Construction & Craftsmanship
We started each guitar with a visual check to evaluate construction and craftsmanship. We scanned the guitars for telling signs of cheap construction as well as any obvious defects. We paid special attention to whether or not it seemed the guitars had had a proper setup. This can be determined by the string “action.” The action is how high or low the strings are in comparison to the fretboard. Action that is too high will make strings physically harder to push down, and may cause some strings to be muted if they get in the way of your fingers while playing. Action that is too low will cause annoying and unpleasant fret buzz as the strings vibrate on frets in front of where you are playing. A quarter placed under the strings at the 12th fret fit snuggly if the action was set properly.
We then tested the tuning and intonation of each guitar, looking for ease and accuracy of tuning and proper harmonics on the 12th fret. We went even more in depth, and checked the pitch of each fret on each string with a high-quality e-tuner, moving chromatically up the fingerboard to see if the construction lent itself to accurate intonation.
Ease of Playing
We first thought about tuning. Was the guitar easy to tune, or was the tuning hardware rigid or prone to sticking, making it hard to land on the accurate pitch? Once the guitar was tuned, did it stay in tune for the length of our playing? New strings always fall more easily out of tune while they stretch into shape, but some guitars stayed closer to in-tune while others constantly fell way out, needing to be re-tuned again and again. Then, we played! We strummed, fingericked, and arpeggiated our way through the same songs on each guitar to feel how easy or hard each one was beneath the hands. We played songs in several different styles to see how each was affected by the setup of the guitar. We compared similar guitars back-to-back to see how one instrument felt in comparison to the other. The main concern in this metric was how soft or pliable the strings felt, which has to do with the quality of the strings themselves as well as the height of the action. We also evaluated comfort, width of the neck, spacing of the frets, softness/pliability of the strings, and weight of the guitar.
Quality of Sound
To be able to evaluate the quality of sound, we played! First we played open chords, then arpeggiated them to see if each string was able to ring out clearly and in tune. We played different styles including strumming open chords, strumming bar chords, palm muting with power chords, and playing folk songs that use fingerstyle.We also took into account the resonance of each guitar. Resonance describes the sound reverberating inside the body of the guitar, causing it to linger after you've struck a note or chord. We timed the “decay” or length of this reverberating after striking a chord on each guitar, to see which ones had the best resonance.
We described each guitar's tone through it's prominent frequencies. In the world of sound, there are three main regions: high-range frequencies, mid-range frequencies, and low-end frequencies. When playing each guitar, we noted which regions were most prominent or whether there was a healthy balance between the three. A well-crafted guitar will have a balanced sound so that no single range is drowned out by another.
We tried out the same songs on each instrument back-to-back to compare and contrast tone and volume. We then categorized each guitar into these three qualities of sound: Full vs. thin, Warm vs. bright, loud vs. muted. We also took note of what kind of wood each guitar was constructed with and researched how it might affect the tone. While tone can be a subjective category, we tried to keep the beginner in mind, and looked for a beautiful sound that would motivate a new player to stick with the instrument. We know all too well that learning guitar is difficult enough, and that an unpleasant or lifeless sound will only be more discouraging.
Accessories
Oftentimes online retailers try to convince us that more is better. But we wanted to actually weigh the value of the accessories that came with these guitar kits. So, we tested out each accessory to see if it was functional, well-made, and worth keeping.
For the e-tuners, we found perfect pitch frequencies online to test them with, to see if they were properly aligned. We then tuned a guitar with the included tuner, and our own personal high-quality tuner, simultaneously, to make sure they were in agreement, and to compare the clarity of the e-tuner's display. We attached the included straps to the guitars to see if they were sturdy and comfortable. We pulled at them and swung them around, then rated them based on durability. We checked out the replacement strings. The Fender FA-125 and the Jasmine S35 were sent in organized packets with instructions and additional info on the string quality, while the strings for the Amazon Basics Beginner and the Best Choice Products guitar were just bundled together nonsensically and with no brand name. We tried out the picks and compared the sound they produced with some of our own, standard picks. Some guitars included toy picks that were cheaply made and way too big, others had the same picks we regularly use and pay for! We also tried out the gig bags by placing the guitars inside, seeing how they fit, and pulling at the zippers and material to see if they would wear out easily. Some were made of a thinner, more easily rippable material than others, one even had a faulty zipper that wouldn't open! If there was an instructional DVD or book, we watched or read it to see what value it offered beginners. If it came with even more bonus items after these, like a capo, it got extra points. If it came with unusable items, like a plastic pitch pipe that blew the wrong pitches (yes, this happened) we took away points for false advertising.
