Looking for a new guitar - like I really need another one......

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Music Junkie
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Tue Mar 16, 2010 11:54 am

Hey all:

I am currently playing a Martin 000-15. This guitar is solid Mahogany and has a great mid-range. I am still somewhat confused by the sound qualities of different types of wood. I notice while I am fingerpicking though that my guitar does not have the good bass tone (which is fine as I bought it mostly for strumming campfire style stuff). I see a lot of my friends here are buying Taylors and I am certainly interested.

I love the tone from Neil's guitar! I know he got his from Santa Cruz Guitars, and I have visited their site countless times. I am just a bit lost as to what, specifically, to look for. I don't know if I am truly interested in acoustic/electric, or how much I would ever "Plug In". I do, however, like the option of the cut-away. Does anyone know if Neil's is A/E or just plain acoustic with a cut-away? What wood type, etc.? What price range would Neil's guitar be in?

Anyway, I know there are several threads discussing guitar types and favorites, but I figured I'd throw in one more. Specifically, what type of wood, what size (jumbo, concert, etc.), A/E, plain acoustic, on and on.

As always, thanks for any input.

Jason


dennisg
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Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:43 pm

Jason,

Here, from the Taylor site, is everything you could ever want to know about tone woods:

http://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/features/woods/

I think you'll find it pretty interesting. I've also included this graph:

Image

You'll notice that rosewood and ovangkol (rosewood's eventual replacement) both have similarly wide frequency range, with rosewood dipping slightly in the mids and ovangkol rising slightly in the mids. Notice the graph of your mahogany: very pronounced midrange with both ends lopped off. That exactly mirrors my experience with my mahogany Guild D-25M.

As for shapes, take a look at this:

http://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/features/shapes

In general, the body of the guitar acts as a sort of passive radiator -- the bigger the box, the bigger the sound. So even if you put the highest quality tone wood on a tiny guitar, the sound will always be small, albeit very clear. Read Taylor's info on sizes and shapes to see which best suits your playing style. As for me, I'm primarily a fingerpicker: the Grand Auditorium size suits me just perfectly. It's also a very comfortable size to hold. MarkM, who's mostly a strummer, just bought a dreadnaught-sized Taylor, which is perfect for how he plays.

As for whether you need to ever plug your guitar in, only you can know that. In general, I plug in my Taylor 814 only when I'm doing a video or playing with someone else. We'll both plug in so that we can hear each other better. I can't speak to other manufacturers, but with Taylor, all of their cutaway models have electronics in them. Of course, Taylor has a build-to-order program that will allow you to get any size guitar you want, in any shape, in any wood combo, with or without electronics. Or you can just pull a great guitar off the shelf like I did.

Hope this helps.


smips65
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Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:45 pm

:dry:

This is a loaded question.

What are your following:

Budget
Fretboard preference
Style of play
What sound are you looking for
A/E what type of electronics do you like


the list could go on and on.

As always, play them, and the right one will find you.


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Music Junkie
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Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:07 pm

@Dennis:

Thanks for the great leads. Love the graph. It shows my guitar to the tee. Rosewood looks pretty attractive fro the graph. Stupid question, but I have always wondered if the electronics change the tone that would normally come from the guitar while unplugged. I.E. If you had two identical models, one with electronics, one without, would you get the same basic tone from both while unplugged? I am just a bit lacking in knowledge of that sort.

I will take a peek at the shapes right away as well. Too many choices. I can see why we all NEED several guitars.... :)

@smips65:

Yes, you are so right. Very loaded question!
Budget is fairly fixed, but flexible enough to be between $1,000.00 and $2,000.00 US. Not educated enough to know too much about fretboard preference..... Style of play is all over the place. Would be great to find a style/model that would kick butt in both strumming AND fingerpicking. Sound would need to be pretty wide ranged. Just something that would make the great Neil Young, CSN, and all other lessons here at the site sound well....not asking too much now am I????? As far as electronics, I really don't know much about them, which is why I have kind of stayed away from them. I had always thought that I would love to get a guitar with the cut-away, but without the electronics. Like Dennis mentions, Taylor will do that through their custom shop. Maybe the electronics would be fine to have just in case, as long as they did not effect the sound while not plugged in.

Thanks guys!

Jason


buddy
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Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:18 pm

Hi Jason,

You may want to go try out a few of the Seagull guitars. I own two of them and have found that they have a great tone and good electronics on them as well. My cedar top has a mellow sound to it and the spruce top has a sharper lively tone.

Good luck,

Bud


dennisg
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Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:35 pm

Music Junkie wrote:
@Dennis:

Thanks for the great leads. Love the graph. It shows my guitar to the tee. Rosewood looks pretty attractive fro the graph. Stupid question, but I have always wondered if the electronics change the tone that would normally come from the guitar while unplugged. I.E. If you had two identical models, one with electronics, one without, would you get the same basic tone from both while unplugged? I am just a bit lacking in knowledge of that sort.
Jason, I go to my local guitar shop about every two weeks just to see what's new in their inventory. While I'm there, I play all the high end Taylors, Martins, and Collingses. All three brands make superb guitars (although i think Taylor makes the most comfortable neck). In my experience, there is no perceptible difference in sound between, say, a Taylor 814 and a Taylor GA-8, which are identical except for the lack of electronics and cutaway on the GA-8.

For the upper end of your budget, you could buy an awesome used guitar on eBay. Others may disagree with this, but I'll say it anyway: a guitar is something you're likely to have for many, many years. You're going to spend countless hours with it. You'll derive unmeasurable amounts of pleasure from it. You're likely to have a much closer relationship with your guitar than you ever would with a $35,000 car. With that in mind, buy the best you can possibly afford. When you get over the shock and sit down to play the thing, you'll be glad you did.


tovo
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Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:36 pm

MJ I say go out and buy numerous guitars of different brands and woods, play them all and sell the ones you don't like. Absolutely impractical advice from me as usual...but you will have an absolutely ball doing it!


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Music Junkie
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Tue Mar 16, 2010 2:09 pm

tovo wrote:
MJ I say go out and buy numerous guitars of different brands and woods, play them all and sell the ones you don't like. Absolutely impractical advice from me as usual...but you will have an absolutely ball doing it!
Tony:

Great advice! Can you write a note to my wife and let her know that you said it was o.k.????

My biggest problem, is that once I had them, I would not want to let them go..... :woohoo:


d_dog
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Tue Mar 16, 2010 2:32 pm

Wow, great advice here, fantastic info from Dennis. Buying a guitar can be a long process. There are just too many guitars on the market to make a haste decision. You are well advised to learn about all of these technical manufacturing and build concerns, but just as if not more important, is playing them. As you spend the next month or so, traveling to all the guitar shops you can, and I suggest going to everyone around, travel if you have to. You should play as many guitars as possible and note the model numbers and everything about them, hell it's probably a good idea to take notes, write what you thought about it too. As you progress through this quest, you'll start leaning what you like, you're perceptions may even start changing as you go. As you hear the differences in theses guitars you'll start understanding what woods, shapes and feels, that suit you. It actually takes some time to start learning what you like. Heck I even put a small % of my decision towards looks. Absolutely don't be shy in the guitar shop, strum away, pluck away, loudly if necessary, close yourself in a room. It's a hefty investment and should be treated as such. You may think you don't know what to listen for, but as you start hearing differences, you'll star assigning your own adjectives and reasonings of why you like that vs. this, and so on. You'll create your own scale of likability, for lack of a better word. And I bet when you compare your scale to some of the technical details available you'll see the connection.
Good luck to you, really looking forward to seeing what you end up with!
Happy hunting!


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neverfoundthetime
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Tue Mar 16, 2010 4:32 pm

Oh Man, another thread all about yummy guitars and stuff we really want to have! Enjoy the ride Jason and go for a really special guitar. It's great to absorb more and more information about what makes a great guitar in these threads. My favourite guitar shop, the one I've mentioned before in Winterthur (Die Gitarre) have their own Brazilian rosewood which they send to BSG in the Czech Republic and have their own BSG guitars made to order with the best wood. You can imagine how bad I want one of these!


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