How to Get the Best Bang for Your Buck When Buying a Guitar

Jon Clemence
4 min readAug 9, 2022
A pair of hands fanning out $100 bills.
Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash

My friends are always amazed at my wife’s and my ability to find deals.

One of our favorite activities is to drive over to Value Village and look for deals. Then later, something will come up in a conversation and we’ll say, “Oh, yeah, I got [that thing worth $50 new] from the thrift store for $5.”

People think we’re just lucky. It is true that luck may play a part in our ability to find bargains, but I would argue the truth is we put ourselves in a position to take advantage of luck when it happens.

The same goes for my ability to score deals on guitars. Today, I’d like to share with you some of my secrets, in the hopes that one or more of these tips can save you a little extra cash the next time you are in the market for more gear.

Research, research, research

There is simply no substitute for research.

Only once in my life have I gone to a guitar store with the intent to make a purchase without having a good idea of what I was looking for. That was special — it was my fortieth birthday. (I ended up with a very nice Ibanez semi-hollow body, by the way.)

In every other instance, I spend a lot of time researching before getting serious about buying. What kind of guitars are…

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Jon Clemence

Medium needs more guitar-related content. I. Am. That. Hero!