Good quality sub-£2,000 acoustic with Fishman Aura or similar?

imalrightjack

Hi,

Toying with picking up a new acoustic. I had a Martin a few years back with the Fishman Aura system which I loved as it sounded great through a PA or direct recording. 

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

ICBM

Get any nice acoustic, have it fitted with a simple unpreamped undersaddle piezo - eg a Fishman AG094 - and an endpin jack, and buy a Fishman Aura pedal. (The Aura works best from a plain UST.)

It will be a better acoustic for the money, it will never suffer from built-in obsolescence or reliability problems, and if you do want to upgrade or need to replace the Aura in a few years' time with whatever the future's better-sounding equivalent is, you can very easily, without altering the guitar…

I've said all this before, I know .

imalrightjack

Interesting, @ICBM,  although I think the right guitar would last me a long time. I should have kept the Martin...

danishbacon

Furch/Stonebridge - by a mile. Look at schertler m ag6 + condenser mic. 

imalrightjack

@danishbacon and @crunchman Can you educate me some more on Furch?

crunchman

imalrightjack said:

@danishbacon and @crunchman Can you educate me some more on Furch?

Made in what used to be Czechoslovakia (can't remember which bit).  There is a history of instrument making and crafts there.  They are not the only quality guitar makers from that part of the world (check out Rosawood but they tend to be more expensive).

Furch guitars have been sold under the Stonebridge brand as well - this may have been an attempt to come up with a name that would sound better in the English speaking world, but they are the same guitars.

The majority of Furch guitars that I've come across are based on the classic Martin designs.  They are very responsive and possibly not as heavily braced as some other guitars.  I have heard of tops bellying up with very heavy strings.  If you want to use 13s, then you might want to look elsewhere.

I've owned two (still have one of them), as well as 3 Martins (still have 2).  If you have 3 grand plus to spend on one of the really high end Martins, then they are very hard to beat, but in the sub 2000 range, my experience is that a Furch will normally sound a lot better than a Martin of the same price.

Wages in Eastern Europe are a lot less than wages in the US, and they are inside the EU so there is no import duty, so it makes sense that they can build good guitars more cheaply.  Martin prices aren't helped in the UK by their distributor either.  At one point, you could get one of the the D18 variants £300 cheaper in Germany than here.

A lot of Furch guitars do have a leopard print scratchplate that might not appeal to all.  You can get them with other colours though.

imalrightjack

Thanks, @crunchman !

musicman100

You could get a used Collings for less that 2000 Which would blow a furch away in every way. 

crunchman

musicman100 said:

You could get a used Collings for less that 2000 Which would blow a furch away in every way. 

Collings are very well built, but they don't blow me away sound wise.  Given my experience of both, I'd generally prefer a Furch.

musicman100

crunchman said:

musicman100 said:

You could get a used Collings for less that 2000 Which would blow a furch away in every way. 

Collings are very well built, but they don't blow me away sound wise.  Given my experience of both, I'd generally prefer a Furch.

It's all subjective. But I would says Collings are in a completely different league 

ICBM

I've never played a Furch, but I have played several Collings. On that basis I would try a Furch .

I've never played a Collings I liked - perfectly made and totally characterless in my opinion.