The Acoustic Thread

[olegmcnoleg]

Some guitars really do get much better with age. Not all of them though. I wonder how one could tell in advance?

[vinylguy]

What I have generally found is that if the guitar is 3 of these things they are generally pretty good:
1; Old
2: Well played
3: Made is the US

Exceptions everywhere of course as I once had a Peavey (made by Landola) that was a great sounding guitar. Met the first 2 criteria though...

[Jay]

What I have generally found is that if the guitar is 3 of these things they are generally pretty good:
1; Old
2: Well played
3: Made is Japan

Exceptions everywhere of course as I once had a Peavey (made by Landola) that was a great sounding guitar. Met the first 2 criteria though...

Fixed

[vinylguy]

Have yet to play a Japanese acoustic worth owning. Am open to the possibility though. I once had a Japanese Yamaha that was awful...

[olegmcnoleg]

What I have generally found is that if the guitar is 3 of these things they are generally pretty good:
1; Old
2: Well played
3: Made is the US

Exceptions everywhere of course as I once had a Peavey (made by Landola) that was a great sounding guitar. Met the first 2 criteria though...

This definitely works for some great guitars. But I’ve come across many bad guitars and a ton of average ones that also fit these criteria. And lately some newer guitars that are not US made, but still sound awesome.

For me I think a good indicator is the lightness of the build.

My original point was really this : If you have 3 decent-sounding new guitars, how do you choose the one that is going to be great in a few years? I agree that playing it a lot may well be the deciding factor.

[GrantB]

I played one of those fancy Epiphone Hummingbirds in the weekend. Tight, quiet, no bass, heavy and no tonal character. The action however was fantastic.

[olegmcnoleg]

I played one of those fancy Epiphone Hummingbirds in the weekend. Tight, quiet, no bass, heavy and no tonal character. The action however was fantastic.

saying something, given the immense humidity here atm. Those things are built rigidly so they won't break or warp. Good acoustic guitars are much more fragile, in my experience. They are fussy.

[codedog]

I played one of those fancy Epiphone Hummingbirds in the weekend. Tight, quiet, no bass, heavy and no tonal character. The action however was fantastic.

saying something, given the immense humidity here atm. Those things are built rigidly so they won't break or warp. Good acoustic guitars are much more fragile, in my experience. They are fussy.

I did not realise this until I bought a Larrivee and an ex-Oleg Breedlove. Both are very light and lively. So light, in fact, that I got paranoid and bought a hygrometer to keep an eye on humidity. I'm very glad to see my home has a nice level of humidity in general.

[olegmcnoleg]

I played one of those fancy Epiphone Hummingbirds in the weekend. Tight, quiet, no bass, heavy and no tonal character. The action however was fantastic.

saying something, given the immense humidity here atm. Those things are built rigidly so they won't break or warp. Good acoustic guitars are much more fragile, in my experience. They are fussy.

I did not realise this until I bought a Larrivee and an ex-Oleg Breedlove. Both are very light and lively. So light, in fact, that I got paranoid and bought a hygrometer to keep an eye on humidity. I'm very glad to see my home has a nice level of humidity in general.

That's so nice, I wish Auckland did I have a dehumidifier running for most of the year.

[Conway]

There's been an awful lot of moisture in the air this so-called "Summer".

[AiRdAd]

There's been an awful lot of moisture in the air this so-called "Summer".

My lawns are green as - usually at this time of the year they're totally dried out.

[olegmcnoleg]

There's been an awful lot of moisture in the air this so-called "Summer".

My lawns are green as - usually at this time of the year they're totally dried out.

Oh no, we are headed into Climate Change territory...

Here's a picture of an acoustic guitar

IMG_5571.jpeg (2.58 MiB) Viewed 238 times

[Jay]

There's been an awful lot of moisture in the air this so-called "Summer".

My lawns are green as - usually at this time of the year they're totally dried out.

Oh no, we are headed into Climate Change territory...

Here's a picture of an acoustic guitar

IMG_5571.jpeg

Pity their website is not optimized for mobile devices. Hate that. It is not that hard

[codedog]

There's been an awful lot of moisture in the air this so-called "Summer".

My lawns are green as - usually at this time of the year they're totally dried out.

Oh no, we are headed into Climate Change territory...

Here's a picture of an acoustic guitar

IMG_5571.jpeg

Care to entertain/inspire/tease us with details of this one?

[vinylguy]

Not sure that lightness of build is a factor with a strumming guitar as opposed to one used for fingerstyle. I dont play fingerstyle at all and am a reasonably heavy strummer ( not Richie Havens heavy but heavy in comparison to the guys I play with..) and the best guitars I have found for my style of playing are Guilds in general and my afore mentioned Martin. Also partial to Ovations, Breedloves and Larrivees. I once played a really beaten up 1973 Guild D35 that had been thrashed to within an inch of its life, but was still as heavy and as solid as anything and it sounded great.

My original point was really this : If you have 3 decent-sounding new guitars, how do you choose the one that is going to be great in a few years? I agree that playing it a lot may well be the deciding factor.

I think the best you can do is to choose the one that feels best to you now. And thats difficult to do with a test play in a retail store where the choices are limited.