Looking for a good quality acoustic, up to £750ish

willo

I am going to be doing some recording over Christmas and would like to pick up an acoustic in Black Friday to help with that. After that, I'll also use it for inspiration at home, and potentially some playing live (where it will mostly be used for specific tracks, with the majority of the gig on electric).

I was hoping to crowdsource some recommendations from the collective Fretboard brain. My requirements are:

- Budget up to around £750ish, ideally. If I need to budget more and save up for something perfect, let me know!
- Can be new or used, new is preferable
- Needs to have the capability built in for recording/connecting to PA (whatever system, piezo, onbaord mic etc) - it just needs to sound good this way
- Ideally it won't be too loud acoustically - I know that's counter towards what a lot of people want but I play in a family home, often at night. This guitar will almost always live through a mixer; I want it to sound good unplugged but I don't need it to boom through the whole house.

I'm not really thinking about a specific EQ profile or tonewoods, as I am pretty easy on that. It just needs to play and sound good - I'm hopeful that, as there are some incredible lower-price electrics these days, the same is true of acoustics.

Things I have seen so far:

- Sire Larry Carlton A4
- Sigma s000m-15e
- Yahama LL16 ARE

Thanks in advance!

nero1701

Ive a bnib Baby Taylor in the classifieds, 

sev112

Taylor 100 series, second hand about £600 ish, new £800 ish

you are about to run the risk of everyone telling you that all acoustic pick up systems in the world bar the one in their guitar is crap.  But if you are playing live the audience don’t realise or care, and if you are recording you can use EQ/reverb anyway

CountryDave

Yamaha 16 or 6 series.
LL, LS or LJ depending on your preference.
I’ve owned an LL16 and a LS6. Both were great. 

Pickup sounds good. Add eq to taste & off you go.

willo

CountryDave said:

Yamaha 16 or 6 series.
LL, LS or LJ depending on your preference.
I’ve owned an LL16 and a LS6. Both were great. 

Pickup sounds good. Add eq to taste & off you go.

Are these loud, acoustically? I've only seen a few pics of the LL16 and it looks large, which I equate with a big sound (I realise this might be nonsense - I have basically played only electric for 20 odd years, so it's all a new thing to me). Anyway, my worry is it might be too loud for your typical family semi detached?

And thank you @nero1701 and @sev112 ;;

ditchboy

You will pick up a Furch for that. 

nickbigsby

One of the Yamahas mentioned but another hat in the ring to try is Recording King. I was searching for a J45 style and came across one for significantly less than £750 ! It’s honestly incredible , everywhere I go musician friends are impressed after playing it .

bertie

if you could almost double your budget  you can have my Furch  (OM33SR)   

TheMadMick

There's a PRS SE for sale here with a Maple B&S. If I din'\t have one already I'd have had that. The pickup is no slouch but these things are a matter of taste.

GoFish

Not what you requested, but how about a Yamaha Silent Guitar?

Another possibility from totally left field would be a semi-hollow:

BigPaulie

Of the 3 guitars listed in the OP the Yamaha is head and shoulders above the others. The 16 series is a professional quality offering and should really cost significantly more than it does.

The LL is significantly bigger than a standard dead. It can be a loud guitar (if you play it loudly). It is rather bright sounding (which is brought under control with PB strings), but has all the rosewood characteristics. A nice scoop and loads of splashy overtones and that piano-like attack. It has tonnes of headroom, much more than my Martin D-16GT. It is quite (reassuringly?) heavily built and has a fair old chunk of a neck on it. I love almost everything about mine, but my preference is for slimmer necks. This may or may not be an issue for you, depending on your preferences. I also find buying from Yamaha to be more reassuring in an ethical sense due to them owning the factories where the guitars are built and having a responsible wood sourcing policy and supply chain. 

I would also look at the LL/LS TA. I played the LL TA in Kenny's in Glasgow and was mightily impressed with the sound. I can imagine them being rather handy for recording.

BigPaulie

By the way, @willo where are you based? You could have a loan of my LL16 for a few days to get to know it if you're handy.

PC008

I would recommend Yamaha Red Label FS3/FG3 if they come down to your price point in the sales or try secondhand - I have the FS3X and it's amazing for the money

Tannin

Without wanting to contradict @BigPaulie's well-reasoned and persuasive view, this is a price point at which, generally speaking, you can buy new guitars with something wrong with them (poor quality, underspec, dodgy ethics) or, if you shop around a bit, used guitars with a great deal right about them. Look out for quality makes which are not well-known in the UK and for that reason have poor resale value. You'll probably not have quite enough for (in alphabetical order) a used entry-level Cole Clark, Dowina, Lakewood, Larivee, or Maton, but you never know your luck, and you'd be into top quality instruments for not a lot of money.

CountryDave

The Yamahas can be loud if you want.
get a feedback buster to cover the sound hole.

BigPaulie

Tannin said:

Without wanting to contradict @BigPaulie's well-reasoned and persuasive view, this is a price point at which, generally speaking, you can buy new guitars with something wrong with them (poor quality, underspec, dodgy ethics) or, if you shop around a bit, used guitars with a great deal right about them. Look out for quality makes which are not well-known in the UK and for that reason have poor resale value. You'll probably not have quite enough for (in alphabetical order) a used entry-level Cole Clark, Dowina, Lakewood, Larivee, or Maton, but you never know your luck, and you'd be into top quality instruments for not a lot of money.

Sound advice as always.

guitarjack66

Would Eastman come into the reckoning price wise? Good reviews if some questionable manufacturing and sourcing ethics.

willo

guitarjack66 said:

Would Eastman come into the reckoning price wise? Good reviews if some questionable manufacturing and sourcing ethics.

I've seen a few Eastman. The AC222CE falls into my range. I've not played one but the electrics I played were excellent. I've heard grumbles but nothing actually specific re:manufacturing and sourcing and, interestingly, only when looking at acoustics and never electrics. 

guitarjack66

willo said:

guitarjack66 said:

Would Eastman come into the reckoning price wise? Good reviews if some questionable manufacturing and sourcing ethics.

I've seen a few Eastman. The AC222CE falls into my range. I've not played one but the electrics I played were excellent. I've heard grumbles but nothing actually specific re:manufacturing and sourcing and, interestingly, only when looking at acoustics and never electrics. 

@Tannin is your man on the sourcing and ethical side. I have no reason disbelieve his information. I have always fancied an Eastman though. A bit out of my budget but good reviews and appear to have a wider nut than standard,which I prefer.

Tannin

^ Wizzed for agreeing with me.

Tannin

I have no information about Eastman, good or bad other than (a) that they are manufacturing in a country which buys more  pirate illegally logged timber than the entire rest of the world combined, and (b) that in China it is basically impossible to tell whether any particular batch of timber was logged legally and legitimately or not. Once it has been cut up, even an expert cannot tell where it came from with any certainty. 

Note that it isn't  me saying these things about China and illegal logging and it isn't some radical eco-nut group, this is Interpol. (I  have linked the relevant Interpol statements on this site before.) (Somewhere.)

My impression - and it is just an impression, I have no evidence to support it - is that Eastman make nice instruments and would do the right thing if they could. Personally, I'd love an Eastman acoustic archtop - hardly anyone else makes them these days, not real acoustic ones - but I couldn't cope with waking up at nights and wondering how many Orangutans died for my new guitar. 

I don't insist on best-in-class sustainability credentials when I buy a guitar (Cole Clark & Taylor are the world leaders, and all kudos to them) but I do insist on at least crossing out the worst-in-class. So I won't buy anything made in China*, or in Indonesia (which is also seriously bad). 

* Yamaha do most of their manufacturing in China but (at least as I understand it) work hard to do it in an ethical way, and are well on the way to properly documenting their sources. So I cut them some slack. Indeed, last year I bought a Yamaha student guitar on that basis.