Finding the Best Acoustic Guitar for You

Tonewoods: The fingerprint of the acoustic guitar

Guitar construction is a complicated process, as the size, shape and each individual piece influences the guitar’s overall sound. The woods used in acoustic guitar construction are called ‘tonewoods’ because they are capable of producing a tone when struck. The back, sides and top wood of an acoustic guitar are extremely important, as using different tonewoods between the back, sides and top will produce significantly different sounds. Guitar luthiers (people who make and design guitars) are extremely talented when it comes to knowing what tonewoods compliment others, and some believe that this is the single most important factor in determining what the guitar will ultimately sound like. 

After the top, back, sides and neck of the guitar, we now need to look at other woods in construction. Those being the woods used for bracing, binding, bridge and fretboard. The choice of wood used for these parts of an acoustic guitar can make or break a guitar's tone in contrast to the other wood used for top, back and sides. But don’t worry! As these woods typically do not define the overall sound of an instrument.

Ultimately, the wood used in construction of a given guitar does not determine how good or bad it will sound. There are many factors that go into an acoustic guitars sonic ability, ranging from the design of the guitar, the guitar maker/luthier and their ability, along with each individual piece used in construction. 

Parlour Guitars

The smallest body type of any full size acoustic guitar is the Parlour style body type. Parlour guitars have a light and balanced sound throughout, giving great high and low frequencies. They are great for fingerpicking and have a very recognisable look. 

Grand Auditorium Guitars 

A popular body type amongst acoustic guitars is the Grand Auditorium body type. These guitars have a bigger body and presence than the Parlour guitars, but can lack some heavy bass response that Dreadnought or Jumbo body types tend to have. These are the perfect guitar for fingerstyle players and solo live performances.

Dreadnought Guitars 

The most common body type without a doubt, the dreadnought body type is a large bodied acoustic, named after British Battleships known for their size. The dreadnought has a great bass response, and is commonly used and loved by players who like to strum with a pick.

Since the lower register is very good on these guitars, they are a go to choice for accompanying the voice - making the dreadnought the singer songwriters bread and butter acoustic guitar!

Jumbo guitars 

The Jumbo acoustic guitar says it all right there in the name. Jumbo acoustics are the largest of the acoustic guitar body types, with some of the larger variants being called “Super Jumbo’s”.

You will often see Jumbo guitars being used in music such as Country, as they are similar to the Dreadnoughts in that they are perfect for accompanying the voice. They have a brilliant bass response - the larger the body, the larger the sound.

Classical guitars 

Classical guitars are the most dynamic of the acoustic guitars, often used in classical music and very favoured by traditional jazz, folk, and flamenco musicians.

Classical guitars use strings made of nylon, as opposed to the steel string guitars mentioned above. They also have slightly wider necks for more intricate chords than most steel strings guitars, and have a very slightly shorter neck. Classical guitars produce a rich, warm sound and are very unique and highly regarded instruments the world over.

Body Style

Acoustic guitars come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes, from small travel sized guitars, all the way up to the largest Jumbo sizes. The body shape of a guitar will ultimately change the sound projection and tone you get, making it an important part of your decision. Different styles of guitars can be more or less comfortable depending on the player, with things to consider such as cutaway vs non-cutaway, where the body is designed so you are able to reach the upper frets on the guitar neck 

Electronics

Acoustic guitars often come with pickups and preamps built into the guitar, giving you the ability to plug straight into an amplifier or speaker system. A lot of these guitars with built in electronics also have tuners, EQ’s, microphones and more. 

Neck

Sometimes the neck can make or break whether a guitar is for you or not. For most guitarists, the neck is extremely important for comfort and playability. The overall thickness and width of the neck is based on the body shape of the guitar, as well as how many frets it has. Typically, an acoustic guitar neck will be listed as a 12 or 14 fret - which doesn’t refer to the overall number of frets, but instead refers to how many frets there are clear of the guitar's body.

Intonation

Intonation determines whether your guitar sounds in tune with itself along the entire neck. Intonation affects guitars, basses, pretty much any fretted instrument with strings and a bridge.

It can completely make or break how an instrument sounds due to the nature of harmonics in music and is extremely important to know when it comes to changing to a new gauge string or adjusting your guitar action. 

Tonewood

Tonewoods are the woods used for building an acoustic guitar and determines the sound it produces. As mentioned above, some woods are more desired than others, with Spruce being the most popular for guitar tops, and Sitka Spruce being the most popular overall. The cost of a guitar is largely based on the rarity of the tonewoods used, with woods such as Brazilian Rosewood being one of the rarest and most sought after tonewoods and reaching extremely high prices. These are considered rare now due to new laws put in place around wood milling in certain parts of the world, leaving them a historical treasure. 

Tuning Machines

Tuning machines, or otherwise known as tuning pegs, machine heads and more, are super important in any guitar. These control the pitch of your guitar strings and are key in having a functional guitar. Enclosed machine heads help stop rust and airbourne corrosives of your tuning machines, leaving less maintenance needed compared to open tuning machines. 

Bridge and Fingerboard

The materials used for guitar bridges and fingerboards are important, however, compared with the importance of the guitar body, the bridge and fingerboard materials are of minimal importance.

Finish

Different guitars will have different finishes depending on the choice of the guitar maker, or guitar luthier. The two main reasons for giving a guitar a finish is for looks, and protection. Guitars are still susceptible to the elements, and a finish on a guitar body will help protect it from warping in more extreme conditions. The finish can affect the sound of a guitar, but there is unfortunately nothing that can be done about this. Luckily, guitar luthiers are geniuses, so they will choose wisely so you don’t have to.