SciTrak / Acoustic Guitar Buyer’s Guide

Acoustic Guitar Buyer’s Guide

Hundreds of thousands of options are available when it comes to procuring a guitar and they can often seem overpowering. Every single person is going to be in a diverse position when it comes to their purchase, but all will have a definite set general factor, which is:

”I have a CERTAIN amount of money, how can I buy the best guitar with it?”

That question is definitely not easy to answer. The only actual way to figure it out is to do your research and truly understand what you are getting yourself into. As one understands all of the available options and most of the topic territory, only then will one be able to begin to grasp what the best choice for one will be. Certain rules should be followed while buying an Acoustic Guitar:

RULE #1: Make sure that you try it before buying it!

Two dissimilar guitars of the same model by the same company of the same price will sound unlike. If they are separate physical things, they each came from a diverse piece of wood and consequently they are different guitars. The best way to figure this out is by playing them.

RULE #2: Figure out a basic price range that you are willing to spend, and then double it.

If you can manage to pay $300 for something that is really wanted by you, then you definitely can pay $600 for the best of what you really want. If you have got the monetary power to be in whichever of those price ranges, then all you need is the endurance to linger long enough to have that cash saved up. Practically speaking one should not have a certain price limit on their guitar. At times there are guitars worth $300 that play far better than one costing $1500.

So, considering these two issues, there are now some other aspects to consider.

The Woods:

Before getting into this debate, it would be valuable to state that some woods just are not suitable for guitar making. Woods like oak and elm are not good for guitars as they are hard, heavy and thick. They do not reverberate well. There is a unique breed and range of wood known as Tonewood and it consists of many species. Tonewood is wood which is sensitive with resonant pitches; thusly it vibrates more vigorously in rejoinder to sound.

Spruce:

The standard defacto standard guitar wood. Usually guitar manufacturers advertise with big headlines such as "Solid Sitka Spruce Top!" but in all reality every guitar these days is made with spruce, even if it is just the bracing on the top. Spruce is a hard wood, which makes it tougher, tenser and more rigid. It resists nicks and scrapes more than some other woods. There are many varieties of spruce and often only exclusive guitars will promote the variety. Spruce is very strong, reverberating and incisive with a bright crisp sound. It has striking bright overtones and often makes guitars with great volume due to it's rigid but vivacious nature. It is the typical white colored top you see on many guitars these days. Do not let is conventionality fool you. Sound is what matters and a well made spruce top guitar is nothing to be made fun of. As the guitar ages, the sap inside the wood in due course dries and crystallizes making it that much more resonant and responsive.

Rosewood

The most required variety of wood is generally Rosewood, in particular Brazilian Rosewood. Owing to its scarcity and current restricted availability it is usually prohibitively pricey and almost certainly not the most environmentally friendly of purchases if you care about that sort of thing considering how much of a short supply there is. Rosewood is guitar gold: intense, echoing, deep, rich and beautiful. Rosewood is also very weighty and thus is most often used in the neck.

Mahogany

Perhaps Mahogany is one of the all time standard woods for use in making guitars. Often measured as the substitute for Rosewood due to its high-priced cost. It is mainly popular in use on the backs and sides of guitars but it sees its reasonable share of use on tops as well. Mahogany gives more of a "parlor" kind of tendency to the guitar. In other words, it's twangier but not as gleaming. It does not sound as big either, but possesses a dissimilar character.

Cedar

Cedar is a soft wood, detonating it's more workable and will nick and dent more easily. This is really not a bad thing as it is still a powerful variety. It also has a likewise softer tone, being often warmer and thicker with richer bass comeback yet upholding a cool high end. It has a distinguishing smell which anyone will recognize immediately. The color is a rusty glowing reddish brown which one finds predominantly attractive. Cedar has noticeably dissimilar tonal qualities compared to spruce.

Maple

Maple is beautiful and has, like spruce and rosewood, an elevated strength to weight ratio making it perfect for necks and fret boards. Maple is weighty and often does not get used for the bodies of guitars owing to its weight and tremendously bright tone, though; you can positively find flamed maple top guitars which are attractive.