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264 Part V: Gearing Up: Outfitting Your Arsenal TEAM LinG
if he’s been with you a while and knows your tastes and playing style. Your
teacher may know things about you that you may not even realize about
yourself — for example, that you’ve gotten sidetracked playing Les Pauls, even
though your stated mission in life was to emulate Albert Collins (who played a
Telecaster). A good teacher asks questions, listens to your answers, and gently
guides you to where you want to go, not where the salesperson does.
It’s always good to have a sounding board for your own opinions. Make sure
that the person you take with you stands back and listens to you play the
instrument you want to purchase. Sometimes you can lose “listening objectivity”
because you’re wrapped up in the playing — and a good-playing guitar
might influence your listening. Having another person do the listening helps
ensure that the guitar sounds good as well as feels good.
Money matters: Deal . . . or no deal
An instrument is priced by its list or manufacturer’s suggested retail price
(sometimes abbreviated in catalogs as MSRP), which, as the name implies, is
given to the retailer by the manufacturer. You can find out the MSRP of an
instrument online or from the manufacturers. As of this writing, a Gibson Les
Paul Standard lists for $3,248, and a Fender American Standard Stratocaster
lists for $1,327.99. Figure 14-4 shows these two industry favorites.
Figure 14-4:
The Gibson
Les Paul
(left) and
Fender
Stratocaster
(right).
a
b