A shopping spree last March with the company of my brother resulted in my biggest purchase to date: a brand-new guitar. Truthfully, I thought my old one was perfectly acceptable; it had no major dings or dents and was playable.
It wasn’t until I got my Breedlove—a guitar brand I’d never heard of and had no clue what to expect from—that I realized how much the quality of the instrument can affect the way you play. After learning the difference between high-quality performances and disappointing ones, seeing the firsthand evolution of my playing helped me to narrow my list of essentials when buying a guitar down to three things: action, tone, and feel.
When looking at a guitar, its action is simply how much space is between the fretboard and the strings. Guitarists naturally build up calluses on their fingertips to numb the pain from the amount of pressure it takes to play a chord. The size of my calluses decreased and became less tender after getting my Breedlove because it had such little action, whereas, with my old guitar, I was able to fit my fingers totally underneath the strings.
The first note I played on my new one at Guitar Center appalled me with ease. I only had to press down on the strings a fraction of the way to get beautiful sound quality, and there was no dreadful buzzing when I played.
I won’t say that I knew right from the start which one I wanted because I didn’t. The truth is I was stuck between two guitars: the Breedlove and a gorgeous birdseye-maple Mitchell. After careful consideration, I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t getting my money’s worth out of the Mitchell. Even though it would look better than any painting if I hung it on my wall, frankly, it didn’t have the distinct tone that I wished for. The Breedlove, however, sounded exactly like one guitar I’d tried earlier except it didn’t have four numbers on the price tag. For being right in my price range, it rang out so beautifully.
A lot of cheap beginner guitars have a dull and narrow sound as if the strings aren’t vibrating and producing sound to their fullest potential—which actually makes them harder to play. Thankfully, I knew to look for one that had a rich and rounded echo where you could hear the note of every string being played without having to listen too intently.
Although the tone of the instrument is unarguably the highest priority when purchasing it, if a guitar doesn’t physically sit right with you, it’s quite tough to get used to. When I picked up my Breedlove, I noticed how much I had adapted to the bulky and unwieldy build of my old one. I no longer had to strain my arms to get into a proper position for strumming. It had a significantly thinner structure and I found myself less fatigued after long practice sessions.
After thinking back, maybe the fatigue was a good thing. Maybe then I wouldn’t spend every second of spare time with my new guitar on my lap.
That shopping spree in March gave me the motivation I desired to play better than I ever could before. Now, whenever I take my old one out of its case and brush off some dust, I can’t fathom that I ever played it before.
