forgotten my original account information. Anyway, although I don't have a huge number of items that I've sold, I have bought many more.

BEWARE -

Although I do believe that the majority of eBay sellers are honest, respectful, nice, and helpful people, there are those that are less than ideal business people. I, like many people that have made more than a few purchases via eBay, have had a few problems. I should note here that I believe eBay does a fantastic job of making doing business on their site as good as it can be expected to be. Will it ever be perfect ? Obviously not...you're dealing with Humans, so there's always plenty of room for honest mistakes, and the greedy, low-life, criminal types.

Do Your Part -

Although I have had a few problems buying on eBay, looking back, I didn't do my part to try and make things better. I'd often leave much higher feedback than the seller deserved, in fear of getting negative feedback in retaliation. I've even received broken items and never reported it because the cost was minimal, and not worth my time...at the time.

I guess I've changed my operating procedures a little now though. I used to very seldom email the seller questions. Now I don't hesitate to ask anything that isn't covered in the description of the item. I've come to notice that although most people won't flat out lie about the item, they will neglect to mention any problems with the item being sold. So...ASK QUESTIONS!!

One other thing comes to mind, photos. If there's even the slightest doubt, ask if the photos in the ad are of the actual item being sold. Occasionally, I've seen sellers use a stock photo of their listed item because their item was 'less than visually appealing'. Of course most will use stock photos if they sell new, or many of the same items. Again, the best advice to be given is, ask questions, give honest feedback and use common sense. If you ask the seller a question and it takes (3) days to get a reply, there's a good chance that maybe that's not the person you want to do business with.

Personally, I've only bought one amp that had to be shipped. It was packaged professionally, delivered undamaged, and still works perfectly to this day. I have had more experience with guitars, and in every instance, there has never been a problem. I've only shipped one instrument out myself, a violin, and again, I packaged it with great care, and it was delivered in perfect condition. I even honored the buyers somewhat specific shipping terms and received the best feedback comments a seller could hope for.

In closing, I guess I should just mention the 'use common sense' idea again. If a seller has poor feedback, seems vague in wanting to answer any questions specifically, or maybe you just feel any communications have a negative 'tone', by all means, don't bid. One of eBays great points is the sheer volume of items being listed. If you don't feel comfortable with one seller...keep looking, there's probably several more (at least) of the same item being listed by other sellers.

And remember, eBay is is a top-notch, very respected, and extremely successful company for a reason. They do, I believe, everything that they can, in order to provide a safe, valuable, reliable, and entertaining site on which to conduct business. I'd say they have done a great job, and with the help and support of the users, it will always continue to improve.

daughter playing now also. She loves it, and is very dedicated. My (7) year daughter would rather use the guitar as a food tray or a stage for her Hannah Montana toys though. So, there's more than just my love of playing guitar that I have as inspiration to keep this site going, and keep it going I will.

Back to the site...I WILL be developing this into a content oriented site, and not just a thin, poor attempt at an auction site. That wasn't, and isn't my intention. I just have too many irons in the fire at the present time, and can't give the needed attention to any of them. I have to make a decision to drop some projects until such time that I can do them the way they deserved to be done. Personally, I can't stand to run across a site like this one...much less own one.

So, if you're a guitar player, and I'm guessing you are, please check back occasionally. Although I haven't decided exactly in what direction I plan on going, I will be starting to add more content soon. I hope to be able to start daily post, and also maybe adding some product reviews, and I'd really like to do some lessons. The guitar lessons may prove to be the biggest hurdle initially, as I'm probably going to be looking at some custom development for a player, and a convenient way to input chord/note symbols on a represented guitar neck. I'm thinking something that the user can also manipulate to input their own chords also.

So, for the few of you that have came back occasionally, again, I apologize, and the the project will continue on. It will probably be more in the form of a slow, but steady growth, instead of a throw a bunch of money into it and get it going now type of deal.

Until Next Time

Probably the best advice I can give to anyone, is to take an experienced player along with you...someone you can trust. Think about how well you know the person, it wouldn't be the first time that your guy happens to know a guy that owns or works in a music shop, and he gets a cut out of the selling price. That'll just about insure you're not going to get a bargain. Used instruments can be a great deal or a horror story.

If you plan on buying new, here is a link for zZounds, those guys are great, and stand behind what they sell.

If you do go buy your own guitar, some of the things to look out for are obvious. Possibly the most seen problems are with the neck. A neck thst is bowed, is not a guitar that you want, obviously. Looking down the neck from the tuners ned(headstock, machine head), the neck should look straight, and should not bow in or out significantly. Although there will be a slight, very slight angle of the neck to keep the strings from contacting the frets, causing fret 'buzz'. Make sure you play every string open, than at every fret position.

If the neck, and frets are as they should be, you should just hear a nice, round tone, and no buzzing or flattened sounds. Some poorly made guitars are bad about this. Let your ear be the final judge. Also, if the strings are very far from the frets,the guitar will be very hard to play. Even though it may not be buzzing or dampening the sound, it's not an instrument that you want, unless the seller can adjust the neck(action), and the instrument is behaving normally.

Always look for badly worn frets, they do wear out and you don't want to have to immediately be putting money into a guitar that you just purchased.

Another thing to look at closely is the wood. Look very closely for any major cracks. You may see very small cracks, especially in older, used guitars, but you don't want to take a guitar home that has very deep cracks. That not only weakens the integrity of the guitar, it affects the tone, and is just asking for trouble down the road. Very bad cracks in the body of a guitar is also extremely costly if you're looking at making repairs. Let your eyes be the judge on this part.

If buying an electric guitar, you have more things to consider. Always check the things you would normally check on any instrument, the neck, frets, wood, tuners, nut, bridge and any after market add ons. In addition, on an electric guitar, you should plug it into an amp and play it with the volume and tone controls (potentiometers) in every position. Make sure to also use all of the pickups in every possible position.

Many times, especially on an older guitar, the 'pots', volume and tone controls will become intermittent. They work, but they'll get 'staticky', noisy, or sometimes 'drop out' totally, not making an electric connection, and thereby you'll lose the volume or tone. I will usually sort of gently wiggle the knobs while turning them, just to see if they may be getting flaky. Not to be overlooked is the jack for the amp cord. It gets a lot of use, and eventually many start to have problems.

Often times, it may start out as occasional noise, maybe just when you move a certain way. When checking the guitar, strum a chord, while it is sounding, gently wiggle the amp cord where it connects to the guitar. If there is noise, try another cord first, most are notorious for failure and that's 'probably' where the noise is coming from. If it is determined to be the jack, don't buy the guitar unless the dealer, or other seller agrees to have it fixed first. It's actually a very easy repair, just a few screws and soldering maybe (3) wires, but why should you have to mess with it, unless they drop the price.

I won't touch on every little screw and strap button, just take your time, look the instrument over many times. I don't care if you're buying an early Telecaster or Strat, if it's junk, you still might be getting the short end of the stick. I also won't go into brands, I think most people that want to play guitar, have their favorite players and see what instruments are popular. I will say it again though...Take an experienced player with you, if at all possible, make it someone you trust too.

I overlooked the tuners. The tuners are very integral component s to any guitar. Poorly made tuners make trying to learn, or just play the guitar, a nightmare, instead of enjoyable. The instrument won't stay in tune, even if you can get it tuned, for over a few minutes. Usually the price of a new guitar will dictate what quality (or lack thereof), tuners you will get. This goes back to...Buy the Best Instrument Your Budget Will Allow. Cheaply made tunes will usually feel loose when turned, sometimes even unusually tight, or maybe just rough when turned, instead of a nice smooth movement.

Well, there you have just a general checklist of things to look, or lookout for when buying a guitar. The main thing is patience, if you don't feel totally comfortable with a guitar, it's probably for a reason, keep shopping.

Until Next Time, Keep Playing

Jeff

If you're not passionate about playing guitar, or any instrument for that matter, why waste your time, energy and money doing something you'd rather not be doing ? I understand sometimes younger children have no choice in the matter, and I also believe that the routine and discipline having to study an instrument offers, can be beneficial to kids. However, if you're(16) years olds, and don't care about playing an instrument, WHY DO IT ?

If you do have the passion however, FANTASTIC, there's nothing better in the world than doing something you love, that offers such rewards in return. The music itself is obviously what it's all about, but there's also a great feeling of accomplishment, admiration from piers, and even monetary gain...if you reach that level by putting the time in.

One of the questions that gets ask most often, is....'how long do I have to practice ?'. Well, hopefully you're not feeling like you 'HAVE to practice', but I know it does get pretty trying at times. Just one man's opinion on practicing....PRACTICE as Long as It's Producing Results. If you tell yourself, 'I'm going to practice (4) hours a day', that's great if you do it AND do it productively. Why do it if it's just a waste of most of the time ? You could be out doing something else you enjoy. Obviously playing scales, riffs or whatever else hour after hour, over and over, may not be thoroughly enjoyable, there is some of that in playing guitar, if you want to achieve the most you can. My point, why do it until you start to HATE IT ? It's ok, I would say, even recommended to put the guitar down, after you've put in some good practice, while it's still producing results and even enjoyable. I've spent many hours 'practicing' when I should have been doing something else, as I was doing nothing more than wasting my time. For anyone reading this, don't confuse what I'm saying...you will HAVE TO put in a minimum amout of time in to obtain the physical ability. You have to have the mind body 'connection', to go with your passion. If it were a matter of being a good player just because you love it, I would have been a great player without practicing at all.

So, if you've read this much, I'm betting you're someone that loves the guitar and truly wants to play. You're past the first obsticle. It's just a matter of doing it.

If you remember, this is posted under 'beginners', therefore I'm going to assume anyone reading this is a beginer, and therefore I'll touch on selecting an instrument, 'how' to practice, aspects of playing classical guitar versus rock, blues or other types of electric style guitar, as well as anything and everything I can think of regarding the guitar and learing to play it.

I'm older (47) and have been playing off and on since I was (12) years old. I never received my true potential not because I lacked the passion, but because of an accident and some other problems that caused major problems in my life. I now have a (10) year old daughter that is taking classical guitar lessons at her public school, and that's what inspired me to start this site, and to offer any possible help I could to anyone that might want to read here.

Please check back when you get a chance, I'll update this as often as I can. I'm not trying to charge anyone any money as I don't consider this a professional site, which I'm sure you can agree with by looking at it now. I do however, plan to slowly, as time permits, put together a site with lessons that will take the absolute beginner up to at least an intermediate player. So, go grab the guitar, that you hopefully love, and play, play anything if you're just starting out. Anything to get you fingers moving and to get the tips conditioned to what you plan on putting them through.

Until Next Time...Play AND Enjoy