Choosing an Acoustic Guitar: The Acoustic Guitar Buying Guide

How to choose Acoustic Guitar.

   If you want to know more about the acoustic guitar and the options you have when choosing one

While we aim to detail the individual parts of the guitar. It is important to keep in mind that instruments are the sum of their hearts while each choice changes the sound the overall sound quality of an instrument is a combination of the quality of the materials used, the design and the skill of the craftsman

First of all we are gonna talk about the shape and size of the body this is a good place to start as it determine the general feel of the guitar and plays a very important role in how the guitar sound. While there are many guitar body styles you can choose from. This suggestion will focus primarily on two of the most popular the dreadnought guitar and the tripleO(OOO) guitar. 

The dreadnought body style is known for its big booming sound emphasizing bass and treble this make itself particularly well to strumming styles. If you are playing with other people unamplified the dreadnought guitar is a good choice because it’s loud sound projection and bass response help it cut through.

    Triple O(OOO) and OM guitars have and hourglass shape as opposed to the pear-shaped outline of the dreadnought. Triple O(OOO) and OM guitars have more mid-range and they have a quieter mellow tone that is more suitable for finger picking styles because of their smaller in size they can also be more comfortable to play. The OM and triple O(OOO) guitars have the same body size differ in their specification slightly OM guitars have a longer scale length the wider neck and more space between the stringe compared to most triple O guitars. 

    Although the tripleO(OOO) sides guitars is popular for finger picking and the dreadnought for stumming there is no reason you can not play both styles on either guitar that being said the triple O(OOO) is particularly well in intimate listening environments for recording situations where a more balanced sound is desired. In addition to the triple O(OOO) guitars there are even smaller body styles such as the double O(OO) and the O on the other side of the spectrum there is even larger body shapes like quarter O(OOOO) or the jumbo

The Top Wood

     The Top wood or the soundboard of guitar is the wood used for the face of the instrument when you strum a guitar the sound waves generated by the strings are transferred into the top causing it to vibrate this vibration pushes the sound waves throughout the guitar body and out through the sound hole generating the tone that we actually hear the type of wood used for the top of a guitar shapes the tone and also the volume.

      The top wood you will find on most steel-stringed acoustic is spruce sitka spruce is the most common variety it is a versatile well rounded wood with  clear mid-range Sitka spruce is superb balanced also make itself to a wide variety of applications. Adirondack spruce is meant to be strong hard and is considered to be a louder wood than sitka it has a crisp clarity at high volumes and a nice lyrical high end. Adirondack spruce sometime called red spruce was used on many of the great pre-war American guitars. Today many guitar makers use this wood in an effort to capture the strong clear tone of vintage guitars.

    Mahogany tops usually paired with mahogany  back and sides and a full warm sound a strong mid-major  that is favored by many country and blues musicians mahogany tops tend to be very balanced forgoing the booming voice from the spurs tops this provides a depth of tone and is excellent for recording or listening environments. More rarely guitars can be made with Koa, Koa as it wood fairly similar to Mahogany in terms of tone while not as common angleman spruce and cedar tops can also be found on some steel string acoustic, they have a deep mellow tone with a lot of color at low volumes these top wood are usually used used on classical or nylon string guitars while the top wood shapes the tone the wood which on the back and the sides of guitar help color it. Next let’s talk about the characteristics of common tone wood for the backs and sides

The Back & Sides of Guitar

    Mahogany produces a balanced even sound across the strings with the bright high end and warm low-end superior is an increasingly common tone wood very similar to mahogany and tone but with a slightly different look. Rosewood provides more of a boom bell-like quality favoring bass response complex overtone and dark highs and mids characterize the tone. Color between Rosewood and Mahogany and tone it looks similar to mahogany and has similar tonal characteristics, however as the warmth and focused low-end of rosewood 

       Walnut is in between rosewood and mahogany as well but totally closer to the spectrum of rosewood 

        Maple is bright clear and crisp with loud troubles of pronouncing language.

Considerations

         In addition to body size some other things that affect a guitars playablility or comfort are the neck shape nut width and scale length the neck shape is the profile of the back of the neck whereas nut width is the spacing between the strings scale length is the distance between the bridge and the nut. A longer scale length put increased tension on the strings which can provide more volume scale length also impacts the spacing of the frets a shorter scale length will feel like frets are closer together. So it can be more comfortable for smaller hands. 

   An important question when considering a guitar is whether the top or the back and sides of the guitar are made from solid wood or laminate wood. Solid wood is a single piece of wood whereas laminate wood is actually gluded layers of wood bound together because the top of the guitar is where most of the sound is generated from. Experts highly recommend using a solid wood top as it is crucial for sound quality most guitars price over $300 should have a solid wood top. Solid wood in the back and sides of the guitar are going to give you a more colorful, solid wood are more valuable because of their ability to age and mature and sound causing the instrument to open up and resonate more freely over.

       So that should give you a good idea of what to look for when choosing your acoustic guitar.

Acoustic Guitar available at these seller.