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So, I'm in the market for a nice acoustic, but am totally dumb on the subject. I don't know the first thing about tone woods and bracing and stuff.
I'm a hard strummer with a tendency to get riled up and strum harder. I also like to play finger style, but I don't do it as often. I know that I'd like a 1 3/4" nut and nice electronics and that's about it. I played a Taylor 316 and it was too clangy to my ear. I enjoy my buddy's Martin OMC-16 WE.

What is there to look for, as far as other brands go? How can I find a nice guitar for under multiple grands? Imports?
Anyone's acoustic experience would be very helpful. Thanks.

I know pretty much dick all about acoustics too, just go to your local GC and spend an hour or two playing a ton of acoustics. You'll figure out pretty quick what you like.

My experience is that I tend to like Martins and Larrivees and hate Taylors. I'd like to buy a nice acoustic one day too, but I play electric 98% of the time anyway (although maybe that's because I have nice electrics and mediocre acoustics ) so it seems pointless to me right now.

buy a good one and hold on to it--you won't regret it. i'm partial to martins with rosewood bodies and spruce tops with scalloped bracing. gibsons and taylors sound thin to me. GCs have a great selection in their high-end acoustic room where you can get an idea of the different sounds of the tonewood combinations.

Unfortunately, I will have to make a several hour trip in any given direction to get somewhere with a decent selection to do some testing.
Part of me just wants to buy this guys Larrivee. http://reverb.com/item/149550-larrivee- ... ral-blonde

That Larrivee does look nice, but Colin's advice shouldn't be discounted.

You're not gonna know what you really want until you get your grubby little hands all over a bunch of different acoustics.

Acoustics are less forgiving than electrics. Buying a guitar like that is a total gamble for you at this point. It's totally worth the trip to go to a good shop and try out as many guitars as you can. Make an adventure out of it and bring along someone with a good set of ears to help you narrow the field.

I see a couple of guitar shops in your town that have acoustics... Plus don't you know some P&W guys??? They always have acoustics around to try...

Hah! My P&W crowd is surprisingly light on acoustics. The shops around here mostly deal in low end/import Taylor, Martin, Breedlove, Yamaha and Fender.
I'll just start trying to get in and play anything I can, I guess.

sonidero wrote:I see a couple of guitar shops in your town that have acoustics......

Must be that third eye...

Yeah man acoustics are totally a hands on thing... Sometimes the crappiest looking one is the one that clicks with ya... I used to have a real nice Fender, who aren't really know for good acoustics, and everyone who played it said it was the best jumbo they've ever played so you never know... They are different sizes and shapes and some will work for you and some won't but you need to try some to figure it out... I wouldn't jump in the deep end at a grand just to find out it aint for you, know what I'm sayin???

Unfortunately hands on is the Acoustic way.

A few to look into are:

Breedlove low-end
Epiphone Masterbilt
Seagull
Tacoma

I've had the best experience finding good-sounding cheap-ish acoustics from those manufacturors. Less so (and less expensively) with

Takamine
Ibanez
Yamaha

Really good value for money are the acoustic brands by Godin guitars:
Simon & Patrick, Norman, Seagull, Art & Lutherie (the low price brand).
All made in Canada.
And if you can find a used one it won't break your wallet.

foomanfat wrote:So, I'm in the market for a nice acoustic, but am totally dumb on the subject. I don't know the first thing about tone woods and bracing and stuff.
I'm a hard strummer with a tendency to get riled up and strum harder. I also like to play finger style, but I don't do it as often. I know that I'd like a 1 3/4" nut and nice electronics and that's about it. I played a Taylor 316 and it was too clangy to my ear. I enjoy my buddy's Martin OMC-16 WE.

What is there to look for, as far as other brands go? How can I find a nice guitar for under multiple grands? Imports?
Anyone's acoustic experience would be very helpful. Thanks.

You are just going to have to look around. on the cheap old Hondos are the shit, awesome martin clones for the price but really you are just going to have to play lots of guitars, finding a acoustic can really take a while.

As for woods and bracing… how heavily it is braced is more a issue than what pattern [IMOP and I'm fucking right!] a guitar with heavy bracing is going to be tight sounding and the only way to really get a balanced sound is heavy strings or have the braces shaved, light bracing can lead to a boomy guitar [this is a good thing] and the top can warp, bulge with heavy strings, but they will perform very nicely with lighter strings then one would think. Wood.. spruce vs cedar… meh.. back and sides… I have a friend that makes guitars out of whole blocks of red cedar, no hardwoods in the body, no bending either, he carves the whole thing out of a block.. and they sound like a normal, very nice guitar… have fun looking and listening. link of one of his creations http://www.mandomutt.com/products-page/ ... ustic-bass I got to see that in the building process