[r1p32]

im in luv with the acoustic sound..ohh its soo beautiful. i find that i dont plug in my ibanez electric to try to simulate the acoustic sound but its not the same. i really want one, can anyone tell me what to look for when buying one?

[nagukush]

Acoustic Guitar sound is sure the most beautiful one in the whole world !!!!
Hang on mate, you will get your questions answered soon from the others

[Ultimate Garage Band]

What acoustic sound are you in love with? Classical? James Taylor type stuff? Country? No, you own an Ibanez electric, so it couldn't be Country. Here's some specifics regardless though.

1. A solid top is superior in tone and volume to a laminate top. Makers and retailers are quite crafty in describing laminate tops, which include the following:

All spruce
100% spruce
Vintage spruce
Vintage toned spruce
Classic spruce
Natural spruce

etc.

A guitar will ONLY have a solid top if the WORD 'solid' is in front of the species of wood, ie., solid spruce top, solid cedar top, etc.

2. Tone woods do make a difference. Spruce is better suited for hard strumming and cedar is better for fingerpicking, in VERY general terms.

3. Body size and shape are key in getting the tone you want. Do want deep, punchy, bass? Get a dreadnought. Do you want as much bass as you can get but more sitting down playing comfort than a dreadnought? Get a grand auditorium. Do you want something that accentuates the melody lines and individual notes of flat picking or fingerpicking? Get a folk or 000 or even a parlor sized guitar.

All kinds of options. The place to start is what specifically do YOU want the guitar to do and sound like.

[Str8Axe]

Thanks for that post UGB. That really clarified a few things for me as well.

[DE_South]

Hey UGB, what are the chances of you giving us beginners a complete rundown on acoustic guitar types and descriptions, with regards to which part is made of what and how what may affect which...? I'm with you on what's been said here about which, but feel that there's a lot more about which and what that may be worth knowing. Maybe an idea for a lesson thread..???

Hope you don't mind me asking.

[nagukush]

A very nice idea, provided UGB has the time for it.

[Ultimate Garage Band]

Well, that's not as easy as it might appear to be. I've said this in other threads and I'll mention it here; I can equate guitars with saws. I own about 5 different types of power saws and each one does some kind of cut in wood better than the others. I own about 10 guitars and all but 2 are fairly specific to kinds of music that I play.

For a beginner, I think each person has an image, both visual and aural, in their head of what they want to do with guitar. So it's best to start out, if possible, with an instrument that gets them the closest to that goal/image. The thing is though, I can say 'this guitar is best suited for...' but then I could show you some players that use a different guitar for that style of playing, or use that guitar for a different style of playing.

I know a guy that studied classical on a steel string dreadnought. Now, in my mind, I couldn't THINK of a worse guitar to attempt to study classical on, but he did, and enjoyed it. It was a gift, what was he supposed to do? This is a case where the buyer was totally clueless about what guitar to get and just got 'a guitar'. Well, if I said I wanted an electric saw for Christmas, because in my mind I wanted to build a 1200 square foot deck on the back of my house, and I opened up a Milwakee reciprocating Sawz-All on Christmas morning, I'd end up with one of the nastiest looking decks every stuck onto the back of a house. That particular saw is made for DEconstruction, not CONstruction. But, to the ignorant buyer, it's an electric saw and to the ignorant buyer, a guitar is a guitar.

I think this is tougher with kids because they tend to like so much, especially whatever is playing on the stereo at the moment. Get them a good quality acoustic and go with that. Some try to teach kids when they're too young. Playing guitar isn't like playing piano; there's no pain or discomfort in learning piano. How many 6 year olds are going to keep practicing making a C chord when their fingers hurt? Let them grow a bit more, let them take piano first. It's much easier to learn a 2nd instrument if you've got a good grasp on one. You already know how to count, you can read to an extent, etc. Now you're just working on mechanics.

Here's some VERY GENERAL observations on acoustics and their uses:

Country, Rock, Bluegrass - Dreadnought or Jumbo for the most part; these are large guitars. These genres typically feature heavy, repeated strumming as a playing technique with an occasional flat picking tossed in. But for the most part, these guitars are made to be played hard and using chords, that is multiple strings ringing simultaneously and covering the full spectrum of sound, bass to treble. The bodies are big which enhances bass response and lets them be as loud as they can be. In the under $400 range, you can find some dreadnoughts that are loud enough to be played in a group setting supporting 12 or more singers unplugged. They can be that loud.

Folk, Blues, Soft Rock/'Fingerstyle'/Jazz - Grand Auditorim, 'Gypsy Jazz', OM, 000 for the most part. These are medium sized guitars, except for the Gypsy Jazz. You can include the 00, 0, Parlor models too which are smaller. These genres typically feature more single note emphasis than straight chord strumming. Many times an early Folk student can start out strumming but as they matriculate can play the same song in the same chord progression but flat pick it or even finger pick it. The smaller bodies reduces volume and bass response which is ok because with flatpicking or fingerpicking the focus is on the melody anyway. It's more about single note melody runs/patterns/scales. So these guitars tend to be stronger in the mid-range and upper end of tone. The bodies aren't just typically smaller in width of upper bout, waist, and lower bout, but they're not as deep either. They are MUCH more comfortable to play sitting down than the group of large guitars mentioned above.

Classical, Flamenco - Classical/nylon string. There are a few body size choices which are primarilty there to best suit the player. For several companies, a steel string version of a full-size, classical guitar is labeled a 'Folk' model. These guitars use a different bracing pattern and the nylon string is typically not as loud as the steel string. I say typically because if you've ever been in a room with a good classical player who's playing a several thousand dollar, custom, classical guitar, you'd know they can get VERY loud. It seems to me in this group there's really only 2 levels of guitars, student and pro. Student is really anything under $1000 and pro is usually $2500 and up. There's just not that much 'middle ground' in this field.

So, there's other genres I'm sure, and again, these are VERY GENERAL. Willie Nelson plays Country and uses a classical, nylon string guitar and I know fingerstyle guys that use dreadnoughts.