Our guide to choosing the perfect Acoustic guitar for you
As important as it is to remember that you don’t need to spend a fortune on the best acoustic guitar for you, it’s equally important to make sure you’re bringing home an instrument that you’ll truly love playing.
Even if you have only £100 to spend, you deserve a great guitar to help you keep expanding your skills and learning new music. It’s also crucial to remember that how you play determines how your guitar will sound.
A well-played guitar is almost never worse than a poorly played one, so if you’re a casual player, you can rest assured that your cheaper guitar will provide a surprisingly high-quality music experience.
As you begin your search for the best acoustic guitar for you, here are just a few of the things to keep in mind:
Different Materials for Acoustic Guitars
Tonewoods
Tonewood refers to the material the guitar is made of, which primarily affects the guitar’s sound. Solid tonewoods are typically more flexible, with more of a complex sound, while laminate tonewoods are more resonant, with a more consistent sound.
While acoustic guitars with solid tonewoods tend to be more expensive than guitars with laminate tonewoods, guitars with solid tonewoods can be made to be quite inexpensive. You can find an inexpensive guitar with solid tonewoods like mahogany or rosewood, but you may need to sacrifice a little on sound quality and craftsmanship.
Also, different tonewoods can result in different sound characteristics, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a single type of tonewood will give you the exact traits you’re looking for.
Spruce
Spruce is a popular choice for the tops of acoustics and it is used in around 70 per cent of acoustic guitar tops. It’s quite light and very resonant, making it a popular choice for tops and sides in acoustic guitars. It creates a bright, crisp, and full tone, which can be great for fingerpicking.
Cedar
Cedar is a popular choice for the tops of acoustics and it is used in around 30 per cent of acoustic guitar tops. Cedar is a dense wood that provides a deep, warm tone with a lot of sustain. Because of this, it’s great for fingerpicking and strumming.
Mahogany
Mahogany is a dense, heavy wood, which makes it great for the backs and sides of acoustic guitars. It's dark tone tends to be warm and well-rounded, which is why it works so well for rhythm and strumming. Mahogany creates a deep, powerful "punchy" tone that is both responsive and articulate.
Maple
Maple is a lighter wood that tends to give a more balanced sound than mahogany. It’s used for the backs and sides of many acoustic guitars and creates a bright sound, with transparent acoustics due to their higher level of internal damping.
Rosewood
Rosewood is known for creating a focused sound that works great for strumming or rhythm playing. It tends to have a bright, full sound with balanced levels of bass and treble.Body Shape / size
There are various sizes of acoustic guitar body from parlour to Jumbo, if you have a particular playing style or sound you're after it's easier to narrow it down. In general the bigger t6he box the more volume you're going to get out of the guitar, so if you're strumming big chords then a Jumbo or Dreadnought would be a good placed to start, if you're more of a finger style guitar player then an OM / 000 or Grand Auditorium would give you more of a focused sound and tend to be more balanced across the strings in terms of equal volume. a parlour or 0 sized guitar are great for blues/ ragtime but much thinner sounding.. this isn't always the rule though as we've heard some pre war martins which are tiny but have a huge sound.
The Bottom Line: Why You Need to Play with the Perfect Guitar for You
The truth is that your guitar can make a huge difference in how your music sounds. A well-crafted guitar with a high-quality tone will sound good even if you’re a beginner or a professional playing for thousands of fans.
As long as you choose the best acoustic guitar for you, you’ll be able to play with confidence that will inspire you to pick up your instrument every day.
How Can We Help You?
Whether you're learning a new instrument or need to reach out to guitar specialists, you've come to the right place.
Musicstreet is a family-run, independent guitar shop that offers various electric guitars, acoustic guitars, bass guitars, amplifiers, pedals, and other accessories. With our 5-point customer service, we can guarantee that we'll help you with your musical needs.
Looking for acoustic guitar parts? Reach out to us today!