[Brian Krashpad]

To be brutally honest, the first hurdle is looks. Because even if it sounds fantatstic, if it looks like shite, to me, I will not play it. And there's not much to be done with the way a guitar looks, other than changing the color.

Once I have a guitar that looks OK, next consideraton is sound. Frankly, for me it'd better sound damn good stock, becaue i"m no modder. So if it sounds crappy, odds are I'd just as soon ditch it as mod it. In fact, odds are much more in favor of ditching. I am not a modder.

After looks and sound come playability and price. As far as playability, I'm fairly liberal. Most guitars nowadays can be set up to acceptable limits. As far as price goes, I'm a cheap bastard. I won't bore anyone with my formulae for determining a good deal, but suffice it to say such formulae do indeed exist and are rarely (if ever) departed from.