Advice on Smaller acoustics needed

mazzoo · March 2019

Hi everyone, I'm new here. I thought this would be a great place for some advice in choosing my next guitar.

I have come back to guitar playing after a few years and want to buy an electro-acoustic. In the past, I've had dreadnought style acoustics and given up on playing them. The one I have now is an Epiphone Hummingbird pro which I inherited from a family member...but being of virtual hobbit-like stature (5 feet 1), it’s just too big for me. I never really had problems spanning frets on electrics but with acoustics, it seems a whole lot more difficult and just generally an arse getting my arms around them.

So I want to get something smaller but am a bit overwhelmed by the array of choice, body type etc. I have looked at some 2nd hand Ovation Celebrity cc-57 but some people say these have certain problems such as bridge popping off or the back cracks? Some people hate the way they sound and some people love it. So I’m not sure if I should gamble with buying something older that could have problems to fix.

For new guitars, I have looked (online) at IbanezTCY10 Talman and TCM50, some people say the sound is weedy or crap and some love it - which is confusing. I like the fact the body is similar to an electric. I’ve also looked at the Fender CD-60SCE Mahogany which apparently has a lovely tone. There's the new Ibanez AW54 Junior, which was released last year. It’s not a cut-away but a smaller dreadnought and it’s 23.9 inch scale length. Then there's the AE245 which sounds great from the demos but doesn't have the forarm contour.

The other measurements such as body depth only seem to be a bit smaller than the Epiphone Hummingbird I have but the fret board must be smaller?

So I’m not sure what to go for, my budget is up to about £300. As far as I can see no shops near me have any of these in stock, so I’m trying to base a decision on what I can find online. In terms of what I want to play, it would be maybe finger picking and blues, rock, folk etc - my guitar heroes being people like Jimmy Hendrix, Nuno Bettencourt and Nick jones, that’s the kind of thing I aspire to! As I say I have not been regularly playing the last few years and would like to get back in and practise more with something that I can look forward to playing instead of wrestling with!

So I would like to know if anyone has any advice, any vertically challenged players out there?

Jontommy · March 2019

I’ve got a guild m120. Absolutely love it. Small body, all mahogany. Very much a keeper for me. I’d imagine you could pick a used one up within your budget

mazzoo · March 2019

Jontommy said:

I’ve got a guild m120. Absolutely love it. Small body, all mahogany. Very much a keeper for me. I’d imagine you could pick a used one up within your budget

Thanks for that. I had a look on youtube and they sound really good!

Jontommy · March 2019

It’s a guitar I always want to pick up.
Really nice boxy sound. I wouldn’t be without it.

mazzoo · March 2019

Jontommy said:

It’s a guitar I always want to pick up.
Really nice boxy sound. I wouldn’t be without it.

I had a quick look and they seem to be few and far between!

Jontommy · March 2019

They do come up for sale now and again.
the Yamaha fs800 is a Good value small bodied acoustic. Worth a try if you can find one locally

Andy79 · March 2019

https://www.richtonemusic.co.uk/product/fender_pm-2_am_ne_natural_2nd_hand_-yfender84145/

Kilgore · March 2019

Have a look at 000/OM and '''folk" guitars. These are generally smaller than dreds. They have a smaller waist and body depth, but are good all rounders for strumming, finger picking, etc.

Is a pickup a definite requirement? You may have to compromise on acoustic/electric tone at that price point.

thermionic · March 2019

Unless you need it for playing live on stage, forget the pickup and spend your £300 on quality wood and workmanship.

There’s a lot of small bodied guitars around from Recording King, Art & Lutherie, Alvarez, etc, as well as the obvious Sigmas. I would recommend the excellent The Loar LH-200 but they are getting hard to find now.

mazzoo · March 2019

Thanks for the advice everyone, I don't suppose I need the pick-up. Thought it might make it easier if I wanted to record stuff but haven't attempted any recording for years.

mazzoo · March 2019

thermionic said:

Unless you need it for playing live on stage, forget the pickup and spend your £300 on quality wood and workmanship.

There’s a lot of small bodied guitars around from Recording King, Art & Lutherie, Alvarez, etc, as well as the obvious Sigmas. I would recommend the excellent The Loar LH-200 but they are getting hard to find now.

Thanks for your suggestions. I have looked at the Art & Luthrie Legend although it sounds a bit 'boxy'...maybe not what I want. The Alvarez AP66 sounds amazing to me in demos, mellow and mmm well, I think I'm in love

There's a place near me with 1 in stock...I might have to go and see!

brucegill · March 2019

mazzoo said:

Thanks for the advice everyone, I don't suppose I need the pick-up. Thought it might make it easier if I wanted to record stuff but haven't attempted any recording for years.

To be fair, I’ve not heard a pickup I’d want to record. Only one is the Fishman rare earth blend and that can be added later and moved from one guitar to the next as it sits on the sound hole. The undersaddles all sound terrible to me for recording. Just a thought.

thermionic · March 2019

I’m with Steve Albini with this one - a recorded piezo pickup is an abomination. I have a few albums that are spoilt by this.

No excuse these days when a £50 Chinese condenser mike into a laptop will produce great results with a bit of experimentation and care in mike placement.

BigLicks67 · March 2019

I've given this a bit of thought and cannot think of anything I would buy new for £300.00 in the current market. You may be able to get a decent guitar used, but brand new you are going to struggle to find anything that will be satisfactory after the initial honeymoon period. A Yamaha FS will probably do the job albeit they can be a bit boxy. Alvarez in my experience have as much tone as a wet newspaper, especially if it's the parlour guitar you are looking at. Maybe look to a pay a bit more new and look at the better quality Sigmas or try to pick up a Taylor 1 series or Yamaha LS16 used.

Whistler · March 2019

Image: https://www.mansons.co.uk/userfiles/shop/products/main/main_10180.jpg

Manson guitar shop - Vintage V300MH, Mahogany Top, Folk Acoustic Guitar, £179

A friend has one of these and raves about it. I think it shows that while you need to be careful with lower-priced guitars there are little gems to be found.

A couple of years ago I decided to buy someone a guitar so I went into my local guitar shop and tried every acoustic and was surprised as the usual, known manufacturers, including Yamaha, Fender and Cort, were all uninspiring but I came across three guitars that really sounded nice and they all happened to be from the same manufacturer. It is not important which manufacturer (partly because I cannot remember) as the principle is, especially with acoustic guitars, to go and try them feel them, hear them in person as each will have their own voice and one (or three) in a whole shopful will speak to you, "I'm yours."

Andy79 · March 2019

In my opinion those vintage V300s are awful. They may well put you off small guitars for life. They themselves are indeed lifeless

Whistler · March 2019

Excellent comment, Andy - it just goes to show that one person's dream is another person's nightmare. Nothing can replace personally playing guitars to find your dream guitar.

Andy79 · March 2019

100% agree to that.
At least in the lower price guitars there is less financial risk when buying untested.
If forced into buying blind I would advise to go used for that money. Sigma, Recording King for example do some decent stuff with a bit of mojo about them

Rocker · March 2019

Sigma. Amazing guitars for very little money.

brucegill · March 2019

mazzoo said:

thermionic said:

Unless you need it for playing live on stage, forget the pickup and spend your £300 on quality wood and workmanship.

There’s a lot of small bodied guitars around from Recording King, Art & Lutherie, Alvarez, etc, as well as the obvious Sigmas. I would recommend the excellent The Loar LH-200 but they are getting hard to find now.

Thanks for your suggestions. I have looked at the Art & Luthrie Legend although it sounds a bit 'boxy'...maybe not what I want. The Alvarez AP66 sounds amazing to me in demos, mellow and mmm well, I think I'm in love There's a place near me with 1 in stock...I might have to go and see!

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/139447/f-s-masterworks-alvarez#latest

mazzoo · March 2019

thermionic said:

I’m with Steve Albini with this one - a recorded piezo pickup is an abomination. I have a few albums that are spoilt by this.

No excuse these days when a £50 Chinese condenser mike into a laptop will produce great results with a bit of experimentation and care in mike placement.

Well I won't bother with a pickup then! I'll cross the recording set -up bridge when I come to it.

drofluf · March 2019

I played the Alvarez at the weekend - i think t was that model - lovely sound but I found the neck shape uncomfortable. But that’s a personal thing, hope it works for you.

mazzoo · March 2019

BigLicks67 said:

I've given this a bit of thought and cannot think of anything I would buy new for £300.00 in the current market. You may be able to get a decent guitar used, but brand new you are going to struggle to find anything that will be satisfactory after the initial honeymoon period. A Yamaha FS will probably do the job albeit they can be a bit boxy. Alvarez in my experience have as much tone as a wet newspaper, especially if it's the parlour guitar you are looking at. Maybe look to a pay a bit more new and look at the better quality Sigmas or try to pick up a Taylor 1 series or Yamaha LS16 used.

I'm going to go and have a look at the Alvarez tomorrow. It sounded really nice to me online. I think the type of tone you like is going to be subjective, so I won't know until I try.
I will look also at the Taylor GS mini (out of my price range new but I have seen them go for £350 second hand.) The shop also has the Fender pm2, Washburn and Ibanez parlor models. They have 1 travel size Sigma.
So I could be there a while!

@brucegill ; Thanks for the suggestion, I'm not sure about OM size though, it would probably be for me like a dreadnought is to an average height player?

Andyjr1515 · March 2019

I was going to mention the GS mini, @mazzoo ; Yes - new a bit out of your range but, for what you have described, I would have said ideal. They sound superb and, in my view, are so nice to play.

An acoustic only one would be cheaper and you can always retrofit the specially designed clip in pickup later if you really need one. They are not overly expensive. But the mini recorded through a mic is absolutely fine.

Fuengi · March 2019

The Gretsch Jim Dandy always gets a good review, I think I tried one one and they are good fun, but you'd probably need an upgrade within a year or two.

Sigma are decent, quite heavily built if the one I had was anything to go by but not bad for the money.

Chris_J · March 2019

I have a Alverez AP 66 SHB as my couch/work/pub sesh guitar, it's really nice for the money. Plays and sounds great.

stimpsonslostson · March 2019

A year or two ago I did a hunt for a new small bodied guitar under £500 (so they should all be in your price range second hand).

I liked the Jim Dandy by Gretsch- it felt a bit "cheap" but played & sounded FAR better than anything else under £250.

The clear winner for me was the Faith Naked Mercury- all solid construction & a simply wonderful wee guitar. I've compared it to more expensive instruments & always come back to the Faith.

Blob · March 2019

I've just bought a Sigma 000M-15+ which sounds good and is very comfortable to play. I did try a couple from Alvarez but didn't like the neck, Faith Mercury which didn't sound great to me and a couple of more pricey options, a PRS and Faith Naked Venus which were both lovely but too much for me.

I would suggest getting to a shop that has a number of options and giving them a try, it worked for me, as I was primarily looking at the Alvarez or the Mercury and hadn't really thought about the Sigma.

drofluf · March 2019

I finally decided to go for the Baby Taylor after “auditioning” a number of potentials so perhaps another one to consider.

mazzoo · March 2019

Well thanks , everyone but I went for the Alvarez AP66. I went to a shop and they had no Sigma to try or the Fender Pm2, I tried a few others including Gretsch Dandy) and it was hard to decide between the Taylor Mini and the Alvarez. In the end I went for the Alvarez because the fretboard felt easier to play for me, it's wider than the Taylor mini. Also the finish on the Taylor had a few problems and I love the darker look of the Alvarez.
I did like them both and might have to 'collect' a Taylor in the future!

drofluf · March 2019

Enjoy it!

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Advice on Smaller acoustics needed

Comments