Guitar price and tone

dazzer22 · December 2022

I don't know if a lot of people find this out but money doesn't buy you the perfect tone, i have tried a lot of high priced guitars out and although most of them are well made and sounded good i keep going back to my dads Crafter D7 /N £200 guitar, I just love the tone and sound it makes over the guitars i have had and tried, I think it has a Cedar top so maybe i should get one used or try some others with a Cedar top like Seagull S6, I noticed a lot of the guitars up and over £1000 don't do cedar tops, so i think Seagull S6 is about £600 new it feels over priced for its specs so might try and find a used one.

guitarjack66 · December 2022

Surely tone is in the ear of the beholder? And sometimes in the eye based on the name on the headstock!

Teyeplayer · December 2022

Auden do a lot of their models with a cedar option. Worth a look imo, they sound lovely.

p90fool · December 2022

If you like cedar tops then a ten grand spruce top guitar won't float your boat.

Outside of particular specs/tastes though I'd say that quality of tone relates to price in acoustic guitars way more than it does with electrics.

I played acoustic guitars for money for forty years before I finally took the plunge on an expensive American guitar, and now I play acoustic guitar for pleasure too.

There was just no way around it for me.

m0rt · December 2022

Takamine do some pretty decent cedar tops. There was an AN10 super natural series on here not so long ago that was around 700 new twenty years ago. I had the AN16 which was spruce topped.

Soupman · December 2022

@dazzer22 said

"a lot of the guitars up and over £1000 don't do cedar tops"

Lowden do. I wouldn't part with my O25 - cedar top, rosewood back & sides.

ToneControl · December 2022

cheaper acoustic guitars are way better than when I was a kid, but the pro-level handmade stuff (£~2.5k) is in a different league

slacker · December 2022

Imho it's the guitar not the model. I predict that you will have trouble finding another guitar like it. I know two people with identical cheapie dreadnaughts, one is better than the other.

Years ago I borrowed a cheap Washburn. A friend said that it was significantly better than his.

By all means look but you are going to try a lot of guitars.

Shadow · December 2022

You can get a Furch Blue in cedar/mahogany for £899.

GoFish · December 2022

I'll chime in to say that you can get some low cost gems in Acoustic as well as electric - these are quite rare, imo, and have survived the battle of attrition. We get to see the very best that have stuck around. As @slacker said, its the guitar not the model. Some brands have a greater hit rate than others - red label Yamahas for example. Consistency improves through the price ranges. Of course, by the time you are at £2k+ there had better be a world of difference! I'd humbly suggest that £600 provides a rough benchmark between the two extremes.

I had a Cedar top once. Simon & Patrick maybe? One of the Seagull family. Sounded nice, mellow - but didn't suit me to play.

TheMadMick · December 2022

You can buy most any guitar in the Avalon range with a cedar top and none of those are "cheap" but they are good value. I've got a pioneer with a walnut B&S and a cedar top and it's a great guitar - but at that price it bloody should be.

Lawriejones1 · December 2022

Agree with all that cheap acoustics are incredible value nowadays. The Simon & Partick guitars in particular are exceptional.

However, the leap to something handmade (like the Kinkade guitar I have) is large. But I still can't play, so makes little difference!

bertie · December 2022

dazzer22 said:

I don't know if a lot of people find this out but money doesn't always buy you the tone you're searching for

FTFY

Kilgore · December 2022

bertie said:

dazzer22 said:

I don't know if a lot of people find this out but money doesn't always buy you the tone you're searching for

FTFY

What Bertie said.

If the tone you're looking for comes out of a D45 or Gretsch Jim Dandy, it doesn't really matter.

GoFish · December 2022

@Shadow ; - I'd be intrigued to hear cedar with Furch's generally brighter sounds. Would they complement or fight against each other?

Shadow · December 2022

GoFish said:

@Shadow ;; - I'd be intrigued to hear cedar with Furch's generally brighter sounds. Would they complement or fight against each other?

I have the Blue OM-CM that I mentioned. To my ear the highs are clear without being overly bright and the low end is full and warm but not too soft in the way that I find the all mahogany guitars that I've played are. I compared the Blue to some Audens and I was stuck by how much fuller the Furch sounded. That was what swung it for me.

strtdv · January 2023

Best guitar for the money I ever played was a Furch OM, I think it was called the bluegrass series or something at the time, it has now become the Vintage series. It was around £1000 and had tones to genuinely rival a £2k+ Martin. Sadly I didn't have £1000 to spend on a guitar at the time

ditchboy · January 2023

I’ve been looking for something to replace my GS mini. Got it narrowed down to a Furch or Larrivee OM. I’ve had both in the past but they were dreads. The tone on the models I had were certainly different but both superb. I’m not sure there’s £500 worth of difference in build quality or tone between the two models though.

LastMantra · January 2023

slacker said:

Imho it's the guitar not the model. I predict that you will have trouble finding another guitar like it. I know two people with identical cheapie dreadnaughts, one is better than the other.

Years ago I borrowed a cheap Washburn. A friend said that it was significantly better than his.

By all means look but you are going to try a lot of guitars.

Same strings and set up?

drofluf · January 2023

GoFish said:

@Shadow ; - I'd be intrigued to hear cedar with Furch's generally brighter sounds. Would they complement or fight against each other?

I’ve got the Furch Little Jane which is cedar top and mahogany body and it sounds a nice combination to me. It’s parlour sized (maybe smaller) but has a nice warm tone, definitely not what I’d describe as “bright” but I like it.

thomasross20 · January 2023

There's a lot of love for Furch. Looks like good value but have never tried one.

I am a Larrivee fanboy. So much so that I ordered another yesterday. There are lots of good deals on new and used right now.

ditchboy · January 2023

thomasross20 said:

There's a lot of love for Furch. Looks like good value but have never tried one.

I am a Larrivee fanboy. So much so that I ordered another yesterday. There are lots of good deals on new and used right now.

I picked up on that, that’s why I asked you what you thought of the walnut version. What did you order yesterday?

Do you think £1700 for a used OM3 is overpriced?

thomasross20 · January 2023

ditchboy said:

thomasross20 said:

There's a lot of love for Furch. Looks like good value but have never tried one.

I am a Larrivee fanboy. So much so that I ordered another yesterday. There are lots of good deals on new and used right now.

I picked up on that, that’s why I asked you what you thought of the walnut version. What did you order yesterday?

Do you think £1700 for a used OM3 is overpriced?

GG have a used walnut OM03 for £1499.
I just ordered a P-03 parlour.

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