Electro-Acoustics

Bridgehouse

Strat_a_tat_tat said:

Humbucked said:

 I used to glue a strip of wet'n dry to the bottom bout of my ovation. 

And women have the cheek to say men can't multitask.... when, all along, there you were playing guitar and exfoliating your right thigh at the same time! :-)

There’s an image for radio

guitars4you

TTony said:

Don't suppose you've got a decent one in the showroom @guitars4you? ; Or out the back?  Or under the bed?  Or forgotten about in your warehouse?

no - sorry

Blackjack

Try a Taylor GS Mini.  You should be able to get one just in budget.  Don’t be put off by their smaller size, they sound a lot bigger than they look.  
At the open mic night I go to the Tanglewoods seem very popular too. Cannot speak personally for them as not played one but they seem to be well liked. 

TADodger

+2 for GS Mini. Just picked up a used Koa mini-e (It’s a jam thing, I guess) for just a bit over your budget, and it sounds really good (to me!). Will bring to Quad.

Nikc

TTony said:

Bridgehouse said:

I'm on a similar hunt. Budget probably up to £500. 

Go start your own hunt, don't piggy back on mine.
:P

meltedbuzzbox said:

drive to coda and play everything in your budget. It really is the best way to find out. 

That's sensible - if they've got enough choice in ...

guitars4you said:

Try a Takamine Tony - get a good used example - Yamaha APX always popular but I never liked them - But a nice used Jap model and popular amongst many 'electric' based players - EN10C and EF261 are popular

I think of Yamaha has being reliable.  You might not get the variation that makes one guitar stand out above all others, but then neither do you get the variation that makes all the others seem crap!    I'd feel comfortable buying blind.

munckee said:

What about one of the fender telecoustic/stratacoustic things with an electric style neck, have often thought one of them might be good for home.

The Fender options always seem to be "well priced" which makes me think that they're not up to much.



Looks like Peach have a few options (and they're closer than Coda).  But none of the PRS SEs though, which I was hoping to find.

PRS se very good shout a chap I do open mics with has one and it is a nice guitar - my freshman is better mind

robgilmo

I have an APX500, had it for around 10 years, it was pretty pale but now is a lovely golden colour, to me it sounds good both plugged in and out, my only gripe with it is the strings at the nut are a little too close together for my liking. Build quality is good, finish is good,, it's never been set up and played well out of the box, intonation is spot on, action is Ok , slight neck relief, the sound hole looks odd but it is what it is, an acoustic for bashing out tunes on.

Snags

@ttony and @bridgehouse in case it's of interest, some pics and sound clips from my Takamine in the links below.

Bit more background info.  I've had the guitar for ~20 years and for most of that time it was my main acoustic.  It's not been abused but it has been carted about all over the place, and has had a few "incidents", including a couple of strap-drop moments, plus other people knocking it off stands. It's also been out as a loaner to friends and so on, so it has a few minor scars, but nothing major.

Most of the damage should show up in the photos linked below - in fact, some of it looks much worse in the photos than in the flesh!  The main notable bits are some dings/dents in the lower side, a good scuff on the top of the headstock, and some glue smear near the nut from a messily re-applied nut when it fell off about 15 years ago.

The other "bad bit" is that a friend stuck the neck strap button on for me donkey's years ago; we were both pig ignorant, so he shoved it on the back of the heel, not under the shoulder of the heel.  It works fine, but it does mean you can get some neck dive if you take both hands off when playing stood up.  That said, it's never cause me any practical issue.

It had a "professional" setup maybe 5 or 6 years ago; personally I think the action is possible slightly too low now, and if I was still playing it regularly I would tweak the truss rod and maybe get a new nut cut to remove a bit of buzz on the low E if you get brutal with it.  However, it's never particularly intruded on my use.

Pictures are here if the link works

I also recorded some random stuff last night to give you an idea of sound.  Caveats: the strings are fairly dead (changed them in January as it was backup for a show, but never got used); my playing is awful, as I didn't work out what I was doing in advance, and didn't bother re-recording anything because, well, it's not for my vanity.

I recorded it on two channels: the piezo is panned hard left, and a general purpose mic (probably not brilliantly positioned) is panned hard right. The recording runs through a mix of stuff: starts finger-picked, then with a light-ish plectrum, and swaps back and forth between the two, and between picking, chords, up and down the neck etc.  Don't judge me

Sample recording with pan left/right:


Sample recording with everything centred:

(Links seem a bit weird - think you have to click on the pause/play thing, as it didn't auto-play here when testing)

Price-wise I really don't know.  I don't need to sell it, but I don't need to keep it either. There's a small emotional attachment that means I wouldn't just sell it, but having it go to "a mate" to be used has some resonance.  Original cost was, IIRC, £379 and then the Hiscox case on top. So I guess somewhere around the £200 mark including the case, if it'll suit your purposes; I'll even re-string it with fresh strings first

If not, no worries. Having got it out of the case for the first time in 8 months it's made me realise it's not as awful as I thought, so it may live in the lounge for practice for a bit!

{ETA}
Oh, yeah, it's got EZ-Peg bridge pins (brass things that are supposed to improve sustain. I never noticed it did that, but it does make changing strings much less of a faff as they come out easy and stay in without the "pingf***it" experience).  I still have the original plastic ones too.

TTony

Thanks @snags - i’ll take a listen when i’m not in the office!

Snags

Yeah, make sure you're somewhere you can laugh loudly and freely.

The EQ was flat (I would normally cut the bass and boost the treble when plugged in) and I've done nothing to it in Reaper - not least because I don't know how.

LuttiS

I've got a Faith Naked Venus - cost in the £400 range a couple of years ago - 30th bday present.

I had no intention of getting an acoustic guitar - i had a cheap one from years ago that i actually really liked and really punched above its weight (Johnston cutaway - £55 new!) 

I tried the Faith on an offchance.. i've played many fancy acoustics and found them nice, but nothing to go nuts about. 
Within a few minutes of playing the Faith it was decided

Really recommend trying them. The sound is so rich and feels really good to.


So uh... +1 to Faith.

Nikc

I played a lovely Martin earlier today and thought this is nice - picked my freshman back up played it  and thought no thanks this is home 

Bridgehouse

Nikc said:

I played a lovely Martin earlier today and thought this is nice - picked my freshman back up played it  and thought no thanks this is home 

What Martin was it?

TTony

@Snags ;

Sorry - intended to say - nothing wrong with that playing or recording.  Thanks for taking the time to do it and upload it.

What's the action like on the guitar?  And whereabouts are you (I'm in Norfolk-land, though not too far from the A11/A14/M11).

MagicPigDetective

I have a Taylor 114CE which I do find very easy to play (after addressing nut and high saddle issues); and sounds lovely;  above the budget new but well worth trying if you see an used one. 

Snags

@TTony   the action is low for an acoustic, in my opinion; I'll try to take some pics/measurements. I'm based in Herts but come to Norfolk two or three times a year, likely to be more soon. I'll be in Mundesley in the middle of September having a doss. Could happily chuck it in the car - I always bring a guitar anyway.

stickyfiddle

@TTony - don't discount a non-electro acoustic with a pickup.  You can usually get a better guitar *and* plugged-in sound via that route. 

I gigged a Taylor 214-plus-Baggs M1A setup for years and loved it - that would be around your budget, assuming a used guitar.

Teyeplayer

Some of the lower end larrivee models come up at fantastic used prices and they are lovely acoustics, well made with a great piano-like quality to the tone (articulate yet warm with great note for note seperation).  If you can get a bargain one of these and then pop an Lr baggs pickup in you’ll be sorted for many years to come.

TTony

Snags said:

 I'll be in Mundesley 

We usually head just south of there.  Anywhere between Happisburgh & Winterton.  Love it!

TTony

stickyfiddle said:

@TTony - don't discount a non-electro acoustic with a pickup.  You can usually get a better guitar *and* plugged-in sound via that route. 

I gigged a Taylor 214-plus-Baggs M1A setup for years and loved it - that would be around your budget, assuming a used guitar.

I had discounted that because I didn't want to butcher my old Yam acoustic.

But I'd probably have no such reservations about butchering a new (s/h) acoustic that had been bought specifically for that purpose.  Good call @stickyfiddle!

ICBM

TTony said:

stickyfiddle said:

@TTony - don't discount a non-electro acoustic with a pickup.  You can usually get a better guitar *and* plugged-in sound via that route.

I had discounted that because I didn't want to butcher my old Yam acoustic.

Fitting a soundhole pickup or a simple undersaddle or internal pickup doesn’t butcher a guitar. At worst you’ll just need to enlarge the endpin hole - in fact some Yamahas are already drilled to the right size and use a larger ‘plug’ style endpin. A passive pickup doesn’t even need a battery, and one with a buffered output jack will just have it Velcro’d to the neck block usually.

The reason why electro-acoustics are the devil’s work is because most of them use an invasive, unique set of parts - which means they cannot be upgraded or replaced in the event of reliability problems (which although not that common are far from unknown) without a huge amount of work, if it’s even practical at all. So you’re putting a nice guitar which should last decades and improve with age at the mercy of electronics which probably won’t.

I can actually see the logic in cheap electros more than expensive ones, because they’re more or less throwaway products anyhow, but I still think it’s far better to get a nicer acoustic, fit a simple pickup, and do all the rest with outboard electronics where they can be easily upgraded or replaced as necessary.

And if you already have a half-decent acoustic, it’s no contest at all.