The Used Guitar Buying Checklist

Used guitars are the best value in music. A $400 guitar that someone babied for ten years often beats a new $400 guitar off the wall. But the used market punishes buyers who cannot inspect an instrument. This checklist requires no tools and takes five minutes.

The five-minute inspection

1. Sight down the neck. Hold the guitar like a rifle and look from the headstock toward the body along the edge of the fretboard. You want a nearly straight line with the slightest dip in the middle. A visible bow or twist is a walk-away sign.
2. Check the neck joint. On acoustics, look for a gap or crack where the neck meets the body. Neck resets cost $300 to $600, often more than the guitar.
3. Look at the bridge. On an acoustic, try sliding a piece of paper under the back edge of the bridge. If it slips under, the bridge is lifting. That is a real repair.
4. Look at the top around the bridge. A bellied, swollen top means the guitar lived somewhere humid or dry. Small belly is normal on old guitars; a wave you can rock a ruler on is not.
5. Play every fret on every string. Buzzing at one spot means a high fret, a cheap fix. Buzzing everywhere above the fifth fret can mean a truss rod at the end of its travel.
6. Check fret wear. Deep grooves under the strings on the first five frets mean a refret is coming: $200 to $400.
7. Turn every tuner. They should move smoothly and hold. Replacements are cheap, but factor them in.
8. On electrics, plug in and wiggle everything. Crackling pots and jacks are cheap fixes and great haggling points. A dead pickup is a $80 to $150 conversation.
9. Smell it. Seriously. Smoke and mildew never leave an acoustic guitar. Ever.
10. Check the serial number against the maker's dating guides, and make sure the model matches what the listing claims.

The three deal-enders

• A cracked headstock repair on a budget guitar. Fine on a vintage Gibson done by a pro, a lottery ticket on anything else.
• A twisted neck. Not fixable at hobby prices.
• A lifting bridge plus a bellied top together. That guitar is structurally done.

The professional escape hatch

For any used guitar over about $500, spend $30 to $60 having a repair shop inspect it before money changes hands. Every legitimate seller will agree to this, and the ones who refuse just saved you from a mistake. Our directory lists repair shops and luthiers by city, and our setup cost guide covers what the follow-up work should cost.

One last tip: before you shop, learn the going rate. Search the exact model on the used market and check completed sales, not asking prices. Ten minutes of homework routinely saves a hundred dollars at the counter.