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In this Discussion
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Recommendations for medium-bodied acoustic please (up to £500)
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She may not like it and that's totally fine, but don't rule anything out yet
FWIW I think the Taylor GS Mini isn't going to work - too small and short scale really. She seems to prefer an OM/Orchestra size body. The Yamahas we tried were all very bright and almost harsh sounding to my ears. Some of the cheaper Fenders were pretty good, certainly for their price. Most of the others were nice but nothing remarkable for or against. But of all the guitars we tried, the one we both liked the best was a Faith Naked Venus - really nice full sound (both unplugged and amplified) without being boomy, and clear when picked without being too bright. There was just something about it that we both just liked a bit more than the others.
So I think the Faith is our new yardstick to judge anything else we try against. If nothing else we like better comes up I'd be more than happy to buy one of those, but for now we're in no rush so will keep looking. Interesting and useful afternoon though.
Be aware, though, that if your daughter decides on a Faith Naked Venus, it won't sound exactly like the one you both liked. That's just not possible.
Maybe try a few s/h next time as well, to get higher up the ladder without spending more
We didn't try any second-hand guitars today because the places we were in didn't have much used (Life Guitars is the obvious second-hand dealer in Exeter but they seemed to have nothing but dreads and classical today in that price range). Might have to make a trip further afield to find some more. All good fun though.
That's a good point about the s/h thing, too- they don't even need to be s/h. It can be a dangerous game as it can start you wanting stuff you can't afford, but being aware of how much better the dearer stuff is (if at all!) is kind of useful to know. Apart from anything else, it will inform your decisions about the cheaper stuff, it'll make it easier to evaluate the cheaper stuff.
I don't know what they're like now but 3-4 years ago when my sister was buying her acoustic, once she had pretty much decided that Faiths were what she liked best, we did go round several shops and try a whole bunch of them. I wouldn't say they were as variable as something like a Gibson, they were pretty much all decent, but some were noticeably nicer than others. Now- I'm in Northern Ireland, which isn't exactly a massive market, so some of those less good examples may have just been sitting in the shop for years (that's what it felt like! Plus the one she decided on was actually one from a few years previously but it just seemed to be excellent regardless) plus a lot of it comes down to setup with acoustics I think. But if you're not able to do the setup yourself or take it to a luthier (which ups the cost) then it's worth bearing in mind.
I do think (based on what I've tried- as I said, I'm much more an electric player so (a) don't have that much experience with acoustics and (b) being an electric player is almost certainly influencing what I like in terms of playability, tone etc.!) if the Dowina is just too much of a risk to buy without trying/just too much over budget then Faith would be very high up my list too (especially since she knows she likes them!). But there are definitely some things I haven't tried at that price point that I would like to try as well, just to be sure. The all-solid Guilds, Corts etc..
EDIT: Just in case you're not aware (you probably are) there are a few different wood choices with the Naked Venuses- you've got the Engelmann Spruce/Indonesian mahogany (and also a black stain version of that one), also the Cedar/Indonesian mahogany, and then an all-Indonesian mahogany version. The spruce is probably the cheapest, but (at least if you shop around) they should presumably be all close enough in price that she should get the one she likes best... if she can get to try them all, of course!
(I keep saying "Indonesian mahogany", because that's what it's specced as. They don't specify "Indonesian" on the more expensive Faiths, which makes me wonder exactly what that "Indonesian Mahogany" actually is... To be honest I kind of suspect it's not "proper" (i.e. Honduran) mahogany even on the dearer ones. They specify "African" (which isn't "genuine" [Honduran] mahogany, but which is probably the closest thing to "genuine" Mahogany available- it's Khaya, an African wood pretty similar to, but not quite, mahogany) on the dearer Legacy models, which makes me think it's not even African Mahogany. What might it be? Sapele? Oukumé? Something else? Your guess is as good as mine (plus it might not even matter anyway). I guess if you really cared you could email Faith...)
Next trip will hopefully be somewhere with more second hand stock now we've got more idea what she likes. I think pretty much every guitar we tried today suited her playing style better than my mahogany parlour or 12-string dread though.
There will alwaysays be a difference in tone, despite the fact that it's two identical Martins or whatever because, for one thing, you can't get identical woods
(a) No, no two guitars are the same (certainly not acoustic ones)
(b) The variation between "identical" guitars is not constant from make to make and model to model. Some makers seem to have the ability to turn out very similar guitars pretty much every time (Taylor, Maton, probably Yamaha, though I haven't played enough Yammies to be so confident about that one) while other makers have a much wider within-model variation (Martin, Cole Clark, probably Gibson though I'm no Gibson expert).
It would be easy to ascribe this to superior quality control, and that's no doubt a part of it, but I think there is more to it than that. Look at Martin as an example: different examples of a given model can vary a lot, but although you might prefer Example A to Example B, neither one is by any means a dud, and I might prefer the other one. Some makes just vary more than other makes do.
The point here is that there are some guitars I reckon it is safe to buy online (e.g., I've played and liked Taylor 314s and, at a pinch would buy one sight unseen, confident that it would be very like the other 314s I've played) and some I wouldn't (one of these days I'll probably buy a Martin HD-28, but I wouldn't dream of just ordering one, they vary so much. None of them are "bad" guitars, but only one in 5 or 10 has the magic dust in it.
But in the end, playing a few and deciding which one you like the most is half the fun. And doing it together with your daughter is double the fun.
But all of that notwithstanding, if you find a good Gibson (and they *are* out there) you've got a great guitar. I know cos I've got one
I mostly found that the Gibsons had better playability. And now, with Martins Re-imagined series, I've given up on 'em - too much wood in the neck for me.
I think I've found my "dream" guitar anyway so no longer searching
I spend a bit of time on the USA acoustic forums, and there are quite a few reports of Martins have a lot of issues with binding, and a few new ones requiring neck resets.
I haven't really tried enough Martins to know (plus I haven't tried any recently if @earwighoney is correct!). I wasn't super-fussed on the Martins I tried- whether I tried bad ones, or whether I just don't like them, I dunno. Of course... I could try one now and love them.
EDIT: I should probably add I haven't tried any Gibsons recently, either. Maybe slightly more recently than Martin I think. But still about 4-ish years I think.
Yes. ..... But when?