How do you prioritize your choice in acoustic guitar?

Devil#20

You forgot strings and string gauge and string material. There's so many variables it's almost as if every single guitar could be unique and therefore its sound. Even down to build variation for the same model. The biggest variable to the sound of the guitar and how tuneful it is is the lump at the back of the guitar.  

ToneControl

Cranky said:

ToneControl said:

and if you were to own 10 acoustics, who would want them all to be as identical sounding as possible?

if you had 10 cars, would you not have one 4x4, one sports car, one RV, one luxury saloon, etc.

Yeah that was part of my initial question, not just about buying a guitar but also about why we pick up one of ours but leave the others alone for periods of time.  I have four acoustics, two of them I would consider to be properly nice, performance-worthy acoustics, and sometimes I wanna play one of them and I'll ignore the other, and then vice versa other days or stretches of days.  And sometimes I'll play a cheap one for days and ignore the rest.  So I just think it's interesting like that, how a guitar will speak to you and either suit a given mood or put you in a certain mood.

Electrics are the same for me, but for different reasons.  But either way, I'm definitely finding that playing a wider variety of guitars is moving me along as a player in general.

The thing that baffles me is when people have 10 strats or LPs with pretty much the same spec, just different colours

Kilgore

ToneControl said:

artiebear said:

The lovely thing about acoustic guitars is that they each have interesting tonal characteristics due to woods, construction, scale and size. For a long time now I have based my criteria to acquire upon the concept of "what can I achieve with this guitar that is specific ?" and to a degree, though it sounds horribly pretentious, "what can this guitar teach me in terms of expanding technique and expression ?". 
While I love my electrics, I have a greater love and appreciation for the differences between my acoustic guitars. I am happy that over the years I have taken a punt on guitars, that, when I started out with an ideal acoustic in mind were so far away from the tick list.

I found out that I really love 1'/13'16 necks on 12 fretters for certain finger styles. I found out that 1930's 2 tone bar bracing  sounds amazing for country blues and just about anything else.
I also found out that being a rosewood guy ( so I thought ) that Koa, mahogany and Macassar Ebony are flavours I love.

Not to mention, finding that a longer scale Sobell, through to an 00 with short scale are both brilliant at different things.

Like others have said, it's way better not to approach with your list, rather than to go in there to learn and be surprised. Bit like dating I suppose, but a lot more fulfilling 

yep

and if you were to own 10 acoustics, who would want them all to be as identical sounding as possible?

if you had 10 cars, would you not have one 4x4, one sports car, one RV, one luxury saloon, etc.

You see this a lot on the AGF.

 Someone will have 10 different D28s. Nice as D28s, are I wouldn't want ten of them.

There was one guy who just had all Koa guitars, about forty of them! 

earwighoney

Kilgore said:

You see this a lot on the AGF.

 Someone will have 10 different D28s. Nice as D28s, are I wouldn't want ten of them.

There was one guy who just had all Koa guitars, about forty of them! 

I've been on a few different forums over the years, and the AGF is one of the strangest.

stickyfiddle

Big +1 for playing it and choosing. I also bought a Dove because it was the best dread in the shop. I then swapped that for an HD28 when I found one that was even better than the Dove. I intend to keep that HD28 forever, and buy another couple of non-dread styles at some point for variety. But I'm not worried about spec sheets at all

ICBM

stickyfiddle said:

Big +1 for playing it and choosing. I also bought a Dove because it was the best dread in the shop. I then swapped that for an HD28 when I found one that was even better than the Dove. I intend to keep that HD28 forever, and buy another couple of non-dread styles at some point for variety. But I'm not worried about spec sheets at all

The 'specs' become irrelevant once you realise that really the only similarity between the two guitars constructionally is the overall shape and the top material - 

Back/sides - Dove maple, HD-28 rosewood
Neck - Dove maple, HD-28 mahogany
Fingerboard - Dove rosewood, HD-28 ebony

- and yet they sound very similar to each other.

Even more remarkably, a friend of mine had a Larrivée SD-50 - a mahogany back/sides and mahogany-neck 12-fret Dreadnought - and that sounded very similar to the Dove as well.

stickyfiddle

ICBM said:

stickyfiddle said:

Big +1 for playing it and choosing. I also bought a Dove because it was the best dread in the shop. I then swapped that for an HD28 when I found one that was even better than the Dove. I intend to keep that HD28 forever, and buy another couple of non-dread styles at some point for variety. But I'm not worried about spec sheets at all

The 'specs' become irrelevant once you realise that really the only similarity between the two guitars constructionally is the overall shape and the top material - 

Back/sides - Dove maple, HD-28 rosewood
Neck - Dove maple, HD-28 mahogany
Fingerboard - Dove rosewood, HD-28 ebony

- and yet they sound very similar to each other.

Even more remarkably, a friend of mine had a Larrivée SD-50 - a mahogany back/sides and mahogany-neck 12-fret Dreadnought - and that sounded very similar to the Dove as well.

Absolutey. The thing that makes a guitar really connect with a player is the combination of the specs and how it's put together and exactly how the specific pieces of wood work together. AND how your own fingers and ears respond to that.

And you can only tell that from playing them.

Cranky

stickyfiddle said:

Big +1 for playing it and choosing. I also bought a Dove because it was the best dread in the shop. I then swapped that for an HD28 when I found one that was even better than the Dove. I intend to keep that HD28 forever, and buy another couple of non-dread styles at some point for variety. But I'm not worried about spec sheets at all

So this is another aspect of my personal evolution.  Not something I wanna dwell on here, but I had the confidence and ambition smacked outta me growing up.  It took me years to get up the courage to grab a guitar and start learning, nigh 1O years after that to play around friends or family, and still a few more years to walk into a guitar shop and have the courage to play in front of strangers and other guitar players.  So needless to say, the idea of playing a guitar first and shopping around was an overwhelming notion that I talked myself out of for the longest time, even though I thought about it quite a lot.

SteveF

Weirdly, I went into my last acoustic buying experience thinking I wanted one thing (some kind of cutaway electro like a Taylor 314e or similar) and was fairly sure I disliked dreadnaughts.  I then went and tried everything the local shop had in and ended up with a... Martin dreadnaught...  

What I did find is that although I found some of the more rounded, smaller bodied cutaways I tried more comfortable to play, the sound just didn’t compare for me.  Visually, I love the look of Taylor guitars, but in person I didn’t find one that didn’t sound overly bright and trebly.  I am not sure whether the fact the one I bought was a second hand one about 5 years old and it had “opened up” or whatever (I’m not sure if that sort of thing is just hokey or not!) but the sound from the one I ended up with was exactly what I was after.  There was a slight trade off with comfort, but I don’t think anyone claims that dreads are the most comfortable acoustics to play. 

TheBigDipper

I went into Project Music a couple of birthdays ago knowing I wanted to play and try as many cedar-topped Lowdens as I could and buy the one I liked the best. I walked out with a Brook Taw - spruce top, bubinga back/sides. 

I never would have ordered a Brook for home delivery. I knew I didn't want one. The Taw has a slim neck (front to back) and a short scale. I knew I didn't like those.  I wanted a Lowden. I would have been in ignorance forever. You never know until you play it. I played 15 guitars that afternoon over a period of 2-3 hours. Imagine how hard that would have been if I'd been ordering them over the Internet, one at a time.

So, my buying process will continue to be "visit a shop with lots of interesting stock and play as many as they'll let me". Project Music (Exeter) is a 2 hour drive from my house, BTW. 

ESBlonde

Go to a proper shop that is well stocked, start at one end of the rack and work your way along. Play everything (price being irrelevent at this stage). Make a note of what you like in your hands. Go back and retry those that were nice for whatever reason, whittle it down (top end budget might now play a part but don't dismiss so called budget guitars).

Usually by the end of the afternoon you have a favourite, damn it I nearly bought a hummingbird with all that bright colour and bling!

Now ask about the specs your hands and ears have selected.

ToneControl

ESBlonde said:

Go to a proper shop that is well stocked, start at one end of the rack and work your way along. Play everything (price being irrelevent at this stage). Make a note of what you like in your hands. Go back and retry those that were nice for whatever reason, whittle it down (top end budget might now play a part but don't dismiss so called budget guitars).

Usually by the end of the afternoon you have a favourite, damn it I nearly bought a hummingbird with all that bright colour and bling!

Now ask about the specs your hands and ears have selected.

and find a quiet spot to try them, facing a wall or a window

crunchman

SteveF said:

Weirdly, I went into my last acoustic buying experience thinking I wanted one thing (some kind of cutaway electro like a Taylor 314e or similar) and was fairly sure I disliked dreadnaughts.  I then went and tried everything the local shop had in and ended up with a... Martin dreadnaught...  

What I did find is that although I found some of the more rounded, smaller bodied cutaways I tried more comfortable to play, the sound just didn’t compare for me.  Visually, I love the look of Taylor guitars, but in person I didn’t find one that didn’t sound overly bright and trebly.  I am not sure whether the fact the one I bought was a second hand one about 5 years old and it had “opened up” or whatever (I’m not sure if that sort of thing is just hokey or not!) but the sound from the one I ended up with was exactly what I was after.  There was a slight trade off with comfort, but I don’t think anyone claims that dreads are the most comfortable acoustics to play. 

It's not the age.  It's the sound of Taylor guitars.

Some of their newer models are meant to be a bit fuller sounding, but I haven't played them so can't really comment.

MichaelWatts

My priorities are scale length and response, ergonomics, aesthetics in that that order. 

You can see that in action in some of my videos, this is a good example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2MzcnOYyrI

Rocker

The OP has asked an interesting question.  None of his list would even make it to the starting gate in my world.

Can I afford it?
Does it sound good?
Is it playable?

Each question has equal status as I see it.

martin8708

My approach to buying an acoustic guitar is to have an open mind and play just about any guitar I can get my hands on .
I'm sure we all want a pretty guitar , but sometimes it's that beat up mongrel in the corner of the shop is the one that comes to life in your hands . So I try not to get too hung up on wood types .
The price of the guitar just relates to how much damage it does to your bank account , and how much decoration is on the guitar , it does not guarantee a great sounding guitar .
As Warren Buffet says , price is what you pay , value is what you get .
Always take a tuner with you , this is especially true if looking for a nylon string guitar , all it takes is for one string to be slightly out of tune to really fudge the sound .
I'm not a great guitarist , and I'm a bit shy as well , but my simple test of a guitar is 
1) Play the Purple Rain chord Bb9 , if it sounds as if Prince has just entered the room , it's a good sign ( yes , I know he didn't play guitar on this track and he is no longer with us ) , I find quite a few guitars struggle with this chord .
2) Play a simple Gmajor chord , do all the notes ring clear and even , does it have good projection ? Does it get louder when you strum harder ? Can you feel the notes against your chest ? 
Does the guitar come to life in your hands ? 
I'm sure some people will thoroughly disagree with some of the above , but acoustic guitars more than electric guitars/bass's really do need to be played before purchased .

Balrog68

Cranky said

(Please don't tell me that "you gotta play it first."  We all know that what matters is the tone and feel while playing, but what about when you choose among several guitars or when you walk into the shop and say "what do you have in ___________ acoustics?")

Tone, Volume and playability are the only thing that matter to me. 

ToneControl

Inspiration
The more it inspires, the more attractive the guitar is

Mudcrutch

ToneControl said:

Cranky said:

ToneControl said:

and if you were to own 10 acoustics, who would want them all to be as identical sounding as possible?

if you had 10 cars, would you not have one 4x4, one sports car, one RV, one luxury saloon, etc.

Yeah that was part of my initial question, not just about buying a guitar but also about why we pick up one of ours but leave the others alone for periods of time.  I have four acoustics, two of them I would consider to be properly nice, performance-worthy acoustics, and sometimes I wanna play one of them and I'll ignore the other, and then vice versa other days or stretches of days.  And sometimes I'll play a cheap one for days and ignore the rest.  So I just think it's interesting like that, how a guitar will speak to you and either suit a given mood or put you in a certain mood.

Electrics are the same for me, but for different reasons.  But either way, I'm definitely finding that playing a wider variety of guitars is moving me along as a player in general.

The thing that baffles me is when people have 10 strats or LPs with pretty much the same spec, just different colours

You will never build two guitars that sound exactly the same.
It’s impossible to do.

BahHumbug

When it comes to acoustic guitars I primarily play fingerstyle.  I'm also small in stature.  So if I'm looking at a rack of guitars in a shop, I'd be looking for smallish bodied instruments with string spacing on the wide side.  After that its a case of playing them and seeing if they speak to me, feel alive, have that sparkle, however you want to describe it - and feel comfortable and ergonomic.
Any other aesthetics, wood types etc are somewhat of a secondary consideration.  Admittedly I probably wouldn't buy a guitar which I thought was ugly, and it is nice to have instruments made of nice woods, but if it was a guitar that 'works' for me, it wouldn't have to be aesthetically perfect.