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Other factors (you will need to inform yourself about each one!) -
* What wood do you want for the top?
* What shape and size do you want?
* What price do you want?
* What strings do you want?
* What music will you play?
* Where will you be playing it?
* Do you want acoustic or electro-acoustic?
Factors that will confound you on your journey -
* Tone is subjective, so, with the advice of others, this is a journey you must make under your own steam.
* The tone of an acoustic will alter the more you play it.
* How an individual acoustic sounds will be different when you record it, when you listen to it as you play, and as others hear it when you play it to them. So what, out of those three, do you want it for?
* How many journeys are you having? Along the way you may well discover more than one tone that you like.
* Sometimes players discover predilections for an aspect, or aspects - neck shape, nut width etc. - and these can limit your choice.
* What is comfortable to play will alter as you age.
I am now 68 and I have the following 'tone destinations'. I seem to be quite happy playing any size or shape of instrument but have never like anything electric.
1. Main destination (but now getting a bit too big). Square-shouldered, Sitka topped, Mahogany back and sides, lightweight, mid-price dreadnoughts with Monel strings.
2. Small inexpensive all-mahogany instruments.
3. Cheap Resonators.
You need to develop your own list and then find something that fits the bill. You will make mistakes - everyone does.
There's a large element of luck.
:-)
P.S. You don't actually need to spend a lot of money.
- a 12 fret Dread (round shouldered, slot headstock, Larrivee) - it was cool but not what I’m looking for it turns out
- a Toon
- a Larrivee OM-40R
A couple of Audens
A Furch
The Toon was EPIC
It was a mistake to play it - it was expensive but brilliant
The Larrivee OM was next best
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I’ve had a D28 - not what I’m after this time.
It's a trueism that Larrivee's open up after a year and continue to mature so if that sounded good then it'll even better down the line.
I have yet to try an OM size satin rosewood Larrivee model with original bracing (I prefer original series to 40s, but it's all good, they are popular and I see why).
Maybe a 12 fret moon spruce OO Madagascar rosewood model would be the ticket... Lol...
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Not sure if thats bad...........or may be good
just because you do, doesn't mean you should.
That's when I was happiest lol...
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The most balanced, versatile combination of woods in any body size.
Also, if this matters to you, a significantly lower environmental impact than either rosewood or mahogany. (Even if the fingerboard is still rosewood.)
Walnut is also good if you prefer a more traditional dark back and sides, and sounds somewhere between maple and rosewood.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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Someone has to keep the company afloat.
Confirmed: definitely don’t want a Dread however decent - too much if an armful and not responsive enough to fingers compared to the OM sized things (tried a couple of Dreads inc a used D28 that was very nice of its ilk)
Lowden O-something (spruce and Rosewood) - meh. Sounded a bit dead which surprised me - maybe it needs to be played in a bit to do ‘that thing’ they are known for.
Martin OM28 Reimagined - decent but not earth shattering.
Martin SC13 or whatever it’s called - their oddly shaped one. - eek - not nice sounding in comparison to any of the others (but to be fair, less spendy)
Now the fun bit: Atkin (oooooh)
Frustratingly the Rosewood ones were leftys but the 2 mahogany ones (a Spruce/Mahogany Essential OM and a all Mahogany 000 Dust Bowl 14) were head, shoulders, and large part of torso above everything else.
The dustbowl has a very V neck - I didn't play it long enough to.be confident I'd get on with it but it didn't pose an immediate problem. The 45mm but was also very nice for fingerstyle.
The Essential didn't sound quite as standout but the neck was more 'normal'