It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
Ian
Lowering my expectations has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
Someone will have 10 different D28s. Nice as D28s, are I wouldn't want ten of them.
There was one guy who just had all Koa guitars, about forty of them!
Back/sides - Dove maple, HD-28 rosewood
Neck - Dove maple, HD-28 mahogany
Fingerboard - Dove rosewood, HD-28 ebony
- and yet they sound very similar to each other.
Even more remarkably, a friend of mine had a Larrivée SD-50 - a mahogany back/sides and mahogany-neck 12-fret Dreadnought - and that sounded very similar to the Dove as well.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
And you can only tell that from playing them.
What I did find is that although I found some of the more rounded, smaller bodied cutaways I tried more comfortable to play, the sound just didn’t compare for me. Visually, I love the look of Taylor guitars, but in person I didn’t find one that didn’t sound overly bright and trebly. I am not sure whether the fact the one I bought was a second hand one about 5 years old and it had “opened up” or whatever (I’m not sure if that sort of thing is just hokey or not!) but the sound from the one I ended up with was exactly what I was after. There was a slight trade off with comfort, but I don’t think anyone claims that dreads are the most comfortable acoustics to play.
I never would have ordered a Brook for home delivery. I knew I didn't want one. The Taw has a slim neck (front to back) and a short scale. I knew I didn't like those. I wanted a Lowden. I would have been in ignorance forever. You never know until you play it. I played 15 guitars that afternoon over a period of 2-3 hours. Imagine how hard that would have been if I'd been ordering them over the Internet, one at a time.
So, my buying process will continue to be "visit a shop with lots of interesting stock and play as many as they'll let me". Project Music (Exeter) is a 2 hour drive from my house, BTW.
You can see that in action in some of my videos, this is a good example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2MzcnOYyrI
Check out my YouTube channel for videos of luthier-built and vintage guitars!
Luthier Stories - My series of interviews with some of the world's greatest guitar makers
Can I afford it?
Does it sound good?
Is it playable?
Each question has equal status as I see it.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
I'm sure we all want a pretty guitar , but sometimes it's that beat up mongrel in the corner of the shop is the one that comes to life in your hands . So I try not to get too hung up on wood types .
The price of the guitar just relates to how much damage it does to your bank account , and how much decoration is on the guitar , it does not guarantee a great sounding guitar .
As Warren Buffet says , price is what you pay , value is what you get .
Always take a tuner with you , this is especially true if looking for a nylon string guitar , all it takes is for one string to be slightly out of tune to really fudge the sound .
I'm not a great guitarist , and I'm a bit shy as well , but my simple test of a guitar is
1) Play the Purple Rain chord Bb9 , if it sounds as if Prince has just entered the room , it's a good sign ( yes , I know he didn't play guitar on this track and he is no longer with us ) , I find quite a few guitars struggle with this chord .
2) Play a simple Gmajor chord , do all the notes ring clear and even , does it have good projection ? Does it get louder when you strum harder ? Can you feel the notes against your chest ?
Does the guitar come to life in your hands ?
I'm sure some people will thoroughly disagree with some of the above , but acoustic guitars more than electric guitars/bass's really do need to be played before purchased .
The more it inspires, the more attractive the guitar is
It’s impossible to do.
Any other aesthetics, wood types etc are somewhat of a secondary consideration. Admittedly I probably wouldn't buy a guitar which I thought was ugly, and it is nice to have instruments made of nice woods, but if it was a guitar that 'works' for me, it wouldn't have to be aesthetically perfect.