The aged-gold Gotoh tuners perfectly fit the slightly worn-in vibe — hugely understated class, just like the green abalone dots in the ebony bridge-pins. Get used to those terms. Taylor has upped the ante. As we stated at the start of this guide, it is pretty difficult to buy a bad guitar in this day and age.
So if the build quality of guitars is higher than it's ever been, what should be your primary concerns when buying a new instrument? The acoustic guitar has gone through many iterations and revisions to get to where it is today.
The origins of the acoustic guitar are often argued, but it most likely was influenced and inspired by the gittern - which originated in Western Europe during the 13th century. This was played with a plectrum or by hand. Acoustic guitars come in many different shapes and sizes, the most popular being Dreadnought, Grand Auditorium and Parlor, among others.
Each of these styles brings its own characteristics to the table, so consider them carefully when choosing the best acoustic guitar for you.
Generally speaking, the bigger the guitar, the bigger the sound. The smaller the guitar, the tighter, more focused the sound. Perhaps that's obvious, but you'll want to consider the effect on tone too. Dreadnought and Jumbo and guitars generally deliver a deeper sound and increased bottom end due to their cavernous body sizes. These are a favourite of legendary solo singer-songwriters such as Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Sheryl Crow, as the increased volume and tone can make up for the lack of full-band accompaniment.
This massive sound can get lost in a band situation though, as the extra bass and low mid frequencies interfere with a bass guitar or kick drum. Acoustic guitars of these sizes will cut through a mix better as they generally produce more high-mid and treble frequencies - or at least fewer low frequencies - to ensure you're heard over the rest of the band.
With players such as John Mayer, Eric Clapton and Myles Kennedy opting for a smaller bodied acoustic guitar, it's worth checking them out. Bear in mind that the size not only affects the tone, but also how comfortable the guitar is to play. So if you feel better playing a smaller guitar, then go for it. You have to be comfortable with your instrument.
That being said, there are definitely certain woods that resonate more than others, and certain combinations that work well together - and those tend to be the favourites when it comes to building an acoustic guitar.
The classic combination of a spruce top and mahogany back and sides is a definite favourite among luthiers. The way that spruce and mahogany interact with each other creates a really well-rounded tone, with the spruce generating plenty of punchy brightness that makes your tone pop and cut through the mix. This move not only helped to save Martin as a company, but also created a guitar that had a killer tone.
If you think about it, an acoustic guitar creates its tone through vibrating - so a great bridge or set of tuners will allow your guitar to freely vibrate or resonate. Take a bridge, for example.
The material that your bridge is made from will also affect the tone of your guitar, with mahogany or rosewood bridges sounding a little warmer. That being said, this is definitely one for the nerds out there - with the difference being pretty minimal. Like most guitar-related items, the quality of hardware on your guitar will improve as you creep up the price brackets.
Once you have chosen the right body size and woods for you, you'll need to think about pickups. An acoustic guitar pickup can work in a few different ways, with the most popular pickups being under-saddle piezo pickups. Unfortunately, a cheap one can sound quite brittle and spiky, as the pickup is detecting vibrations where the string tension is at its tightest. Another pickup type is the magnetic soundhole pickup.
They work exactly the same as an electric guitar pickup, in the way that they create a magnetic field which captures the vibrations of the strings, and then pass those through to the output jack and into your amp. Some are active, too - meaning the output is higher and your tone will pop even more. If you use percussive techniques in your playing, then these pickups can be a great choice - as they can be fixed anywhere on or inside the body of your acoustic guitar, picking up more vibrations than other types of pickups.
You may not know if you'll ever want to plug into an acoustic amp or even PA speakers, and, of course, you could always have a pickup installed at a later date. As they say, it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it! If you want to, you can spend tens of thousands on one of the best acoustic guitars - but that is in no way necessary. These guitars feature endangered woods, incredible build quality and gargantuan tones, among other things.
Concerned about buying an acoustic guitar online without trying it first? MusicRadar The No. Included in this guide: 1. Image 1 of 4. Image 2 of 4. Image 3 of 4. Image 4 of 4. Type: Dreadnought. Top: Solid Mahogany. Neck: Mahogany. Scale: Fingerboard: Rosewood. Tuners: Chrome Die-Cast. Left-handed: Yes. Finish: Gloss.
Tuning is typically a challenge for beginners, so guitar tuners , which ease the process and retain correct tension, are a vital accessory. If your budget is tight there are plenty of great clip-on guitar tuners on the market too.
These are small, relatively inexpensive and easy to use. You'll find examples of a variety of these types of strummers in our selection of the best acoustic guitars for beginners. Take a bitesize look at what you should consider before you buy one of the best acoustic guitars beginners:.
Guitar World. Included in this guide: 1. The best acoustic guitar for beginners seeking a big brand name. Type: Dreadnought. Top: Solid Mahogany. Back and sides: Laminated Mahogany. Neck: Mahogany.
Scale: Fingerboard: Rosewood. Tuners: Chrome Die-Cast. Left-handed: Yes. Finish: Gloss. Reasons to avoid - Individual looks may put some off. Type: Medium Jumbo. Top: Solid Engelmann spruce. Back and sides: Rosewood. Tuners: Die-cast gold. Reasons to avoid - Higher-end price for a beginner guitar. Epiphone Hummingbird Studio.
The best acoustic guitar for beginners who want heritage pedigree. Top: Solid spruce. Back and sides: Select mahogany. Neck: Select mahogany. Electronics: Shadow ePerformer pre-amp. Reasons to avoid - Slightly lower action would help a beginner. Yamaha FG A best-seller at the budget end of the best beginners acoustic guitar market. Type: Traditional Western. Reasons to avoid - No electronics. Taylor GS Mini Mahogany. Tonally, the difference is incredibly marginal, but as there is generally more body mass up around the neck joint on a Hummingbird, it will feel just that little bit bulkier in the hand.
The jumbo is, as the name suggests, pretty massive - tonally, as well as physically. In our current, slightly more climate conscious world, guitar manufacturers are having to find new ways to make their instruments without harming ecosystems or future timber stocks. Luckily for us, the classics - spruce and mahogany - are still readily available, and so leads us to the question, which is better?
Spruce is a go-to top material, used and adored by luthiers and guitarists for well over a hundred years. Not only is this due to the fact that spruce especially sitka is one of the most readily available tonewoods around, but it also has an exceptionally balanced and consistent tone. It reacts favorably at almost all volumes, making it a versatile and ideal choice for guitars of all sizes and body types. Adirondack spruce used on the Martin D that features in this guide is used much less often due to a lack of available stock, but sometimes crops up on high-end guitars.
Used initially by Martin during the Great Depression as a way of making cheaper guitars, players soon discovered that it possessed a wholly desirable character of its own. Luckily, they tend to be a little cheaper too. Obviously, as the back and sides are attached to the rest of the guitar and resonate with each pluck of a string, they do have a bearing on the overall tone of the instrument. But, when you take into consideration the fact that the main point of string contact and resonance the bridge is on the top of the guitar, and that every string vibration passes through that point, you can safely assume that the top makes up a significant proportion of the tone produced.
Obviously, a guitar with a solid back and sides will resonate more freely and richly than something with a laminate back and sides, but beyond that, the difference is pretty minimal. Look out for that combination of woods that really catches your eye or ear. The only way to find out is to play them. GP logo Created with Sketch. Included in this guide: 1. Yamaha FG Body type: Dreadnought. Top: Spruce. Fingerboard: Rosewood. Bracing: Scalloped. Tuners: Chrome die-cast. Reasons to avoid - Lacks any added extras.
Top: Solid spruce. Neck: Mahogany. Scale: Bracing: Quartersawn scalloped X. Finish: Natural. Martin JR Top: Sitka spruce. Neck: Solid hardwood. Fingerboard: Richlite. Bracing: Scalloped X. Tuners: Chrome enclosed. Reasons to avoid - Only comes with a soft gig bag.
Fender Paramount PM-3 Triple Body type: Fingerboard: Ovangkol. Bracing: Quartersawn scalloped X bracing. Tuners: Nickel. Finish: Gloss Polyester. Reasons to avoid - Fender not a name in high-end acoustics. Body type: Parlor.
Bracing: Scalloped X-bracing. Tuners: Die-Cast chrome. Reasons to avoid - A bit gimmicky? A glamorous option for those who want to turn heads on a budget. Body size: Angelus. Fingerboard: Ebony. However, we are going to list the general consensus of the impact of different tonewoods.
Also, remember that most guitars use at least two different tonewoods. So the end tone of the guitar is going to be a combination of the two woods utilized. The most common tonewood used for the top of an acoustic guitar, Sitka spruce has a broad dynamic range and a pleasing level of responsiveness.
Engelmann is similar to Sitka but tends to be a bit more responsive when played softly. This makes this tonewood a great fit for fingerpickers. The tonewood of choice for vintage acoustics, Adirondack was over-harvested to the point where many manufacturers stepped away from using it. Cedar is a warm tonewood prized for its luscious tone. Mahogany, generally used for the back and sides of a guitar, offers a pleasing representation of bass and mid frequencies.
The tonewood projects very well, but in some instances can still sound dark when compared to the more focused rosewood. Commonly used in either archtops or jumbo guitars, maple is prized for its flatness of tone and its quick decay. This makes it a great fit for jumbos in particular because it helps to tame their overabundance of low-end frequencies.
Rosewood is prized due to its incredibly focused tone that maintains a high representation of low, mid, and treble frequencies. Unfortunately, it is also generally more expensive than mahogany. Laminated wood is thin sheets of wood glued and pressed together, while solid wood is a solid piece cut off of a tree.
With that being said, so long as a guitar has a solid top it can still be a great sounding instrument. Learning about the different types of acoustic guitars is a very in-depth process, and even this article is more of a primer than a complete work. But with the information you now have you have everything you need to make an informed decision.
If you have any question or concerns, or you just want to share, feel free to jump down to the comments section below!
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