Recommend acoustic

Oldguy · December 2021

Hi, new member, first post.

I currently own and play several electrics, Strats, Tele, semi etc but wish to branch out to try an acoustic. I have tried jumbos, but I am not comfortable playing them, bodies far too thick for my arm to get around.. can anyone from experience recommend a mid priced, slimline electro acoustic. I would e very grateful for any pointers as to which would be suitable.

drofluf · December 2021

What’s your budget?

Regarding the size does it have to be slimline? My view is that will give you a thinner tone. I can’t play larger bodies guitars but am comfortable with 00/000/parlour sized. Just a thought?

Spikeedog · December 2021

With an acoustic guitar you should persist and find a comfortable sitting position. I find a medium height stool with a wee bit of back support combined with a footstand with the guitar waist on my right
knee is perfect for gigs. Always stand up with a guitar strap when playing electric though. If you want real tone, I think you'll have to get a full bodied acoustic guitar. The Taylor mini GS have plenty mid range tone are are quite easy to handle maybe as a starting point but doesn't really rival a bigger body imho. Good luck and let us know how it transpires.

Mellish · December 2021

@Oldguy what they said ^^^

welcome to the forum

Tannin · December 2021

@drofluf is on the case. Finding a jumbo too big for comfort is like finding an articulated lorry awkward to park - of all guitars made, jumbos are the biggest, followed by dreadnoughts. What you want is one of the small to mid-sized bodies: these have more names than a wallaby has fleas, but some of them are 0, 00, 000, 808, OM, concert, auditorium, grand auditorium, and traditional. These are all roughly jumbo shaped (two distinct, rounded bouts, similar to a classical guitar, or a Les Paul for that matter) but smaller and all fit easily under the arm. Some are a bit deeper, some are shallower, some are a little bigger,. some a little smaller. All are very playable. Bear it in mind that the volume of the body is a very significant factor in the sound production. All else being equal, a shallower body will have a weaker sound. Slimline acoustics are designed for amplified use on-stage. Used as actual acoustics, they don't sound fantastic. That is just physics - you can't make a violin sound like a cello.

Spikeedog · December 2021

Agree with @Tannin ;; My own wallaby is flea free btw.

WBT2079 · December 2021

Agree with what others have said above. I had a dreadnought and a super folk. I began to find my dreadnought uncomfortable to play being too big in the lower bout, but still wanted something that projected well so I have moved to concert size and now have a Yamaha AC3R. It’s a lovely guitar, loud and comfortable to play. Slightly smaller than my dreadnought but not too small that you feel hunched over it. I would go to your local shop and try some out until you find the size/shape/style you like, then investigate options online where you can easily compare size specs. Then when you’ve a couple of options if you can, find somewhere to try them.

bertie · December 2021

define "mid price" and then we're on a starter

TheMadMick · December 2021

Yamaha make decent models at most price points and they are all good value for money in my experience.

Mellish · December 2021

Someone has already mentioned the Taylor GS Mini. It's a decent little guitar for the money. I tried one in PMT Manchester which I'd have bought if Mrs Mellish hadn't put her foot down

Cirrus · December 2021

They've got a lot more expensive in the last few years though. When I got my GS Mini Mahogany in 2013 it was £329, and I thought that was a great price for a well put together little travel guitar. Now they're £550, I don't know if I feel the same way.

Switch625 · December 2021

Yamaha APX series? An APX 700 Can be had for around £300 second hand.

Mellish · December 2021

@Cirrus I hear you. The one I tried was the Mahogany, too. But such a sweet-sounding little fella that, even at today's price, I'd still find it hard to say no. In fact, I sneaked back next day. Gone

bertie · December 2021

Oldguy · December 2021

Hi guys. Thanks for the welcome to the forum and for all the information and advice. Although I have been playing for a good few years now, all my experience is on electrics and have become somewhat stuck in a rut. So I am now researching online all the types, sizes, manufacturers you mentioned and will hopefully arrive at a preferred option. I will follow your advice and try out a size before purchase. Thanks again for all the input.

fatherchewielewie · December 2021

Buy an Eastman E1D...... a modernish sounding all-solid dread with a traditionalish kind of a neck profile,1 3/4" nut, and fantastic build quality. Just got one recently.... huge amount of guitar for very little money. I've played/owned/own enough US-built boxes and I'd be happy to play that E1D in the company of any of them. An even better bargain used.

shufflebeat · December 2021

I definitely, for a variety of reasons, don't need one of these and didn't go looking to buy any guitar but very nearly bought one. For someone coming from electric-land I would strongly suggest you find one and try it:

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/14100712040932--takamine-ef407-koa-new-yorker

bertie · December 2021

Id only really be looking at a "thin" A/E if you're looking to use it live. If you want to just "get into" playing acoustic more, get a "normal" depth body, and TBH leave out the electronics - you'll get much better bang for buck and better tone/fullness of sound

ICBM · December 2021

bertie said:

Id only really be looking at a "thin" A/E if you're looking to use it live. If you want to just "get into" playing acoustic more, get a "normal" depth body, and TBH leave out the electronics - you'll get much better bang for buck and better tone/fullness of sound

This - unless you actually *need* an electro-acoustic (for playing live, or because using it with effects is your main objective) then don't get one - you'll spend more money than you need on a less good guitar than you can get if you buy a plain acoustic. The electronics package does compromise the tone to some extent as well.

Even if you want to record with it, you'll get better results with a mic or a simple pickup and an impulse response/modelling-type system than with a typical electro.

They also have reliability problems and the system will be obsolete before a decent guitar has even aged nicely, and usually very difficult to replace with something different without major work to the guitar because they are very rarely designed to be backwards-compatible.

If you wonder how obsolete a pickup and preamp system can be in twenty years, listen to the sound of a 90s Takamine

.

bertie · December 2021

ICBM said:

bertie said:

Id only really be looking at a "thin" A/E if you're looking to use it live. If you want to just "get into" playing acoustic more, get a "normal" depth body, and TBH leave out the electronics - you'll get much better bang for buck and better tone/fullness of sound

This - unless you actually *need* an electro-acoustic (for playing live, or because using it with effects is your main objective) then don't get one - you'll spend more money than you need on a less good guitar than you can get if you buy a plain acoustic. The electronics package does compromise the tone to some extent as well.

Even if you want to record with it, you'll get better results with a mic or a simple pickup and an impulse response/modelling-type system than with a typical electro.

They also have reliability problems and the system will be obsolete before a decent guitar has even aged nicely, and usually very difficult to replace with something different without major work to the guitar because they are very rarely designed to be backwards-compatible.

If you wonder how obsolete a pickup and preamp system can be in twenty years, listen to the sound of a 90s Takamine .

that

drpbier · December 2021

So what's a good pure acoustic OM for 500-750?

Cirrus · December 2021

100% re; the Takamine thing.

Or going back further... Ovation

The thing with acoustics is that you can't get around the need to go and try them. They have less ways to adjust the setup/playability than most electrics, and there's no substitute for playing a bunch in quick succession to see what sounds and feels right. That gives you valuable context - most acoustics in isolation just sound like acoustics, it's when you try a few back to back that you notice one has a harsh sound, another has congested mids, another has very little body etc etc.

If you trust your ears and fingers, it's hard to go wrong. I recently picked a 20 year old laminate back and sides Martin with a bolt on neck over a number of solid wood, much nicer decked out acoustics. It sounded and played better than any of them, and after 2 hours in the shop I realised it was going to come home with me.

bertie · December 2021

Give Faith a go, not sure which model is OM sized, I had the parlor for a while - lot of bang for ££

I really like my Tanglewood parlor - all solid woods (but in a previous thread the make split opinions) - again, not sure which model is their OM, but I think you'd get an all solid for that money

Not sure if Eastman can be got for that kind of ££, Ive never been a fan of the lower end "big names"

Recording King certainly worth a try

earwighoney · December 2021

bertie said:

Give Faith a go, not sure which model is OM sized, I had the parlor for a while - lot of bang for ££

I really like my Tanglewood parlor - all solid woods (but in a previous thread the make split opinions) - again, not sure which model is their OM, but I think you'd get an all solid for that money

Not sure if Eastman can be got for that kind of ££, Ive never been a fan of the lower end "big names"

Recording King certainly worth a try

I have guitars by Eastman and Recording King, the Eastmans I own and have played (the ones around £500) are vastly superior in quality, but the RK has a particular sound which really suits certain applications. The RK sounds the best for playing with a slide for example.

I'd attempt to play these and the Faith, Tanglewood etc to see which one suited the individual the most.

BigPaulie · December 2021

ICBM said:

bertie said:

Id only really be looking at a "thin" A/E if you're looking to use it live. If you want to just "get into" playing acoustic more, get a "normal" depth body, and TBH leave out the electronics - you'll get much better bang for buck and better tone/fullness of sound

This - unless you actually *need* an electro-acoustic (for playing live, or because using it with effects is your main objective) then don't get one - you'll spend more money than you need on a less good guitar than you can get if you buy a plain acoustic. The electronics package does compromise the tone to some extent as well.

Even if you want to record with it, you'll get better results with a mic or a simple pickup and an impulse response/modelling-type system than with a typical electro.

They also have reliability problems and the system will be obsolete before a decent guitar has even aged nicely, and usually very difficult to replace with something different without major work to the guitar because they are very rarely designed to be backwards-compatible.

If you wonder how obsolete a pickup and preamp system can be in twenty years, listen to the sound of a 90s Takamine .

Expand that to include just about any '90s MTV Unplugged performance where they didn't actually use mic'd acoustics.

Most of those performances sounded absolutely terrible. The only things that were acoustic were the drums and vocals. I'm sorry: if you're playing an "acoustic" guitar with a piezo pickup into an acoustic amp, or going DI, you can't claim to be "Unplugged" at all.

ICBM · December 2021

BigPaulie said:

Expand that to include just about any '90s MTV Unplugged performance where they didn't actually use mic'd acoustics.

Most of those performances sounded absolutely terrible. The only things that were acoustic were the drums and vocals. I'm sorry: if you're playing an "acoustic" guitar with a piezo pickup into an acoustic amp, or going DI, you can't claim to be "Unplugged" at all.

Ironically, Kurt Cobain with his Bartolini magnetic pickup going into a Fender Twin and then mic’ed is arguably *more* acoustic than a DI’d Takamine where there is no actual air in the signal path from guitar strings to recording equipment at all.

It sounds better too!

BigPaulie · December 2021

ICBM said:

BigPaulie said:

Expand that to include just about any '90s MTV Unplugged performance where they didn't actually use mic'd acoustics.

Most of those performances sounded absolutely terrible. The only things that were acoustic were the drums and vocals. I'm sorry: if you're playing an "acoustic" guitar with a piezo pickup into an acoustic amp, or going DI, you can't claim to be "Unplugged" at all.

Ironically, Kurt Cobain with his Bartolini magnetic pickup going into a Fender Twin and then mic’ed is arguably *more* acoustic than a DI’d Takamine where there is no actual air in the signal path from guitar strings to recording equipment at all.

It sounds better too!

I totally agree

fendergibson · January 2022

Try a Taylor Big Baby…and thank me later

Smellyfingers · January 2022

Second hand Taylor 110es seem to be plentiful on the used market last time I looked for around £350-500 mark. 1. Taylor mexicos plant qc is said to be top notch so probably difficult to find a dud. 2. Acoustics guitars are all Taylor do. 3. Martin Co hates them.

But maybe a bit sterile, but you can't really go wrong imi.

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