Are we allowed to play acoustic guitar on this forum?

Aentons said:
I highly recommend the smaller student size Gibson acoustics. I have an 1960 LG -1. It is my favorite. I think Gibson recently reintroduced the LG-2

Edit: it looks like they discontinued the LG-2 already.
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Oh yeah, parlor guitars are fantastic. I had a Jasmine for a long time. The person that never played it and let me borrow it wanted it back after I divorced her sister for cheating on me….that escalated quickly.
 
Took a friend to HKG, they wouldn’t let him check his baby Taylor in even though he’d brought it from YVR (same airline, round-trip ticket)…
While staring straight into the face of the counter-cluckhead, he thrust the guitar straight out from his side into my face — “here.”

I never bonded with that guitar at all, so I planned on bringing it back to him via a different airline. Instead, I gave it to another one of our friends who decided to take up the practice of well-intentioned Dust-gathering on instruments.





HamishR, the RHH found you, I’m sure the universe will provide an acoustic…
 
Ok, here's my grandpa guitar.

taylor310.jpg

I only have this one acoustic because I really only noodle around on it around the house. Never been a big acoustic guy. This is a Taylor 310 from 1999 I think. The fingerboard is a real nice dark slab of ebony. There's a lot of fretwear on the first three or so frets near the nut to the point where it could probably benefit from a fretjob. I keep putting it off because it gets so little play and honestly it plays good enough without issue.

I've always heard Taylors are bright, but this one sounds pretty warm to me. It's not really that loud either, but maybe it could be if you were hammering on the strings. I have a pretty light touch. The strings are Ernie Ball Earthwound strings. I can't remember if they were phosphor bronze or 80/20, or for that matter if they're medium or light gauges. I thought I ordered the strings from Amazon, but they're no in my order history. Now I'm gonna go on down a rabbithole of what to replace these with.
 
jimilee said:
Oh yeah, parlor guitars are fantastic. I had a Jasmine for a long time. The person that never played it and let me borrow it wanted it back after I divorced her sister for cheating on me….that escalated quickly.
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Divorces and losing guitars could probably be it’s own thread. https://reverb.com/p/epiphone-joe-p...unpaid&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&gQT=0 I got most of mine back when I got divorced but one like this in mint condition never made it back to me. Got just an empty case back.

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This is my only non-electric guitar. Its a Yamaha flamenco but I took the tap plates off because I don’t play it that way. I picked it up oh a whim because I liked the sound. Its more mid focused than most classicals and it’s not particularly loud so I can practice pretty freely without bothering anyone. Easy to pickup and try different ideas on.

I have been thinking of getting a steel string so I can practice picking unplugged but would want something mid focused and not super loud. Maybe a 24.75” scale parlor. Had a USA made Taylor before and could never bond with it.
 
I love me some acoustic. Here's what I've collected over the years which makes it very fun:

Dobro
Baritone
Parlor
Mini bass

My main acoustic guitar is an 80's low end Fender which I've been playing for 30 years. But, I will be inheriting a Gibson early 60's J-50 someday that is totally delicious.

If you can find an affordable dobro or baritone I highly recommend.
 
HamishR said:
I might have to go back and play that Martin O-18 again. I didn't have much time yesterday...
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If it works for you, great, but that's a fairly small size guitar. It's not going to project much. The LG-1 I have is an OO size and it can be hard to hear next to anything bigger, especially a jumbo. For finger picking and recording the OO is likely where you want to be.

Here are some sizes I ripped off a website:

Parlor: A light, focused and balanced sound, in a smaller overall size for a guitar
O: Balanced tone and response, slightly larger than the parlor guitar
OO: Has a solid mid-range register, great all-around guitar
OOO: Largest of the medium sized guitars
Dreadnought: The most common type of acoustic guitar, versatile for most players/ styles
Grand concert: Similar in size to a classical guitar, tapered, narrow waist to deliver a well-balanced mid-range tone
Grand auditorium cutaway: A great middle ground for volume and playability, cutaway for higher-neck playability
Jumbo: Large body with maximum resonant space for more volume and bass.
 
I have a large number of acoustics out of a total of 32 guitars that I've been gathering for the past 57 years of playing since 1967 when my Dad bought me a Ric 420.

This is my real Gibson J185EC that was on a closeout sale at Musicians Friend for $1400. Prior to that it was $3000. I think I got it around 2001

 
Aentons said:
If it works for you, great, but that's a fairly small size guitar. It's not going to project much. The LG-1 I have is an OO size and it can be hard to hear next to anything bigger, especially a jumbo. For finger picking and recording the OO is likely where you want to be.

Here are some sizes I ripped off a website:

Parlor: A light, focused and balanced sound, in a smaller overall size for a guitar
O: Balanced tone and response, slightly larger than the parlor guitar
OO: Has a solid mid-range register, great all-around guitar
OOO: Largest of the medium sized guitars
Dreadnought: The most common type of acoustic guitar, versatile for most players/ styles
Grand concert: Similar in size to a classical guitar, tapered, narrow waist to deliver a well-balanced mid-range tone
Grand auditorium cutaway: A great middle ground for volume and playability, cutaway for higher-neck playability
Jumbo: Large body with maximum resonant space for more volume and bass.
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I have a Martin M36 thats a 0000 model.
 
I used to work in a guitar shop years ago and sold a lot of Martins. My favourite Martin was always the O-16. Big neck, slotted headstock, 12 frets to the body. I don't need it to compete with anything - it's purely to play at home by myself. But I do enjoy good sound, obviously!

What appealed about the O-18 was 14 frets to the body, a really playable neck with surprisingly low action, shorter scale length and just a great sound. It's maybe even better than the Santa Cruz Model O that I love so much but can't afford - in all aspects except pure sound. Still, it did sound better than most Martins to me. The shop where I tried it has a CEO-7 which I quite like too, and the O-18 was more my style I think. The CEO did have cruddy old strings though.

I'd be interested to hear what a Gibson J185 with the torrefied top sounds like. My old regular J185 was pretty good.
 
I’ve owned a few acoustics over the years. Nothing very fancy but honestly I never noticed until recently as I went down the guitar YouTube rabbit hole and learned more about the fancier stuff. How it goes I suppose.

My second-longest-held bit of gear is an early 2000s seagull performer. J45 style body with a Cedar top, mahogany back and sides. All solid. It sounds really nice and warm and I just love the neck. It needs a bunch of work, which makes me feel guilty every time I play it :LOL:

My other one is a 1971 Yamaha fg-150 I bought off Craigslist last year. I think it’s similar to an OM in Martin parlance. It’s beat to absolute shit but sounds wonderful. The body size is perfect for playing around the house and I’ve got “custom light” monel strings on it for easier playing. it’s not solid wood but still sounds like it (these models are made of plywood, which is a bit different from the “laminate” stuff you see today). It plays fine but not great, looks terrible, needs all kinds of small things done. Probably my favorite instrument I’ve ever owned.

The new Yamaha red label guitars are also excellent IMO. I think they’re all 25.5 scale, so maybe not for you, but I’ve played the new OM style (FS-5) side by side with a Martin OM-18 and preferred the Yamaha in sound and playability. When I’m visiting a guitar store I try to play whatever “expensive” Yamahas they have in stock and am consistently impressed.
 
Last January I got a vintage (from the late 80s I think?) Yamaha which I think is an OM size that had been restored by a local luthier and ended up in a store here in Brooklyn. I immediately bonded with it in the store and since it was my birthday I just took it home. It’s now hanging in my living room and probably gets played more than any other guitar I own (all electric), just because I can quickly pick it up and sit on an armchair and play rather than having to go to the music room and plugging in (I know, it’s a good problem to have!).
 
I play my acoustic more than I play my electric, usually.

I have two others, but this is really the only one that I play. It's a Fender Catalina, from the mid 80's, I think.

My wife's late dad bought her this from a pawn shop when she was in high school. She hadn't played it in at least a decade when we met and I got it all fixed up and have been using it as my main guitar for the last 15 years or so.

PXL_20220604_232713579.MP.jpg
 
I play mostly acoustic these days, actually I've always played mostly acoustic, I currently have six, ironically have 3 times that in electrics.
 
Stickman393 said:
Also had a Taylor 310ce at one point. Then I dropped it off at a luthier and never heard back from him.

Gotta track that guy down.
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A luthier had my LG-1 for 3 years. He told me to bug him about every month until it was done and I did. I had moved in the meantime and he ended up shipping it back to me cross-country and no charge. He did a great job on the repairs
 
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