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How to buy an acoustic guitar

Buying an acoustic guitar?

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If you are about to purchase an acoustic guitar, there are a few simple questions you need to answer before you put your money on the counter:

• What is your budget?
• Can you maintain a proper humidity level in your home 12 months of the year? (45%-55%)
• Are you playing every day, or periodically?
• How likely are you to sell the guitar down the road?
• Do you have a history of taking good care of things, or are you rougher on your belongings?
• Will you be taking the guitar out of the house to play with others?

Budget. You must decide exactly how much you are willing to spend before you go shopping. I can recommend guitars as low as $250 and as high as $7000 or more.  Budget ultimately defines what you can purchase, so pick a number - under $500 - $500-$1000, $1000-$1500, etc., - in $500 increments,. because I will later recommend specific models in these ranges.

Humidity. Wood needs a relative humidity of 45-50% to keep it safe from damage. If you can't control humidity in your living environment, you either have to purchase a guitar that is primarily made of laminates, or you have to be willing to use a humidifier and keep the guitar in a case.

Playing time. There isn't a lot of sense in purchasing a hand made $6000 guitar if you only play twice a year. Your frequency and interest level really does impact how much you want to spend. A daily player wants to spend as much as they can afford and to select an ideal guitar for their playing style.

Will you sell it? If you are prone to like change and you are a person who sells things with some regularity, you will want to choose a brand and style of guitar that is easier to sell for a higher retained value.

Question #5 asks if you are careful or rough with your belongings. Simply put, an acoustic guitar can go down in value dramatically from cracks, repairs and other damage.  A rough user might not want to buy an expensive guitar.

Cases. If you need a case for your new guitar, you will need to set aside as much as $100 from your budget. Higher end guitars tend to come with a case, but under $1000 most guitars come in a box or perhaps a gig bag (which is not really very useful for transportation of an acoustic guitar). You need a hard shell case.

HERE ARE THE FACTS ABOUT ACOUSTIC GUITARS:

BODY STYLES:

There are several different body styles and shapes for acoustic guitars. The most common are Dreadnought Jumbo, Concert, 000, 00 and 0 sizes. Dreadnoughts come in two typical styles - round shoulder (Gibson J-45) or square shoulder (Martin D-28). Concert body guitars are common from builders like Taylor - a 410, for example. A Jumbo body is a variation on a dreadnought - the Gibson Advanced Jumbo is a good example.

000 (triple-0), 00 and 0 guitars are also known as small body guitars. I will use the term small body to refer to them from now on.

Stereotypically, dreadnoughts are for country and rock music, concerts are for singer/songwriters, the jumbo is a bluegrass banjo killer and small body guitars are often used for blues. There are no set rules here, just guidelines, but the most versatile guitars tend to be small body and concert instruments. These guitars balance volume and responsiveness along with tonality in such a way that they tend to do a pretty good job on any kind of music. My main guitar is a 000 Martin - and I feel I can play anything on it.

WOOD/LAMINATE TYPES

The most common woods used in acoustic guitars are Rosewood or Mahogany for back and sides, spruce in some variation for the top, mahogany for the necks, ebony, rosewood or composites for the finger boards and bridges. Whether solid wood or laminated wood, most acoustic guitars are made from some combination of these materials.

It is important to note that maple makes its way onto many guitar backs and sides, as does cherry (renewable and more commonly in use) and koa - but for the sake of the common items we find in a typical guitar shop I am going to stick with examples in rosewood, mahogany, spruce, ebony and composite materials.

CONSTRUCTION TYPES

There are different bracing patterns used under the top of the guitar to give it qualities of projection. Traditionally, the cheapest manufacturing process is ladder bracing and fan bracing is more challenging and expensive. On an individual basis, you may find ladder braced guitars that sound good, but by and large your ears will respond better to fan, X or hybrid braced guitars.

BRIDGES AND FINGERBOARDS

Essentially, the harder the material, the better sustain you will get on each note. So, ebony is often the best wood, but as global resource dissipate, some makers are using innovations like Micarta (a composite made of fiber and resin) that provide excellent tonality at more reasonable cost than high grade ebony.

I have guitars with rosewood fingerboards and bridges. I also have a stage guitar that has Micarta (Martin 000C16-RGTE Aura). I would always prefer ebony if it were available, but I am perfectly happy with the durability of Micarta in the guitar I use with it on the bridge and fingerboard. Don't get the impression that Micarta is less expensive than wood - it is actually on a lot of high end guitars.

NUTS AND SADDLES

When you buy an affordable guitar, the nut and saddle are often made of plastic. These are the pieces in the bridge and at the start of the neck where your strings rest before going into the bridge or to the tuners respectively. Plastic deadens tone - so if you buy a budget instrument, it is a good idea to replace the saddle and nut with either bone or Tusq (synthetic bone) material to improve tonality.  So, if you can find a budget instrument that already uses Tusq (Epiphone Masterbuilt), it makes the most sense. Replacement of a plastic saddle and nut with Tusq can cost as much as $150.

BRANDS

There are many established brands in the acoustic guitar market. The most common North American brands (by ownership, as opposed to manufacture) are Martin, Gibson, Epiphone, Taylor, Larrivee, and Godin. There are also many mid production acoustic producers who are not up to the production levels of Taylor or Martin, such as Santa Cruz, but I am going to stick with my list of five for this discussion to keep things as simple as possible.

MARTIN GUITARS
see Martin's site here 

I have personally owned many Martin guitars - ranging through the Standard Series into some of the exotic and vintage instruments. I always liked Martin and still play the brand every day, but I am very concerned with the direction Martin has taken through the manufacture of lesser quality instruments under the main brand name.

I can only recommend that you consider purchasing Martin guitars if you can afford a guitar from the 16 series or higher. The guitars Martin now manufactures with laminate necks and other lower grade features become misleading with a Martin label on them because they do not meet expectations for tonality or durability, and you can get a better budget guitar from other brands. So, if you have less than $1500 to spend, ignore Martin. Above $1500, Martin guitars retain a high percentage of their value.

GIBSON GUITARS
go to Gibson 

From Bozeman, Montana, Gibson continues to produce fine acoustic guitars ranging from interesting models like the Gibson Hummingbird (dreadnought) to the Blues King (L-00).  Because they are hand made and solid wood, Gibsons are somewhat inconsistent, but overall they represent good value for the money and make some models most ears enjoy. Gibson guitars also retain good value.

TAYLOR GUITARS
go to Taylor 

Taylor of California makes a wide range of instruments ranging from student quality to high end. The focus of Taylor is on machine cutting and sanding to improve durability and consistency. Machine made guitars are not my personal interest, but Taylors are widely used and appreciated by far greater musicians than myself, so I strongly recommend this brand again if you are spending more than $1500.

EPIPHONE GUITARS
go to Epiphone acoustics 

Epiphone guitars at one time were the pride of Kalamazoo, Michigan - and if you find a really old one it might have been made there -- but these days Epiphones are primarily made in Asia. They present good value for money and reasonably good tonality, particularly in the $500-$1000 range where the Epiphone Masterbuilt line fits. Still, the least expensive guitar I recommend regularly is a $269 Epiphone L-00 - a bargain, and with the addition of a Tusq saddle, a very good guitar.

GODIN GUITARS
Visit Godin 

Godin guitars are made in Quebec, Canada and they range in price from as low as $200 to well over $2000.  Godin uses innovation, quality building techniques and sustainable materials (leader in the use of cherry) to provde excellent value. I am not picking a specific Godin model to recommend here in any price range, but I personally own an acoustic Godin 5th Avenue which is one of my favourite instruments.

WHAT TYPE AND BRAND OF GUITAR DO YOU NEED?

This question has as many answers as there are people, but some general rules are useful. First off, if you are an absolute beginner, I suggest you stay away from dreadnoughts (even though they are most commonly available) and gravitate toward small body guitars to learn on. The small body is more comfortable, gives you a larger visual range to help you find where your hands need to be and gives good close projection so you can hear what you are playing.

You will find in your study of guitar that most people start on a dreadnought, yet very few of the world's best acoustic guitarists play anything other than a small body or concert shaped body. Dreadnoughts are most commonly available because they became the most popular guitars between the 1930s and 1970s through the exposure of being played by popular artists. They are also less expensive to produce than more intricate body styles like the 000.

Commonality, then, does not make for the best purchase.

The brand of guitar you choose to buy can be influenced by many factors. Perhaps you have a favourite artist who plays a specific brand? Absolutely, use your own reference points to decide which guitar to purchase, but I am going to recommend a guitar in each price range that I feel provides the best balance of features and value from the perspective of a new player looking for a learning instrument in their price range.

FIRST, SOME INFORMATION ABOUT MSRP

Many guitar manufacturers only permit dealers to advertise the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price - so don't look at the website price thinking it is the bottom line. Most Martin guitars, for example, can be purchased for 60-75% or the suggested retail, or 85% of the minimum advertised price. So, if you are shopping with $2000, you can likely find a dealer who will sell you a Martin with a $2700 retail tag.

Similarly, where I live a Gibson Blues King is around $2200 Canadian. They are advertised on Gibson's site at $2700 US. Nobody pays $2700 for these guitars in the US. I believe they typicall sell around $1900.

UNDER $500

There is only one guitar I recommend under $500 and they are not always easy to find - the Epiphone L-00, also referred to as the EL-00.  These guitars are typically manufactured in Indonesia, using solid sprice for the tops and quality Grover tuning machines.  I practice on an EL-00 several hours each week. For the money, it can't be beat, but invest in a saddle made of Tusq as the plastic saddle stock on this guitar is fit for the garbage.

Tanglewood also makes guitars in this price range that should be considered. Still, their construction is inconsistent, so beware.

$500 to $1000

Despite being a little bright in tonality, the Epiphone Masterbuilt guitars are much better than most guitars in this price range. Indeed, most models are dreadnoughts, but the EF-500M is a concert with a slightly wider fingerboard (good for learning control) if you want to take my advice and avoid the dreadnoughts.

$1000 - $1500

In this price range you can usually acquire either a Taylor 300 series or a basic Martin 16 series guitar. In either case, you will have a solid wood instrument with a solid neck, quality tuners and most likely a case as well.

$1500 - $2000

I think the best overall guitars in this price range are the Martin OM-21 and the Gibson J-45. The Gibson is indeed a dreadnought, but it has a light neck and round shoulders so it plays more comfortably. Another guitar that sometimes goes on sale in this price range is the Gibson Blues King. If you like blues, or want to play finger style guitar, this model should not be overlooked.

$2000 and up

Above $2000, guitars tend to get more exotic in wood types or more hand made, but overall tonality does not improve dramatically between $2000 and $3000. Once you go above $3000 and are able to access instruments from Santa Cruz, Huss and Dalton or Collings, you do get into some special territory - but these guitars are an investment as much as an instrument and you really need to understand proper care for instruments at this level or you will lose your investment to damage.

My favourite guitars above $2000 are:

Santa Cruz OM-PW
Santa Cruz OM-PW

Collings OM2H
Collings OM2H 

Huss and Dalton TOM-M or TOM-R
Huss and Dalton OM guitars

If you have specific question you feel I can answer, please feel free to e-mail me at hargoni@live.com