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The 7-Point Guitar Buyer's Checklist

Walk into any shop or open any listing and know within five minutes whether the guitar is worth the money.

I've run these same seven checks on hundreds of instruments — on shop walls, in strangers' living rooms, and on my own bench. They take about five minutes and they've saved me thousands of dollars. Now they'll do the same for you.

• 1

  Neck relief

  Sight down the neck like you're aiming a rifle. What a good curve looks like, and what a ripple or a bow costs to fix.

• 2

  Fret wear

  The divots that mean a $250 refret is coming, and the wear that's purely cosmetic.

• 3

  The truss rod

  How to tell whether there's adjustment left, and why a maxed-out rod is a walk-away.

• 4

  The bridge and top

  Lifting bridges and bellied tops — the single most expensive thing people miss on used acoustics.

• 5

  Electronics and hardware

  Four seconds per pot and switch tells you whether you're buying a repair bill.

• 6

  The real setup cost

  What it'll take to make this specific guitar play right, so you can price it into the offer.

• 7

  Honest market price

  How to find what this model actually sells for, not what the seller wishes it sold for.

Once you know what you're looking at, the next question is which guitar to look for at all — that's what the Guitar Matcher is for.