Before you pick up a guitar, it makes sense to do a bit of research. This will ensure two things. The first thing is that you get the right guitar for your needs and budget. The second is that you don't get ripped off by someone charging over the odds for a guitar be it new or second hand. This will give you an idea of what experiences people have had with a variety of acoustic guitars. There are consumer and expert reviews available. If you prefer a detailed review regarding what someone well-versed in acoustic guitars thinks about a particular brand, the expert reviews will prove helpful. Or, if you just want to know what the average person thinks about a guitar they have used, the consumer reviews will enlighten you.
An expert acoustic guitar review should be one that is written by someone who has had several years of guitar-related experience. They should have a criteria that they follow for each guitar they review so that an objective view of each instrument is communicated. The reviewer should also have several different models from several different manufacturers. The reviewer should be able to put aside personal preference and objectively point out a guitar's pros and cons. Should a bias be present, it should be admitted and explained.
A user review will be slightly rougher round the edges but may be more honest. It will probably communicate a particular persons view of using and playing a particular guitar as the person won't have hundreds of guitars to play with. You may relate to them more because they are at the same level as you and thus feel more confident in their recommendations.
When you look for user reviews, you should look to the internet for information. Locate websites containing a few reviews of each guitar written by a variety of musicians. Many music stores have web sites with user reviews. Some offline magazines also have internet versions that will have information that you need. But the most common sites for reviews will be individual websites that a person has put together themselves.
Different guitarists play different music in different places and with different accompaniment. A classical musician who plays at weddings has requirements that are differ from those of the guitarist who plays rock gigs on the club scene. Check out reviews by those people who play your preferred type of music at the level you?re aiming at.
There are a couple of tricks you can use when using a search engine like Google or Yahoo for acoustic guitar reviews by experts or users. One thing you can do is to put quotes around particular phrases like: "acoustic guitar reviews." When using Yahoo, this trick can decrease the number of hits from 17 million, when the search is performed without quotes, to a little over 6,000, when it is used with quotes.
This handy technique also works when you?re looking for individual acoustic guitar reviews. For instance, if you?re looking for reviews of the Martin DX1, enter martin dx1 (without quotation marks) into Yahoo?s search engine and you?ll come back with over 35,000 hits! But if you type "martin dx1" you will only get around 10,000 hits.
You can also use another little trick the next time you perform a search. If you put the plus sign (+) right next to a word you want in every hit, you?ll be able to narrow your search even more. ?Martin dx1 review? will bring you about 9 hits and that is due to the fact that you?re only seeing the sites that contain that exact phrase.
Try putting "martin dx1" + review in the search bar and you'll get almost 500 hits. If you want to search something specific, put it in there with a plus sign attached. These search tricks to find acoustic guitar reviews will help make your guitar buying decision easier, by narrowing your search to the most helpful results.
Of course you could also go into a music shop and ask for some opinions from the salesperson but if you have done a bit of research beforehand, you are likely to get more out of the conversation.