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Erik van Goch -> RE: Judging a guitar for 1st time (Apr. 27 2013 20:56:45)
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I play a couple of notes/falsetas first to see if i'm interested at all....if it survives the first impression i send the spanish inquisition armed with various pieces, techniques and sound tests. Just single notes in various positions to check out it's balance, color possibilities and dynamics. I also check techniques of all kinds, falsetas, complete pieces and whatever i decide to throw at it, just checking, balance, sound, dynamics and playability. I also knock on it to check it's acoustic echo... good guitars tend to give back acoustically richer echo's then lesser guitar.
It is wise to check all the notes "one by one", still you'll never capture all possible problems that can occur with various combinations. It is tempting to check out hard to play passages; the test guitar sometimes deals with those passages even better then your own guitar, but later turns out to have it's own problems in other parts of the piece that never were a problem.
Depending on it's future use it might be wise to use two interrogators. Some guitars sound excellent to the player but not to (parts of) the audience.... or the other way around. My father owns a superb classical Ramirez that sounds excellent to it's player but not at all to the person sitting just in front of it....but if that person takes some distance he will suddenly hear the same fabulous sound as the player himself and that sound reaches the back rows of even the biggest concert halls....that guitar is excellent for playing big concert halls (pleasing both the player and the audience) but not for playing in front of a close range student.
Good guitars can loose there spirit overtime when played by lesser players and lesser guitars can gain some spirit when played by and expert (somehow the molecules of the wood adapt to the last frequent player...if you want to sell your guitar, let it be played by Paco Peña for a while and when you get it back it will sound like never before (for a short while because it soon drops to your level again). Obviously this doesn't mean all guitars are equal and that sound quality comes from the player only....it only means a superb player can get the very best out of an instrument (over time) and that lesser players funny enough can be better of with a lesser but more responding guitar then with a better but very hard to tame guitar...every person is different and so is every guitar...they have to be a good pair (at least for a while). Obviously you hope to find yourself a good guitar that is compatible with all levels of playing.
When i'm really interested i play it as long as possible, ..... if you really love it buy it (and hope for the best), when in doubt... don't.
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