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Hi everyone, I'm new here. I thought this would be a great place for some advice in choosing my next guitar.
I have come back to guitar playing after a few years and want to buy an electro-acoustic. In the past, I've had dreadnought style acoustics and given up on playing them. The one I have now is an Epiphone Hummingbird pro which I inherited from a family member...but being of virtual hobbit-like stature (5 feet 1), it’s just too big for me. I never really had problems spanning frets on electrics but with acoustics, it seems a whole lot more difficult and just generally an arse getting my arms around them.
So I want to get something smaller but am a bit overwhelmed by the array of choice, body type etc. I have looked at some 2nd hand Ovation Celebrity cc-57 but some people say these have certain problems such as bridge popping off or the back cracks? Some people hate the way they sound and some people love it. So I’m not sure if I should gamble with buying something older that could have problems to fix.
For new guitars, I have looked (online) at IbanezTCY10 Talman and TCM50, some people say the sound is weedy or crap and some love it - which is confusing. I like the fact the body is similar to an electric. I’ve also looked at the Fender CD-60SCE Mahogany which apparently has a lovely tone. There's the new Ibanez AW54 Junior, which was released last year. It’s not a cut-away but a smaller dreadnought and it’s 23.9 inch scale length. Then there's the AE245 which sounds great from the demos but doesn't have the forarm contour.
The other measurements such as body depth only seem to be a bit smaller than the Epiphone Hummingbird I have but the fret board must be smaller?
So I’m not sure what to go for, my budget is up to about £300. As far as I can see no shops near me have any of these in stock, so I’m trying to base a decision on what I can find online. In terms of what I want to play, it would be maybe finger picking and blues, rock, folk etc - my guitar heroes being people like Jimmy Hendrix, Nuno Bettencourt and Nick jones, that’s the kind of thing I aspire to! As I say I have not been regularly playing the last few years and would like to get back in and practise more with something that I can look forward to playing instead of wrestling with!
So I would like to know if anyone has any advice, any vertically challenged players out there?
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Comments
Really nice boxy sound. I wouldn’t be without it.
the Yamaha fs800 is a Good value small bodied acoustic. Worth a try if you can find one locally
Is a pickup a definite requirement? You may have to compromise on acoustic/electric tone at that price point.
There’s a lot of small bodied guitars around from Recording King, Art & Lutherie, Alvarez, etc, as well as the obvious Sigmas. I would recommend the excellent The Loar LH-200 but they are getting hard to find now.
No excuse these days when a £50 Chinese condenser mike into a laptop will produce great results with a bit of experimentation and care in mike placement.
Manson guitar shop - Vintage V300MH, Mahogany Top, Folk Acoustic Guitar, £179
A friend has one of these and raves about it. I think it shows that while you need to be careful with lower-priced guitars there are little gems to be found.
A couple of years ago I decided to buy someone a guitar so I went into my local guitar shop and tried every acoustic and was surprised as the usual, known manufacturers, including Yamaha, Fender and Cort, were all uninspiring but I came across three guitars that really sounded nice and they all happened to be from the same manufacturer. It is not important which manufacturer (partly because I cannot remember) as the principle is, especially with acoustic guitars, to go and try them feel them, hear them in person as each will have their own voice and one (or three) in a whole shopful will speak to you, "I'm yours."
At least in the lower price guitars there is less financial risk when buying untested.
If forced into buying blind I would advise to go used for that money. Sigma, Recording King for example do some decent stuff with a bit of mojo about them
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