Now this can be fun I for one don't like to show off, simply because I know that a new guitar is uncharted territory and I might end up making a fool out of myself simply because it won't feel like I am used to or react like I would expect it to

What do you usually play when testing gear in a guitar store?

Stairway to Heaven?


Seriously, I normally play just like I would at home. I just make sure to pick an amp that I can use at a low volume. I stay away from high gain tube amps in stores as they need a good bit of level to sound right. As long as you are not making wads of noise/volume, you can play whatever. Doesn't really matter. It's when folks plug in to the loudest amps and crank it that things go sour typically.

I've seen many examples of a guy walking in, grabbing a guitar, finding an ORANGE or MARSHALL and sharing a lick they are still working on at full volume. It probably sounds better in their ears than it does in the room, but hey folks are folks. If they wanna blast out now and then ..........

I also never play technical stuff unless high-end, they always need a setup anyway I mean factory isn't a standard I setup the guitar to my own standards.

I sort of go for slow blues jamming but just melodies no solo's. Start with clean to understand the dynamics, stum some chords to understand note separation and balance on tone...picking from light to strong on all switch positions gives a good idea of how sweet the guitar can sound on cleans.

Once thats done, I open go for distortion. Not shred but very dirty. When comparing guitars specially this is helpful, the more harmonically complicated one is usually my choice as I can get more sounds out of it. Dirty is more about testing the pickups on it but sure its linked to the guitar itself.

Nothing very systematic to be honest, just toying them but very focused to listening (more focused to critical listening than getting the "feel"). While doing those I already judge neck shape or the guitars balance. I helped a few friends to pick guitars, non I know of changed their guitars yet

This post has been edited by Mertay: May 22 2014, 12:26 AM

I hate playing in music stores, very self conscious because there is usually someone there that just rips it - and rips it good. So, I won't plug up and play, but I will feel a guitar neck and have a standard "go-to" that I play (quietly). Sometimes I may strum something a little louder, just to hear the resonance of an unplugged guitar, but in general, as soon as I pick something up I draw a blank - so I almost have to come up with a list of songs in my head to noodle with before I decided to take anything off the shelf.

Always originals, so that it can't be compared to anything too.

As far as amps, I'll study them, or hear someone else, and just go get it - and if I don't like it I would just return it, but I've never returned an amp I purchased.

One day though, I want to hook into something loud and rip out a composed "Freebird-Stairway to Heaven-Smoke on the Water-Crazy Train" medley. Just for laughs. But hopefully do it good.

I've done this before for a good hour or two, when first trying out the...

ESP M-II with neck-thru, a shredding dream axe!

The store owner, has strict rules about no 'Stairway to Heaven', but was more than happy to crank up the volume/distortion for me on a BlackStar amp in the actual store rather than sound proof room when I started jamming around on it. Gain a small audience (everyone currently in the store)! Played some easy stuff and build up into shredding when comfortable.

I walk around wishing, wondering , hoping someday,just maybe, they might, at some point , have that in a left handed version
but, alas, they never do, so I just go to the store for picks and such

i usually play a few chord progresions and a penatonic solo, i like to keep it simple and feel out the guitar. ussually everytime i pick up a guitar at guitar center its very poorly set up, or at least far from what i used to and is hard for me to get used to right away, and guitar center is really noisy, would be nice if they had a room for people that really wanted time with a insturment they were thinking about buying

Someday Just pick anything you want off the wall, have them left string it, and say "I'm being oppressed!!" in a Monty Python accent





This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: May 22 2014, 03:44 AM

I want a shrubbery

Testing new guitar I always start with the basics.

- First tune. See how well it reacts to tuning. Sometimes you pick up a guitar and it just doesn't hold tune, the machine heads are crap, or the nut just isn't cut well.

- Once it's in tune, I make sure all the tone knobs are up and the volumes are down. That way, if I'm plugged in and it sounds funny, I've already trouble shot that problem.

This sounds ridiculous to type all this out, but really it's taking a few minutes to tune and play with the knobs that helps me determine if I'm going to jive well with the guitar.

It can be the best sounding guitar in the world, but if I don't like holding it, I'm not going to sound great playing it.

- Once I'm plugged in I give it something easy. G A C D or something to feel it out. No need to shred first thing. We're still warming up to this new thing.

One thing I can't stand about a lot of gear videos, is people aren't strumming some chords and listening to it. You're off and running through some solos and scales right off the bat before you know what the guitar is trying to say.

- Once I hear what it's doing, it's time to hit some riffs that I know well. A few little things that help me determine the sustain and playability up the neck a bit.

I agree that a lot of guitars you pick up need a bit of loving from a tech. Old Strings and a bad setup can really make you want to put a guitar down faster than you picked it up. But going through these steps can help you look a little past that and find something special that someone else may have already overlooked.



But after all that, it's usually Icky Thump by The White Stripes.

Hah! I have never, EVER thought you guys have such complex testing routines It's absolutely great to see how each one's ritual goes!

There is another problem - I often find the guitars I like not being properly set up in shops and having old strings which clearly wouldn't do justice to them. It's an issue I talked about with two of the big distributors here and the answer is always the same: our teams are not dedicated enough to take care of this constantly. It's indeed an investment in time and money - you need new strings pretty often for a great number of guitars, but hey, nothing beats the smile on the happy face of a player that says - hell this is so nice, I want it!

Have you guys encountered such problem - finding a guitar you ALWAYS wanted to try and having a big disappointment because it felt nasty playing it and you knew it was because of the setup?

Very rare to be honest, but even so a quick neck angle setup or fresh strings shouldn't be a problem its this kind of good service that sells guitars

I generally kind of fool around with some random phrases just to see how the guitar feels in my hands If I fall in love with it, I can't help it and I go wilde, just for fun

Just watched this;



This is what I ment by the complexity on dirty channel.

No big ritual for me.


I pluck the B string (solid body) while it's on the rack and then grab the body near the input jack. If I cant feel it resonate a bit I don't even pull it down.

Check how it tunes up.

Then see if it makes me 'want' to play - ?

We'll go from there.

This post has been edited by klasaine: May 22 2014, 03:16 PM

I hope my answer doesn't seem like a 'ritual' . It's just a pattern I do so #1, I get a sense of what I'm getting into by holding it quickly and #2 not look like a dummy by plugging in a guitar and everything is turned to 10 so you get crazy feedback.


If you have an instrument that you are seriously looking at, just ask them to restring it. They are not going to turn down a potential sale because they didn't want to take 5/10 mins and write off a $5 pack of strings. I worked at a shop and that was the policy there.

Oh, this was rad.

I could probably get pretty close on this. I'm sure I could spot out the epi and the reissue. The studio and the standard might be tricky to tell apart.

Studio to my ears are more flowing sounded, just like any modern humbucker while the standard feels like one side on the humbucker is overwound so picking sound is a bit jumpy...

Last year I helped a friend to pick an epiphone, out of 3 available one of them had that jumpiness and even my friends girlfriend who doesn't play guitar preferred it. It really gets more obvious live rather than listening the video.

This post has been edited by Mertay: May 22 2014, 04:39 PM

Here in Vienna we have one big Music Store and everyone can grab a guitar without asking an employee. So the strings on many guitars feels old and used. The Position of the strings are very poor. To high from the fretboard.
We are talking of guitars with an price range of 1500 EUR.

In smaller stores you have to ask and the guitars are in very good shape.

In Bucharest there are 4 big guitar stores - two of them having brands such as Ibanez, Gibson, PRS, Schechter, Fender, Epiphone, ESP, Jackson and LTD and the other two only have BC Rich, Yamaha, Cort and other less known brands.

They will help you out, as you are the customer of course, but I never heard about going that far as to re-string a guitar just because someone might buy it. But I told several of them, that this might be a real issue, because people scoff saying - hey the reviews said otherwise, but this guitar feels like c...p. Bad for business!

I wonder if they meant ECKY Thump????