- Get the newspaper. Look for yard sales in your area. If you see one that says guitars, etc, or it says block or estate sale, check it out, and go early!
- Look around for pawn shops, sometimes they have really good guitars for sale!
- Look on sites like Craigslist or eBay for guitars, sometimes you can find good deals, and you may be able to try them out.
- Be sure that when you are walking around you look near dumpsters, although it may sound crazy, you can even look in the trash. If you find one, it might be broken, but very rarely will it be broken beyond repair. This works if you live in or near a city.
- Ask friends or family to look out for guitars in the trash or at a sale. You never know they might find one in a place you didn't think to look.
- Look at small, hardly noticeable, guitar stores. Sometimes they are so desperate, they will sell you a good guitar for very little.
- Go to places like the boardwalk or a fair, sometimes you can win guitars, although most of the time they aren't that good.
- Go to thrift stores and salvation army, most of the time that is where you'll find good guitars.
- Rock until the sun goes down once you've found the guitar you're looking for!
- Remember, before buying used, know what the guitar goes for new by searching a site like lownotes.net - sometimes the difference is very small, and you get the security of being the first owner.
Tips
- At yard sales, ALWAYS try to bargain.
- Don't expect to get the best guitars ever this way, they might be very cheap. Low cost ($35 in 1970s) guitars from department stores were not very good and not acceptable.
- Research on the guitar brands by reading online reviews.
- Before purchasing anything, keep all your options open and look at all of your possibilities.
- Don't buy the first one you see.
- If you are a beginner, try to get guitars that come with tuners,case,amp, or picks. Look at guitar center for starter packs, which include these items.
