OT: Acoustic Guitar

[559Rando]

Originally Posted by whateveronfire

I agree Yamaha makes great guitars for the money. Ditto Godin and subsidiaries. I'd definitely look at some of Godin's lines besides Seagulls. They're also Canadian made and can often be had for decent deals. (Art and Lutherie is one of the others).

+100 for the Godin family of Canadian guitars
+1 for Yamaha; 9 times out of 10, I'd probably take the Seagull or A&L over the Yami

Originally Posted by dnades

The ovations are relatively cheap secondhand and have a really nice sound.

"Really nice sound" is subjective and a lot of people don't go gaga for Ovations. I had one for a year or two and never played it because as nice as the action was, I did not like the sound or the ergonomics.

Originally Posted by weehastogopee

I bought my guitar for right under 500 used (but was in pretty much new condition when I got it)

It is an Epiphone Masterbilt AJ500R.

+1 for used
+1 for the Epi Masterbilt series


----
My opinion is:

Guitars to much great extent than bikes vary from one to another, especially acoustic guitars. I'd recommend you play a lot of them. If you're at the store and see a brand X model Y, don't expect another brand X model Y to sound or play identically to it. If you decide to buy the X/Y, play all of them that the store has.

Acoustic guitars get better with age and I'd recommend a good quality older instrument over a new one. Some aspects have improved on new guitars. New tuners are better, intonation is generally better, and consistency is better but it's harder to get the good wood and instrument sounds better as it ages and breaks in.

Definitely look for a solid top.
Try different woods. You might like one wood combination better than another.
When you look at the top, look at the grain pattern. Tightly grained wood sounds better for acoustic tops.

The only guitar I've ever owned for more than 10 years is a 70s Madeira (Japanese made for import by Guild). There aren't a lot of those floating around, but they'd fit in your budget and sound phenominal. Mine also has some very low action.

[redir]

Originally Posted by Steve in SLO

Very nice work! Is that 12 fretter a 0 body size?

Thanks. It's actually a little bit smaller. It's based on a C. Bruno and Company guitar built in 1896 except instead of ladder braced I use a more modern X-brace. A small parlor guitar with a big sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctm3nBTKUyU

[Clydesdale]

The lower end Breedloves (not passports) can be found in that price range and are very nice instruments. I had a Simon & Patrick that seemed like a lot of guitar for the money and a mid range Washburn that I think sounds good though they can be hit and miss.

$500 should get you something you love if you are patient and have a chance to play it first.

[ColonelJLloyd]

Some really nice guitars hold their value and others do not so you can find some decent values buying used. If you have a friend who is a gear head or at least is experienced with acoustics I would ask he/she to accompany you to all the guitar stores in your area and shop together. Buy your friend beers and dinner after. Then go home and enjoy that fantastic playing/sounding $600 guitar you never thought you'd find. My brother-in-law has a Bluegrass brand dreadnaught that is remarkable for the $500-600 price tag. His has a chunk missing out of the headstock so he picked it up for a song.

I have a mid 90s Fender solid top acoustic that plays and sounds really, really great. It's a dreadnaught; don't recall the model number.

I also have an early 2000s Gibson Songwriter Deluxe. I've had several people try to buy it from me for a lot more than I paid, but I hope a grandchild ends up with it. Must be the wood importing shenanigans that happened with Gibson, but I paid about half of the current retail price and these things just get better with age.

If I had a large collection of acoustics I'd diversify, but if I can only have a few I certainly lean toward the classic dreadnaught and round shoulder (J-45) bodies.

[redearedslider5]

I'm of the mind that the best acoustics are either Martin or Taylor. I'm primarily an electric player so I went with Taylor because the necks are somewhat similar to my electric. I ended up with a Taylor GS mini. Five hundred bucks brand new, sounds great, looks great. I chose it because it was a bit on the smaller side so it's nice to keep around the couch to fool around on when I have a minute and it fits under my arm better than a standard dreadnaught which I always found to be huge. Like others have said though, try out a bunch and see what you like. If money was no object, i'd be all over a Martin 000

[OtayBW]

Originally Posted by redir

As mentioned the Godin guitars seem to be pretty good to IMO.

I've found a nitche in building from reclaimed materials. The guitar below was made from materials found entirely from the old barn that it is leaning on. The barn was built in about 1920 on a farm that I lived on for many years. White oak and pine:

Right. I guess they don't make too many barns in VA from Sitka spruce! Looks like a maple top. How's it sound?

[p nut]

redir's pictures make me want to hold onto the $500 and save up until I can get a barn guitar. What a beaut.

[jimcav]

pass it down to your child when they are older, and have their own kids and want to play the same tunes to theirs...

I had a guild and seagull that were in the 500-sh range, both were nice. As with bikes, my ability will never match the capability of the instrument, but i have a solid walnut breedlove that i love--i love the look of it, it sounds nice, and, like Taylors i tried, the neck fits my smaller (not Trumpish) hands.

if i could have found one, I'd have bought a Taylor Liberty Tree since I actually sat under that tree a few times when i was in college.

[DfCas]

My son played a lot of guitars at the local music store and decided on a Yamaha FG-800 with a solid top. He liked it better than the higher dollar ones he tried.

[enr1co]

Originally Posted by redearedslider5

I'm of the mind that the best acoustics are either Martin or Taylor. I'm primarily an electric player so I went with Taylor because the necks are somewhat similar to my electric. I ended up with a Taylor GS mini. Five hundred bucks brand new, sounds great, looks great. I chose it because it was a bit on the smaller side so it's nice to keep around the couch to fool around on when I have a minute and it fits under my arm better than a standard dreadnaught which I always found to be huge. Like others have said though, try out a bunch and see what you like. If money was no object, i'd be all over a Martin 000

Went through a period of buying and trying literally hundreds of acoustics, almost every brand, size, tonewoods, production to hand built boutique. After all this, ended up with a Taylor 314C and Mini GS. The Mini GS is a great combination of value, tone and build quality and playability- new for ~$500 or you can pick up used one for ~$350 to 400. If you end up wanting something more high end or fancy, Taylors have retain resale value of all brands if you want to flip it or trade in
As mentioned above, the convenient size allows it be kept around or taken around which leads you to more playing time with it.

[redir]

Originally Posted by OtayBW

Right. I guess they don't make too many barns in VA from Sitka spruce! Looks like a maple top. How's it sound?

It's a pine top. I believe that it is Southern Yellow Pine but I have not had it tested. The top is the most critical part in an acoustic guitar and I never would have thought this stuff would have worked out as well as it did. THis guitar was built as part of a contest, which I am proud to say I won second place in. The contest was to build a guitar from materials under the cost of $100 dollars. Everything except the head plate and hardware on the guitar came out of the barn. The top wood has to be cut a certain way. It has to be what they call quarter sawn or vertical grain. When you look at the edge of the board the annular rings (grain lines) look like this, ||||||. If it's cut any other way then you are asking for trouble. I was lucky enough to find that some of the siding on this barn was pine and found some vertical grained stuff.

Check out the video I linked to above for the sound, the sound came out surprisingly well. Honestly if this was not part of a contest I never would have considered using SYP for a top. Normally it's heavy and very sappy stuff but I guess being 90 years old through cold winters and hot summers it aged out well.

I also found a few boards of perfectly quartered wood that are about 24in wide. This must have been a huge tree back in the day. I need to get this wood tested. I think it might be Adirondack (REd) Spruce as it has the right color and is incredibly stiff across the grain.

The stuff in the middle is the spruce and the other planks are white oak:



Now, if you are a tool guy then you might like this machine, cue in the Tim Allen Grunt. This is how I resaw this stuff to make guitars out of.

Originally Posted by p nut

redir's pictures make me want to hold onto the $500 and save up until I can get a barn guitar. What a beaut.

I see a lot of parallels in what I do with guitars and bikes. It's probably why I own a Moots and other steel lugged frames. It's not like a factory bike is not good enough, it is, but there is something special about having a hand crafted... anything. Factories tend to build for the middle of the road. They need to do this because if they build guitars too light then their warranty departments get filled up with work. So they tend to slightly over build them and the customer gets a good enough sounding guitar that ages well and doesn't have to be fussed with as much. When I build a guitar my goal is to make an instrument that is on the verge of self destruction. Sounds kind of crazy but that is the end goal, a guitar that can withstand string tension but only barely. That means the customer has to take a little more special care with it but in the end they have a very responsive guitar and hear things that you simply cannot get out of most factory guitars. And with these barn wood guitars also comes a story, an instrument, a sculpture, a work of art created from the dilapidation of an old barn that was once the pride and joy of an old Virginia farmer, something like that. I'm building one now, starting next week, for a guy who specifically wants to have the old nail holes and worm holes on the guitar as part of that story.

The very first thing I do is build tools for musicians. So first things first, a guitar that sounds and plays great, then comes the story, the sculpture, the inlay, the trim, and so on.

But anyway.... Sorry to hijack the thread but when I get talking about guitars I can go on for days

Oh and By the way I am just about to finish one up in the next couple weeks and it has no buyer yet

[Sierra]

More and more luthiers are taking to using reclaimed wood for building their instruments with some excellent results.

During the 1960s/70s, the legendary Spanish luthier, Miguel Rodriguez, built around 20 guitars from a church door he had found floating around on the Mediterranean sea years earlier. These eventually became known as his famous Churchdoor guitars and they now fetch a pretty penny ($25K - $45K) if you can even find one for sale. A 1973 Rodriguez Churchdoor:

[ColonelJLloyd]

Originally Posted by Sierra

More and more luthiers are taking to using reclaimed wood for building their instruments with some excellent results.

Creston Electric has been doing some really cool reclaimed stuff for several year. 'lectric, though.

[redir]

Originally Posted by Sierra

More and more luthiers are taking to using reclaimed wood for building their instruments with some excellent results.

During the 1960s/70s, the legendary Spanish luthier, Miguel Rodriguez, built around 20 guitars from a church door he had found floating around on the Mediterranean sea years earlier. These eventually became known as his famous Churchdoor guitars and they now fetch a pretty penny ($25K - $45K) if you can even find one for sale. A 1973 Rodriguez Churchdoor:

Wow that's really cool I had never heard that story before.

[MattTuck]

Well, I did it. Something I've been thinking about for a long time. I bought a used, entry level guitar and I'm going to try to learn a musical instrument. This thread and a few other coincidences all lined up, and I pulled the trigger.

Just learned Mary Had a Little Lamb. I get the feeling it is going to be a LONG process to become proficient. haha