• Determine Your Acoustic Guitar Needs

• Choose the Right Accessories and Equipment

• Understand Acoustic Guitar Construction

• Find Acoustic Guitars on eBay Australia

• Buy Acoustic Guitars With Confidence

• Need More Help?

• Legal Disclaimer

Determine Your Acoustic Guitar Needs

Determine Your Acoustic Guitar Needs

Choose the kind of guitar you want based on these factors:

• Musical style: By determining the kind of music you want to play you can determine what kind of guitar you should get. Classical guitar requires nylon strings. Blues, jazz, and rock mostly use steel strings. If you want to play in a band, or if you just like funky bass lines buy a bass guitar.   

• Venue: Acoustic guitars are perfect for more intimate venues. This doesn’t mean you can’t play a big gig- you’ll just need some form of amplification or, to purchase an electric-acoustic. Electric-acoustics have inbuilt pickups so it’s as easy as plugging them into amplifiers.

• Size: If you’re on the small side buy a three-quarter-size acoustic guitar. Guitars are also available in children’s half sizes. If you want to travel without sacrificing sound quality a smaller, lighter travel guitar may be the best option.

• Quality: Many beginner acoustic guitarists choose the less expensive, beginner models comforted that a drop, break or loss of interest will not be a total disaster. Inevitably they outgrow the beginner model as their skills develop, and need to purchase a guitar of higher quality. A quality acoustic guitar will mature and mellow with age producing a richer, fuller tone. Another factor to keep in mind is that a well-made guitar will retain their value and can appreciate over time.

• Brand: A quality acoustic guitar can be manufactured by a number of brands. Make sure you try out some of the well known brands before purchase as each brand has a unique sound. Some popular brands include Fender, Yamaha and Maton acoustic guitars.

Make sure that you ask a lot of questions about the construction if you choose to buy an acoustic guitar from a private manufacturer. While some private manufacturers are true craftsmen who believe making acoustic guitars is an art form, others are large companies that mass-produce their guitars to maximize profits with little or no thought as to the quality of tone.

Choose the Right Accessories and Equipment

Choose the Right Accessories and Equipment

Regardless of the kind of acoustic guitar you get, many of these accessories are essential items you can’t play without.

• Guitar cases: A guitar case will not only make it easy to carry, it will protect your guitar from the elements. Cases come in hard- and soft-shell varieties. Made of durable material soft-shell cases are light and highly mobile, but offer only modest protection. Hard shells offer more protection, but are bulky and heavy. Both soft- and hard-shell cases often have compartments that are useful for holding picks or extra strings.    

• Acoustic guitar strings: It’s a fact- acoustic guitar strings break. Save money by buying them in bulk.   

• Guitar picks: Guitar picks are easily lost. Again, buying in bulk will save you money.     

• Guitar tuners: Electric guitar tuners make it cheap and easy to keep your guitar sounding good.    

• Guitar straps: You’ll need a guitar strap, unless you’re planning on playing only while seated. Guitar straps distribute the weight of the instrument to your shoulders, freeing your arms to play.

• Acoustic guitar pickups: A pickup allows you to plug your acoustic guitar into an amplifier.

• Cables: If you’re planning on plugging your guitar into an amplifier you’ll need cables.

• Guitar stands: A good guitar stand will keep your acoustic guitar out of harm’s way while displaying it in style.

• Slides: Slides are used to rapidly change the pitch of a note. They’re an essential ingredient of blues music, and have been used by guitar legends like Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton.

• Capos: A capo secures all the strings on a fret, so you can play open chords in a higher key.

• Instructional books for acoustic guitar: Using instructional books, videos or DVDs are a good way to learn how to play. Even if you’re taking lessons, books and videos can be a great learning aid.

Understand Acoustic Guitar Construction

Understand Acoustic Guitar Construction

Crucial to the quality and type of sound produced is the construction of an acoustic guitar. Although acoustic guitars vary in construction they all have the same basic parts.

Acoustic guitar body

When a string is plucked or strummed the hollow body of an acoustic guitar resonates. Because the soundboard transfers the string’s vibrations to the body it is regarded as the most important part of an acoustic guitar’s body. The body then amplifies the sound to make it loud enough to hear.

Complementing the soundboard is the sound hole. The sound hole allows vibrations to escape the hollow body of the acoustic guitar. Connected to the soundboard at the bridge are the strings.

Wedged between the soundboard and the strings, the bridge is simply a block of wood. Don’t let the simplicity fool you, it is what actually transmits the vibrations from strings to soundboard.

The body of most acoustic guitars narrows toward the centre, making it easy to rest the guitar on your knee. The bulges on either side of the narrow are called bouts and are there for more than aesthetics. The smaller upper bout emphasises higher notes and the large lower bout emphasises lower notes. The tone of the acoustic guitar changes with the size and shape of the bouts. 

Acoustic guitar neck

The fingerboard is housed on the neck of an acoustic guitar; each fingerboard is studded with metal frets. Frets indicate where to place your fingers to produce different notes. By fingering the strings on the frets you change the length and tone of the strings being played.

Acoustic guitar head

The acoustic guitar head is connected to the neck and houses the nut and the tuning heads. The guitar strings are kept suspended by the nut, along with the bridge. By tuning, or increasing or decreasing the tension the strings are under, acoustic guitar heads adjust the pitch of the strings.

Acoustic guitar strings

Acoustic guitars can use either nylon strings or steel strings. The warm, mellow sound produced by nylon strings is appropriate for classical or folk guitar. Whereas rock, jazz and blues need the bolder, stronger sound of steel strings. It is vital that you remember never to use steel strings on a guitar made solely for nylons; they aren’t designed to handle the tension and could be damaged.

Find Acoustic Guitars on eBay Australia

Find Acoustic Guitars on eBay Australia

Once you know what type of acoustic guitar you want, go to the Musical Instruments portal, click guitars, then acoustic, and start searching for item listings on eBay Australia.

• Categories: The Categories list on the left side of each page will help you narrow down your listings by item type.

• Keyword search: eBay Australia title listings for specific words. For example, if you want to find cutaway guitars, type "cutaway guitars" (without quotation marks) into the Search box. Click "Search title and description" to expand your results. Visit eBay Australia's Search Tips page for more tips on searching with keywords.

If you can't find exactly what you want, try shopping eBay Stores, tell the eBay Australia Community what you want by creating a post on Want It Now, or save a search on My eBay and eBay Australia will email you when a match becomes available.

Buy Acoustic Guitars With Confidence

Buy Acoustic Guitars With Confidence

Before making your purchase, make sure you know exactly what you're buying, research your seller, and understand how eBay Australia and PayPal protect you.

Know your purchase

Carefully read the details in item listings.

• Figure delivery costs into your final price. If you spend a lot of money, make sure the seller will insure the item when it ships.

• If you want more information, ask by clicking the "Ask seller a question" link under the seller's profile.

• Always make sure to complete your transaction on eBay Australia (with a bid, Buy It Now, or Best Offer). Transactions conducted outside of eBay Australia are not covered by eBay Australia protection programs.

• Never pay for your eBay Australia item using instant cash wire transfer services through Western Union or MoneyGram. These payment methods are unsafe when paying someone you do not know.

Know your seller

Research your seller so you feel positive and secure about every transaction.

• What is the seller's Feedback rating? How many transactions have they completed? What percentage of positive responses do they have?

• What do buyers say in their Feedback? Did the seller receive praise?

• Most top eBay Australia sellers operate like retail stores and have return policies. Do they offer a money-back guarantee? What are the terms and conditions?

Buyer protection

In the unlikely event that a problem arises during your transaction, eBay Australia and PayPal are there for you.

• Pay safely with PayPal: PayPal enables you to pay without the seller ever seeing your bank account or credit card numbers. In fact, PayPal protects buyers 100% against unauthorised payments from their accounts. Plus, with PayPal Buyer Protection, your purchase can be covered up to $1,500.

• eBay Security & Resolution Centre: Visit the Security & Resolution Centre to learn how to protect your account and use eBay Australia's quick and efficient resolution tools.

Need More Help?

Need More Help?

Visit our help pages or start a thread on one of our Community Discussion Boards - If you have a quick question that needs answering, try posting it on our community Answer Centre - there's bound to be a seasoned eBay Australia veteran with just the information you're looking for! 

Legal Disclaimer

Legal Disclaimer

Buying Guides are intended merely as a guide or review for members when considering what products or services they may be interested in bidding on or purchasing. eBay does not make, and nothing in these Buying Guides is intended to constitute, any warranties, guarantees, representations or assurances about the accuracy of the information or content contained in these Buying Guides. Furthermore, eBay does not make, and nothing in these Buying Guides is intended to constitute, any warranties, guarantees, representations or assurances about the nature or performance of the products or services appearing in the Buying Guides. Content, trademarks and brands referred to and contained in the third-party links provided are the property of their respective owners, and eBay has no control over and accepts no responsibility for their content. eBay is not affiliated with nor does it endorse the use of any particular product or service.