Frustrating afternoon in Denmark Street

TheMarlin

These shops tend to be big, and noisy.  That may give a different result to the home environment.
I had a Sigma.  Hated it.   I like Yamahas, but you really need to go to the top of the range for best results.  Some of the LL's are very lovely.

I was very impressed by the Faith Naked series, particularly the dreadnought size and larger.  They really sound great, regardless of their relatively low retail price.  Breedlove also make excellent acoustics.

Failing that, I have a very special handmade acoustic i'm looking to trade for an electric, or pedals/power etc

Marlin

ICBM

fandango said:

robgilmo said:

Em , No, Mr Electricity invented electricity, way way back in the day.

No, no, no! History tells us there was no electricity until Leo Fender came along. And then we rocked around the clock.

Mr. Rickenbacker invented electricity back in 1931. He was trying to cook something in his frying pan and it went a bit wrong, but like many of the best inventions he realised he could sell the result.

Leo invented low frequencies. Before him, bass instruments were a surrealist art concept - to be seen but not heard. Leo wasn't much into pretentious art and missed the joke.

rlw

TheMarlin said:

These shops tend to be big, and noisy.  That may give a different result to the home environment.
I had a Sigma.  Hated it.   I like Yamahas, but you really need to go to the top of the range for best results.  Some of the LL's are very lovely.

I was very impressed by the Faith Naked series, particularly the dreadnought size and larger.  They really sound great, regardless of their relatively low retail price.  Breedlove also make excellent acoustics.

Failing that, I have a very special handmade acoustic i'm looking to trade for an electric, or pedals/power etc

Marlin

I think I've decided that I'm not an acoustic person.  After my first post, I played my LP for about an hour with lots of gain, delay and reverb and felt that my guitar needs were being very amply met......

rlw

What I am going to do is wait until they arrive in the UK and then try one of the new Academy Series Taylors, with the slightly shorter scale and the "armrest", which looks like they just sanded the top edge right off........

scrumhalf

I'm sure that if youo'd asked Les Paul he would have cliamed to have invented electricity.

pintspiller

I find acoustics are nice to frightened about on. Not necessarily nice enough to actually own.

rlw

scrumhalf said:

I'm sure that if youo'd asked Les Paul he would have cliamed to have invented electricity.

Enough already.  As God created everything (obviously) he must have created Les Paul and Leo Fender and Mr Rickenbacker so he gets first dibs on inventing electricity.

olafgarten

I like a good acoustic. It's not really meant to be easy to play, but if you get a smaller body with a slightly shorter scale length it's easier. 

They have a very different purpose even through you can get away with playing something like Black Math on one. 

Dave_Mc

rlw said:

I just didn't like the size of the things, the ungainly shape or how they sound.  God invented electricity for a good reason.

Yeah I'm the same. That being said, some shapes are a bit comfier than others- if you can be bothered it's worth trying a bunch of different body shapes just in case you find one that suits you.

rlw

Dave_Mc said:

rlw said:

I just didn't like the size of the things, the ungainly shape or how they sound.  God invented electricity for a good reason.

Yeah I'm the same. That being said, some shapes are a bit comfier than others- if you can be bothered it's worth trying a bunch of different body shapes just in case you find one that suits you.

Tall, slim and busty usually suits me.

Sporky

Acoustics are really loud. Unnaturally so, in my view.

Schnozz

I'm interested in Acoustics - They're great fun to play and save buying a practice Amp for the bedroom

However, no upper fret access (on most) so you'd probably need an Electric as well

Ancient_Mariner

For the kind of money you wanted to spend then a Faith naked series would give you a great instrument, but do try to get something with a smaller body. I recently picked up a used Tanglewood folk sized guitar with cedar top for playing slide in a gospel blues band, and it's much comfier to use seated than a dreadnought. Tone and projection are good, with all the energy going to the mids, but I wouldn't recommend it for normal playing because the fingerboard it too narrow.

TBH I don't actually like the sound of acoustic guitars, but there are times you just need one.

professorben

rlw said:

Dave_Mc said:

rlw said:

I just didn't like the size of the things, the ungainly shape or how they sound.  God invented electricity for a good reason.

Yeah I'm the same. That being said, some shapes are a bit comfier than others- if you can be bothered it's worth trying a bunch of different body shapes just in case you find one that suits you.

Tall, slim and busty usually suits me.

Yep, this. 

mr-mac

Well if your an electric kinda guy and didn't like sound of any acoustics (what didn't you like about sound?) maybe route I have taken would be more interesting.

A good archtop, with a cutaway, string with decent gauge pure nickel electric strings (gets rid of a bit of the overly zingy sound - I went round wound not flat as not looing for a jazz sound)... Feels a damn site better better to play and think shape of an archtop although can be thicker in middle are often less high at sides feels quite nice.

My archtop has a pretty low action (although harder work than an electric as 25.5" scale and 12's) it sounds great and it feels better to me to play than standard shaped acoustics.

Believe there are some quite reasonable ones in that budget new and s/h and if a traditional electric pickup model the addition of a good piezo will add a nice amplified acoustic sound too.

olafgarten

mr-mac said:

Well if your an electric kinda guy and didn't like sound of any acoustics (what didn't you like about sound?) maybe route I have taken would be more interesting.

A good archtop string with decent gauge pure nickel electric strings (gets rid of a bit of the overly zingy sound - I went round wound not flat as not looing for a jazz sound)... Feels a damn site better better to play and think shape of an archtop although can be thicker in middle are often less high at sides feels quite nice.

My archtop has a pretty low action (although harder work than an electric as 25.5" scale and 12's) it sounds great and it feels better to me to play than standard shaped acoustics.

Believe there are some quite reasonable ones in that budget new and s/h and if a traditional electric pickup model the addition of a good piezo will add a nice amplified acoustic sound too.

If you really can't get on with the shape a thinline Archtop is probably the way to go. 

rlw

Yamaha apx500 -that sort of thing are we talking about here - or am I missing the point entirely?

Wolfetone

For that sort of money, I would be looking at the Faith Venus's particularly the Blood Moon. You could also try some of the higher end Tanglewoods which, to be honest (to my ears) sound far nicer.

Ancient_Mariner

rlw said:

Yamaha apx500 -that sort of thing are we talking about here - or am I missing the point entirely?

That's not going to be terribly rewarding from a tonal POV though, even if it is easy to sit & play.

rlw

Taylor T5 is perfect but so far over budget...

oh well.