or (2) use a different string gauge. If the bridge position is at its extreme back setting (toward the base of the guitar) and the twelfth fret reading is still sharp, you will need to use a lighter gauge string. If it is at the extreme forward setting (toward the fingerboard) and the twelfth fret reading is still flat, you will need to use a heavier string. This is also how you would correct the intonation on an acoustic guitar which does not adjust.

You may find that you are forced to use strings which are not comfortable to play. This is understandable; however you must then make some personal decisions. Would you rather have comfort, or would you rather the guitar sound good? Most people would prefer playing a guitar that sounds great, but it is understandable (especially for students) if you find that ease of playing is the better choice for you.

A guitar will never be precisely in tune along the entire fingerboard and across all the strings. Some frets will always be a couple of cents (hundredths of a note) off. The reason has to do with an effect called temperament, which basically involves the amount a string is bent in the vertical dimension to push it down to the fingerboard. The best that you can ever do is to adjust the intonation so that it is reasonably close. The lower the action (or string height), the closer to perfection it will be. This is also the reason that tuning your guitar using the fifth and seventh fret harmonics is less accurate than fretting the notes at the fifth fret (fourth on 'B') for tuning purposes. These are topics for a future How-To note.

First let's nip this very popular myth in the bud. If the neck of your guitar is indeed warped, there's very little you can do. If it's seriously bad, get rid of the guitar and get another one. If it's an heirloom or collector guitar, be prepared to spend a lot of money to have the fingerboard planed and re-fretted, and you will probably ruin some of the collectable value in doing so. But if it's warped seriously bad, it's not worth much anyway. If you tighten a truss rod too much, you will in fact permanently warp the guitar neck in an often undesirable location.

Now that we've dispensed with the formalities, what's the point of having an adjustable truss rod on a guitar anyway, if not to straighten the neck? Truss rods have evolved over time; and there are many claims that are made about them. But the primary purpose of a truss rod is to have a metal reinforcement piece inside a wooden guitar neck to counteract the strain on the wood caused by the guitar strings. A guitar neck will naturally develop a bit of a concave bow if left on its own for a long enough period of time. A very small amount of concave bow is actually desirable. But the forces exerted by steel strings on the neck usually create an unacceptable amount of bow over time. Some of the first attempts at correcting this bow are still in use today in the form of metal insert strips. That's all they are - metal reinforcement rods - and they work quite well.

Later evolution spawned the adjustable truss rod and recently the two-way adjustable truss rod. These consist of a reinforcement rod anchored at one end and with a tightening screw at the other. By tightening the screw, the tension is increased relative to the wood that it is anchored in. Increasing the tension increases the stiffness. All of this is a long way of saying that the purpose of the truss rod is for reinforcement. It is used to adjust the stiffness of the neck. Somewhere along the line somebody discovered that they could sometimes correct small variations in the neck flatness by tightening the rod - and this led to the myth. The newer two-way rod flexes in both the convex and concave dimensions depending which way you turn the screw. These devices legitimately claim to affect neck flatness, but they do so in a very limited area of the neck.

Will adjustment of the truss rod help you? Only if your guitar neck has a very well-formed natural bow (concave or convex) lying precisely halfway between the neck joint and the nut. If you've got bowing occurring precisely at the neck joint, you have other issues to deal with. If you've got two humps between the nut and neck joint, it's very likely somebody tightened the truss rod way too tight and ruined your guitar. If the neck looks like a roller coaster or is seriously bowed within the first 3-5 frets, it is doubtful that adjustment of the truss rod will have much impact.

Now that you have some background, let's say your neck isn't perfect and you want to do something about it. You open the truss rod cover plate and find the allen wrench with which to turn it. What do you do?

The first thing you should do is loosen the truss rod completely. We will assume for this article that you have a one-way rod. Loosen it until the nut spins freely and all tension is removed. Next turn it back until it is snug, finger tight. If your strings are loose, tune them up at this point. Now using the wrench, turn the nut about one full turn beyond finger tight. The purpose is to apply tension to the neck. That is all that we are doing.

Wood under tension takes time to settle. What you should do now is put your guitar in its case and leave it for about two weeks. That's right, two weeks. You can play it if you want, but don't do any more tweaking until it has had a chance to settle. In fact your guitar is properly adjusted at this point. You can just put the cover back on.

OK, you aren't happy with it and you've come back two weeks later. Put a metal straight edge across the length of the fingerboard. Look at the frets in the middle of the straight edge. If there's a gap, your neck is concave. If there's a 'hump', your neck is convex. Let's say there's a gap. Tighten the truss rod. One half of a turn at most. Leave it for two weeks.

Let's say there's a hump. Loosen the truss rod. One half of a turn at most. Leave it for two weeks.

It's been a month and it still isn't right. What do you do? You can either live with it, or find another guitar. If you're getting noticeable fret buzz when you play, you can raise the string action a bit by adjusting the height of the bridge with shims or adjustment screws. If the last truss adjustment helped a little bit, you can try it one more time. That is absolutely the last time. If you tighten it too tight, you will end up with either a) a double hump in the fingerboard, or b) a broken truss rod. If you are in doubt how tight it is, loosen it completely and start over.