Okay, now you can see that playing acoustic guitar can be cool and you don't need to be a cowboy, hippie or an old man to play one. Now that the stereotypes are behind us, we can get busy looking for a cool acoustic guitar.
Where to start? I recommend spending some time window shopping and researching acoustic guitars on the Internet to get a good idea of what is available, what you like and how much you are willing to spend. Some good guitar retailer websites to visit are:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/ , http://www.zzounds.com/ , http://www.elderly.com/ , http://www.sweetwater.com/ , http://www.music123.com/ and http://www.samash.com/. There are many more, including Ebay and Amazon. Although, I don't advise researching guitars on those sites. They tend to have less detailed specs and are better suited for experienced guitar buyers. I will cover buying and selling on Ebay in a future post.
There are 3 basic body styles: Dreadnought (or Dread), Jumbo and Orchestra Model (or OM). The dread is the most popular style. It is the "Swiss Army Knife" of the acoustic guitar world. It can cover a wide range of playing styles. The dread was an original Martin body style. The Martin D-28 is always a top seller. The jumbo is another popular body style. They are bigger than a dread and respond well to a flat pick. They are LOUD and well balanced tonally. You will see them used in country, rock and pop music. Gibson put the jumbo guitar on the map.The Gibson J200 is the ultimate jumbo guitar favored by players everywhere. OM body guitars have grown in popularity over the years. OM's tend to be favored by fingerstyle players. They feature a smaller body and usually have a wider fretboard. This allows the guitar to be more responsive to a light touch and the wider fretboard gives the player more room to play fingerstyle. The trade off is that most OM sized guitars don't respond well to heavy flat picking. Santa Cruz makes some of the best OM guitars out there. The Santa Cruz OM/PW is popular with fingerstyle players. With that said, most manufacturers make dreads, jumbos and OM sized guitars. There are many other acoustic guitar shapes available that I didn't cover: Slope shoulder dreads, concert size and "in between" size guitars like the Taylor X14 Series guitars (combination of a dread and OM). I wanted to keep it basic, that is why I only focused on the 3 most common body styles.
The most important component on an acoustic guitar is the top (soundboard). Some experts claim 80% of the guitar's tone comes from the top. I highly recommend buying a guitar with a solid top. The most popular tone woods used on guitar tops are spruce and cedar. There are different species of spruce. The most common are sitka, engelmann and adirondack. Spruce is stiff and tends to produce a snappy, direct sound with few overtones. Spruce holds up well to heavy picking but may be lacking in responsiveness for a lighter touch. Cedar is softer than spruce. Cedar produces a warm tone full of overtones. Cedar may produce a broken up sound if picked hard, therefore it tends be better suited for a lighter touch and is excellent for fingerstyle due to it's responsiveness.
The other important component on the acoustic guitar is the neck joint. There are 2 popular methods of attaching the neck to the guitar: Dovetail and Bolt on. Dovetail is the traditional method favored by most acoustic guitar manufacturers. The neck joint is hand fitted to the guitar and secured with glue. The bolt on method is becoming more popular with modern builders that tend to stray away from the traditional methods of guitar construction. Taylor is a company that has had great success with their bolt on necks. They are easy to adjust and repair. Either way, if you buy from a quality company you can expect many years of enjoyment out of your guitar as long as you take care of it.
Selecting a nice, budget friendly guitar:
You can find nice solid top acoustic guitars in the $200 -$400 range. They will feature laminate sides and backs. Please keep in mind that there is cheap laminate tone woods and high quality laminate tone woods. Cheap laminates are usually made up of 2 ultra thin veneer sheets of wood with an artificial wood filler between them. I consider them to be glorified plywood. High quality laminates feature 3 sheets of actual tone woods. Seagull, Yamaha and Taylor are known for their high quality laminate back & sides on their entry level, solid top acoustic guitars.
You will have a hard time finding a better dread shaped acoustic guitar than the Yamaha FG700 in the $200 range. It features a solid spruce top and a 3 ply, nato back & sides. Nato is very similar to mahogany. The Yamaha FG730 is an upgraded version of the FG700. It has a solid spruce top, 3 ply rosewood back & sides, fret board & head stock bindings and an abalone rosette. The FG730 is available in a variety of different finishes.You can find them in the $300 range.
I highly recommend the Seagull Entourage Rustic acoustic guitar in the $300 -$400 range. It is a dread shaped guitar with a solid, pressure treated, cedar top with 3 ply, wild cherry backs and sides. Seagull guitars are made in Canada. They feature a machined, bolt on neck joint. Their quality control is impeccable and they sound incredible. Best part? You can find them for $325 or less if you shop around. I own a Entourage Rustic. It is an exceptional guitar for the money. I plan to post video clips of it on the MegaGuitar316 You Tube page in the near future.
There are a lot of excellent options in the $500 -$800 range. You can get into an a Taylor 110 or Taylor 210 with built in electronics in this range. The Taylor 100 & 200 Series feature solid tops and high quality laminate sides and backs. At this price point you will find several solid wood options from different manufacturers: Guild GAD Series, Epiphone Masterbilt, Yamaha L Series (6&16 Series), Eastman and Blueridge are a few popular brands worth checking out. My favorite brands in this price range are Taylor and Yamaha, but you can't go wrong with any of the brands mentioned here.
Protecting your new acoustic guitar from the elements:
Okay, you have your new guitar and are ready to get started! Hold on a minute. Did your guitar come with a padded gig bag or a case? No? Buy one now. It's the number tool needed to protect and maintain your guitar. You can find them in the $20 -$125 range depending on style, quality and brand name.
Low humidity: Solid top and all solid (top, back & sides) guitars can crack or implode if exposed to low humidity over an extended period of time. The optimum humidity range is 40% -50%. Anything below 30% is dangerous. Why? Wood contains moisture. When it dries out it shrinks and becomes brittle. The typical guitar has approximately 200 pounds of string pressure on the soundboard. That is why it is critical to maintain proper humidity levels. The easiest thing to do is to maintain the humidity in your guitar case or gig bag rather than fight to control it in your home. If you live in a northern climate chances are you have a forced air furnace. Forced air furnaces remove humidity from the air. The humidity in my home routinely drops below 30% in the winter and that is with a humidifier built into my furnace. How do you control the humidity in your padded gig bag or case? Buy a sound hole humidifier. They are inexpensive and effective. I recommend the Planet Waves Sound Hole Humidifier. You can find them for less than $12 from a variety of on line stores and in your local shops.
Extreme cold: Sudden changes in temperature can damage the finish on your guitar. For example, taking a guitar in from a cold car into a warm house in the winter would be considered a sudden temperature change. It is best to leave the guitar in the case until the case feels warm before pulling out the guitar. This rule also applies to new guitars delivered during the winter. As a general rule, guitars are usually warm enough to open after they have been indoors for a few hours.
Extreme heat: Heat will destroy a guitar quicker than anything. Guitars are constructed with glue. Extreme heat melts the glue. Once that happens your guitar will implode. Never leave your guitar in a vehicle during the summer months.
Stay tuned for the next step in the process....
MG316
