The guitar is possibly the world’s most popular instrument in rock, pop or light western music today. The guitar’s fame is largely owed to Elvis Presley, whose iconic images almost always show him singing with a guitar in his hands. So never mind if your voice doesn’t match Elvis – don’t sing, strum a guitar and make good music!

Acquiring and wrapping your fingers around your own, personal guitar to get its ‘feel’ is always a good idea. We recommend you to go in for a used acoustic guitar. Here’s what, why and how …

Unlike, say, an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar neither needs nor uses any external devices to enhance its sound volume and quality. Remember, guitars are seldom played solo. They’re played along with other, often noisy, instruments. Naturally, if you’re the guitarist you want to be distinctly heard by and be properly audible to the audience. You might not be blasting away like the trumpeter but, nevertheless, you want the melody of the music you’re making to be picked up straight away.

It is to help you fulfill this perfectly legitimate aspiration that we suggest you begin your music-making with not just an acoustic guitar but specifically a used acoustic guitar. Why? Because thanks to its earlier use by another guitarist, whether professional or amateur, the used acoustic guitar is more likely than not to have already ‘found’ its fully formed voice. With the passage of time a wood-based musical instrument like a guitar (or violin, for that matter) sheds the brittleness of its timber and becomes soft and mellowed with the cleaning up and rubbing with oil that comes with its proper maintenance. In a used acoustic guitar somebody else has already done the rubbing up for you! Besides, you’re likely to spend only half the cost of a brand new instrument – so it’s a bargain all the way!

Fine, so where can you find cheap acoustic guitars? To start with, you’ll have to be certain that the acoustic guitar for sale won’t land you conned into buying an instrument you wouldn’t want. Generally, the used guitar could be one of four kinds: old used, new used, refurbished and needs work.

Your best choice would be in finding an old used acoustic guitar for sale that’s ten years old or even older. A new used one would be fewer than five years old. If you’re lucky, you’ll find factory seconds or refurbished guitars on recent models. You must know what you’re buying: Is the neck twisted or bent? Is the neck joint flush to the body of the guitar? (It ought to be so.) Is it plastic or wood? (Wood is definitely better.) Do you have to change the strings? (If so, you can’t test the sound.)

Online,you’ll find great bargains on acoustic guitars for sale of all categories. Look for sellers who have sold acoustic guitars before and have positive feedbacks. So now you know your what, why and how. Happy strumming!