Complementary tone?

jimallthetime · April 2014

My girlfriend and I gig as The Lunettes. Yesterday we took part in The Big Busk, an amazing charity music event in Shrewsbury. One of our sets was an unamplified busk in a cafe, after which a guitar-knowledgeable friend of ours said that my all-mahogany OM-size Tanglewood sounded a bit thin next to Jaynie's Taylor 312ce.

So ... any recommendations for a guitar that can holds its own? I prefer all-mahogany instruments. I suppose the key question is: do I want a guitar that contrasts with the Taylor, or one that complements it?

PolarityMan · April 2014

Im mostly an electric player but when we gig unplugged the issue I find is that our bassist and other guitarist both strum pretty loud, whereas I play a lot of finger picking which has a tendency to get lost if we're not going through a PA.

My view is that relative volume is part of the performance so those other 2 fuckers shouldnt bash the strings so hard so perhaps what you need here isn't new gear but acttualyl to either think about swapping parts between you or simply being more mindful of each other when you're playing?

ICBM · April 2014

jimallthetime said:

My girlfriend and I gig as The Lunettes. Yesterday we took part in The Big Busk, an amazing charity music event in Shrewsbury. One of our sets was an unamplified busk in a cafe, after which a guitar-knowledgeable friend of ours said that my all-mahogany OM-size Tanglewood sounded a bit thin next to Jaynie's Taylor 312ce.

So ... any recommendations for a guitar that can holds its own? I prefer all-mahogany instruments. I suppose the key question is: do I want a guitar that contrasts with the Taylor, or one that complements it?

You want a Martin D-18.

I was playing a friend's one a couple of days ago and it reminded me why it's an all-time classic, as much as the better-known D-28.

Unless you mean all-mahogany as in including the top… in which case you probably want a D-15. Something Dreadnought-sized, anyway - it will have a bigger and deeper tone than the Taylor so it will sit 'around' and 'below' it in the mix. (I had one of those Taylors, very nice but not quite full-enough sounding for me.)

Rich · April 2014

Or, if a Martin's out of your budget range, try a corresponding Sigma - lovely guitars for the money: http://www.sigma-guitars.com/index.php?id=233

crunchman · April 2014

If you are playing with a pick, what are you using? Thin ones tend to sound toppier than thick ones. A thicker pick may help add some meat.

If you want a bigger tone then something Martin style is generally the way to go. Stonebridge are very good guitars in that style and are less expensive than Martins as you are not paying for the name and importing from the States. I think Recording King do some good ones as well.

richardhomer · April 2014

crunchman;206515" said:
I think Recording King do some good ones as well.

I recently played a used OM style Recording King. It had lots of 42 style pearl - hence was something of a looker.

It was light as a feather, had a beautifully shaped V neck and sounded stunning.

IIRC it was about £500. Fantastic guitar for the money. If that one is representative of the brand (I've never played - or even seen - any others), they are really worth trying.

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Complementary tone?

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