What's Your Favorite Acoustic Guitar And Why?

[starise]

I've been shopping for another guitar and I really like the Martin guitars. They are simple, yet very attractive, well made and feel comfortable to play. So far I've only played the smaller body style which works really well for recording. I don't think I would like the retro tinny sound of some early parlor guitars. I like a smaller body with a decent sound and projection.

Right now I play a Martin X series which is the lower of their product line. You wouldn't know it though. I think the sound is comparable to the more expensive Martins. Not quite the same but very close. The basic design is the same on the DX except they use a composite for the neck and sides. You probably wouldn't ever know if you didn't look. The tuners probably aren't quite as good as the high end Martins. The fingerboard isn't ebony, but once again, this doesn't affect how it plays. They most certainly plek'd my guitar. The setup is great. Stays in tune . I have used it in all of my recent recordings. I over compensated in some of the recordings and removed too much bass. The bass is there though. In spades if you want it.

 

Moving on up to a better guitar you get things like ebony fingerboard, bone nut, good tuners, better woods. People have complained about the composite woods. I personally haven't had any issues with them. They make boats out of the stuff. Nuff said. If Martin thought it was good enough to put their name on it, I was willing to give it a shot and I haven't been sorry.

 

I have looked at the Martin 000-15M all mahogany guitar. Probably falls somewhere in their mid range. List around 1400.00 US. It has the kind of soft tone I think I'm after for celtic/acoustic music.Since I'm a finger picker this might not be the guitar you're after. These guitars get great reviews as folk music guitars. The finish does ding easily though. Beautiful guitars that have that mahogany smell and are great all around players. They have a nice neutral solid, yet not too over bearing sound. There are some other companies out there making mahogany guitars, but they don't get the raves the 000-15M gets. The only con for me is the lack of electronic pickup. Since I play it out I might use the Martin X as my 'play out guitar' and the other guitar as a recording guitar.

 

Aside from Martin, Taylor makes some excellent guitars and would likely be a second choice aside from the lesser known high ended models I probably can't afford.I realize that in buying one of these guitars you probably pay a small amount for name recognition. You also get an excellent guitar. 

 

The problem is I like  every other guitar I look at. The Epiphone Masterbuilt acoustic is a lot of bang for the buck.That guitar might be too much cannon for my style of music. Seems to be one of the best values there are in terms of an all around player guitar. Solid. The only reason that guitar isn't 3000.00 is because Epiphone is considered to be a second to Gibson and it's made in Indonesia. Most people who buy one compare it to something like a nice Taylor. Gibson is over priced on name recognition IMO. Buy an Epiphone and have some work done on it, you basically have a Gibson or better.

 

Ibanez Artwood series..meh. I'm not overly impressed.Seagull, Guild. All seem to have lost some traction in quality over time. 

 

What are your thoughts?

 

 

 

 

[Rudi]

I recently sold on my oldest guitar (a Yamaha F series) to a friend.

 

The next oldest is a 70's Fylde acoustic. Fylde were still a youngish company when I bought mine. The luthier is Roger Bucknall. At that time he & two assistants worked at a place called Progress Mill in Kirkham (near Blackpool) uk, I contacted them and they said they couldn't sell me a production guitar direct, but they had a bunch of 2nds (small blemishes etc) that they could sell.

 

So I drove up to Kirkham & spent the day there. Roger showed me around. Of course they had a wood store; temperature & humidity controlled where they seasoned the stock woods. At the time he was working on a heavily inlayed model for Stefan Grossman.

 

At first I was mightily impressed with a blonde wood model that sounded absolutely beautiful. However, it didnt respond to agressive picking well. It only had that one voice.

I eventually selected a model with rosewood back & sides that was perfect for my needs (fingerpicked instrumentals). Its serial number is in the 70s I think. So a very early guitar from Fylde. Its age shows these days, but it still sounds loud and has a rich tone.

 

http://www.fyldeguitars.com/

 

These days I prefer the sound of nylon stringed acoustics, but the Fylde is my oldest guitar. In my experience loud guitars nearly always also have the best tone. Thats why I prefer this one. It also has a ebony fingerboard.

 

I tend to wear out rosewood fingerboards. I've worn out two in 20 years. One of them was an aged Washburn electric G5-V. I scrapped it. Yes, actually wore it out completely and rendered it useless.

 

The Fyldes fingerboard is just as good condition as it ever was.

[MonoStone]

Favourite? Blimey... you lot made of money? 

 

No showing off here... My wife bought be a Big Baby, Christmas before last... £250 ish...  it's fine, nice to play, sounds good...first not-totally-crap one I've had... 

 

Budget all the way. I can barely play anyway... make the best o what you've got  

 

 

 

 

[starise]

22 minutes ago, Rudi said:

The next oldest is a 70's Fylde acoustic. Fylde were still a youngish company when I bought mine. The luthier is Roger Bucknall. At that time he & two assistants worked at a place called Progress Mill in Kirkham (near Blackpool) uk, I contacted them and they said they couldn't sell me a production guitar direct, but they had a bunch of 2nds (small blemishes etc) that they could sell.

 

As you might guess, Fylde isn't a very common make here. I had never heard of it until now. After poking around on the website I'm very impressed. For a guitar that is handmade they seem a steal. Probably out of my range in price right now. What a find!!! They look to be very proffessional made instruments.

 

26 minutes ago, Rudi said:

These days I prefer the sound of nylon stringed acoustics, but the Fylde is my oldest guitar. In my experience loud guitars nearly always also have the best tone. Thats why I prefer this one. It also has a ebony fingerboard.

 

I've wanted a nylon string guitar to see if I like them. I don't want to spend a lot on one just to try though. I do like the more mellow sound they have. 

29 minutes ago, Rudi said:

I tend to wear out rosewood fingerboards. I've worn out two in 20 years. One of them was an aged Washburn electric G5-V. I scrapped it. Yes, actually wore it out completely and rendered it useless.

 You must be quite a frequent player. Have you ever tried a maple neck ? I've always thought they might be easier to play depending on the radius. Another plus- It's easier to see the frets.

 

19 minutes ago, MonoStone said:

Favourite? Blimey... you lot made of money? 

 

No showing off here... My wife bought be a Big Baby, Christmas before last... £250 ish...  it's fine, nice to play, sounds good...first not-totally-crap one I've had... 

 

Budget all the way. I can barely play anyway... make the best o what you've got  

 

I don't know about Rudi, but I'm not made of money. The Taylor Big Baby is nothing to sneeze at. Congrats!! Those are very nice guitars no matter the price. Taylors have a reputation for having a more snappy midrange compared to the Martins.A big sound in a smaller guitar. This is good when playing them in a pub because the sounds cuts through better.

 

It's close to my birthday, so this is why I'm looking. The Martin I own sounds and plays great, but a guitar player never has enough guitars  Even a hack like me.

 

I seen a Martin 00015M for half price in an undisclosed store here. I seriously considered it. It had a few smallish almost unnoticeable dings. Nothing to keep it from playing well.I think it's still on offer last time I checked. If anyone is interested PM me. It is a real steal. 

I couldn't resist another one though. The Epiphone Masterbuilt DR 500MCE. The specs are impressive for anything in that price range, so I ordered one in vintage sunburst. It's on back order for at least two weeks until they get more in. 

I considered a few factors- A sharper tone can be EQ'd in recording if necessary. From a recording perspective you can't do as much with a mellow tone of you want to make it more present. The Epi. has a dual output preamp. 

http://www.epiphone.com/products/acoustic-electric/masterbilt-dr-500mce.aspx

 

The only real con I can see if there is one. I'm not big on the white purfling, but I'm willing to trade that small dislike for all the other features it has.

[Pahchisme Plaid]

I love my guitar, but not liking the sound so much since I changed the strings (Martin, I think).  I like it because its small and its curves are in the right places.  Its not cumbersome to me as other bigger guitars (not that I've played others, just tried the fit of others on for size) and its fairly inexpensive.  Unfortunately, its probably not the one for you.  I'm guessing you're a wee bit taller, bigger and stronger and have better hand-width than me.  However, if any ladies are looking for a comfortable guitar, the Fender Parlor CP-100 has a nice sound and is quite comfortable size-wise (details and reviews can be found on musiciansfriend.com).  It does not have a hook up for an amplifier, though (which so far, I haven't needed anyway).  I think I'm going to try to order the Fender strings it came with, even though the Martin strings are fairly new.  It just isn't the same and affects my desire to play a bit.

[starise]

Yeah my horse is out back, roight.

 

One realization that should have hit me earlier is that any emulation is a copy of a sound. On the surface that doesn't  mean much. I mean, it it still sounds like the original what's the problem? For awhile I tried acoustic emulations. Mainly variax. They aren't bad, yet they are a copy.and they don't usually sound quite as good as the original. Very nice to have on an electric guitar in a pinch. To me though, I didn't jive with that so I went back mostly to real guitars for acoustic work.

 

I got the new Epi in and I really like it, but I do miss the smaller body size. As Kelly says, the smaller parlor guitars fit smaller people better. I'm not a huge guy so I rather like to play parlors too. There is a trade off since the smaller size doesn't have quite as much volume as a large dreadnought. One of the things I look for is even sound across strings. I don't want a loud boomy D string and a whimpy tinny E string. I want an even distribution of sound.

 

Here's a track I just made with the Epi still using the Cleartones.

 

Kelly, the gauge of the strings can make a difference. Light gauge strings might not give you as much bass, especially on a parlor guitar. I have two sets of Martin lights  and I want to put one set on my epi because it has a bit too much bass in a small room. It came with Cleartones which I've never really liked.

[Rudi]

The recording sounds very nice. It has a sweet sound.  Partly the guitar and partly the player of course. Nice choice.

[starise]

On 4/23/2017 at 6:52 AM, HoboSage said:

I wasn't touting "artificial" guitar sounds, but acoustic guitars not made of wood, like my Rainsong.   The "why" my graphite Rainsong is my favorite being: it never goes out of tune; its intonation all the way up the fret board is as perfect as you'll find on any guitar; it isn't affected by changes in temperature or humidity like wood guitars; with Elixir strings it sounds fantastic, and loud; and, it's super light, feels "right" in my hands, and is a true joy to play.  Oh, and it looks really cool too.

 

I kinda figured you were just having fun, but I really wasn't sure. Oh you have a Rainsong. NICE! I've never played one. I would like to some time. Probably more durable than a wood guitar too. Made of the same stuff they made the wings of the stealth from right? Carbon fiber I think? Very expensive compared to a wood guitar unless you can get a steal on one used.

 

Rudi, Thank you. I put that together with a track made at a steam in Ireland. There's also a birds/rain track mixed in. If a person is on a budget I think the epi is really hard to beat. I'm not interested in sending mine back. It's definitely a "keeper".

[Rudi]

On 23/04/2017 at 11:52 AM, HoboSage said:

I wasn't touting "artificial" guitar sounds, but acoustic guitars not made of wood, like my Rainsong.   The "why" my graphite Rainsong is my favorite being: it never goes out of tune; its intonation all the way up the fret board is as perfect as you'll find on any guitar; it isn't affected by changes in temperature or humidity like wood guitars; with Elixir strings it sounds fantastic, and loud; and, it's super light, feels "right" in my hands, and is a true joy to play.  Oh, and it looks really cool too.

 

I dont want another acoustic guitar, though there are a couple of classic Maccaferri plastic guitars up for auction in the uk soon. But am always fascinated by alternative materials for electrics.

 

I've looked at wood alternatives. Wood will move. I even had a Flaxwood guitar briefly (didnt like it). I have been interested in carbon fiber guitars for years. The nearest e-models are by Status. They mainly make basses, but do one guitar also. I've not been able to try one out yet, and I'm certainly not ordering a custom build without doing that.

 

Most electric players cant get their heads out of 1959.

[starise]

20 hours ago, Rudi said:

I dont want another acoustic guitar

 Rudi could you say that with a straight face? 

 

 

[starise]

I guess expensive is a relative term. That doesn't seem out of line for a pro guitar. Expensive compared to my Epi MCE500 , yet not really expensive considering the materials and construction.

 

You're talking to a guy who almost bought a Martin Mahogany guitar partially because of the smell.   To me there's something I like about the woods. I admit it's a primal thing. For the same reason I didn't look seriously at the Ovations. No direct comparison to the Rainsong other than the materials not being wood. I have a half dozen violin bows. Three are either fiberglass or carbon fiber. I keep going back to the wood bows even though  the carbon fiber is better. It's a caveman hang up. I guess I need to sell the horse.