Guitars

Classical, steel-string, electric, bass and requinto guitars:

each one is built around its strings. A classical takes nylon on a wide, flat neck and is the gentlest start for a beginner’s fingertips. A steel-string acoustic is louder and brighter, with a slimmer neck, and an electro-acoustic is either of those with a pickup and preamp so it can plug into a PA. Electric guitars from Fender, Squier, Yamaha, Ibanez or Epiphone make almost no sound on their own and need an amplifier. Basses come in four- and five-string versions. Two Latin American instruments sit alongside: the requinto, the smaller, higher-tuned guitar that plays the lead runs in a bolero trio, and the twelve-string bass guitar that keeps time behind the button accordions of northern Mexican-style bands.

A Totonicapán workshop guitar or a factory one:

is a real choice in Guatemala. Highland workshops, Totonicapán the best known, build guitars by hand, many in pine with a lacquered finish, and they range from instruments a player keeps for years to pieces made for the wall. Judge one exactly as you would a factory guitar: the strings should sit low enough over the frets to press without strain, and a note fretted at the twelfth fret should match the harmonic played at the same spot. On any acoustic, the top matters most. A solid cedar or spruce top opens up as it is played; a laminate top shrugs off knocks and costs less. Look at the edge of the soundhole: visible layers mean laminate, whatever the listing says. And if you will play with a band or alongside a DJ rig at an event, an electro-acoustic saves you a microphone.

A starter electric and a student classical:

sit at opposite ends of what most people spend. A student classical from a brand like Valenciana or Yamaha starts at a few hundred quetzales, while an entry electric from Cort, Yamaha’s Pacifica line or Squier runs around Q2,000 to Q3,000 new, before the amplifier it cannot do without. Used, that same electric with a small practice amp often goes for around Q1,000 to Q1,500, because the identical model is always on sale new and a second-hand one has to undercut it clearly; a recent setup, fresh strings and a gig bag thrown in pull the figure up. The cheapest classicals hardly resell, since new ones cost so little; solid-top acoustics and better electrics are the used guitars that hold their value.

The neck, frets and bridge of a used guitar:

are where the wear collects. Sight down the neck from the headstock: a slight, even curve is normal, a twist or a hump is not. Look under the first few frets for grooves worn by years of chords, and at the bridge of an acoustic: if its back edge is lifting, or the top bulges behind it, the guitar needs a luthier before it needs a new owner. On an electric, plug in, turn every knob, flick the pickup selector and wiggle the cable in the jack: crackles mean dirty pots or a loose socket, cheap fixes but fixes all the same. A truss rod nut that is stripped, or already wound as tight as it goes, leaves a neck nobody can adjust.

Brand, model, top and strings in a guitar listing:

are what a guitarist scans the title for, so put all four there, with the top described honestly as solid or laminate. Photograph the headstock front and back, the label through the soundhole or the serial plate, the frets close up, the bridge from the side and any dings, and say when it last had a setup. If the case or amp goes with it, show them in one photo. Someone coming down from Quetzaltenango to try your guitar will want to tune it and play high on the neck, so have it in tune before they arrive, with a cable and an amp ready if it is electric.