For all things acoustic – the ultimate guide to acoustic guitars
You can get a new acoustic guitar for as little as fifty pounds for a beginner, and one for upwards of five thousand pounds – all have a place in the world of guitars.
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Here, we highlight everything you need to know about acoustic guitars to help you make an informed choice on Your Next Guitar.
Like you, we could spend all day messing about with guitars and stuff to find ‘that tone’. We are not experts, but we are passionate about guitars, making music and having fun!
As with everything, jargon in the guitar world can be very confusing, particularly when you are just learning to play, so we will try and demystify it for you and help you on your journey.
Today’s choice of guitars is huge and acoustics come in a range of shapes, sizes and tonewoods from the global, mainstream makers to those that make one a month to order; we have over 60 acoustic guitar makers profiled on our site.
The History of the Acoustic Guitar
The earliest acoustic guitars can be traced back to the 16th century in Europe, particularly Spain. Over the next 200 or so years the shape of the guitar slowly developed into what we consider an acoustic guitar today, most likely influenced by the guitars made by Antonio de Torres in Spain.
As musicians travelled across Europe guitar music spread with new makers starting to establish themselves and by the late 19th century acoustic guitars had become popular, mainstream instruments.
In the 20th century the guitar evolved at a faster pace with great innovation in bracing, construction and string technology, all driven by the American market and the influence of Martin, Gibson and Epiphone, companies that were well established by then.
In the 1880s there was early experimentation with steel strings and by the 1930s they were standard on just about all American guitars; the guitar up until then was not really seen as a stage instrument, as it was too quiet, but the steel string changed all of that.
Tone Woods
Depending on what you pay for a guitar will determine whether it is made from solid woods (the holy grail of tone) or a combination of laminates and solid woods (usually, the lower priced models.
Either way the top – the sound board – will be made from solid wood, most likely spruce – and then the sides and back may be solid woods, laminates or a combination.
A typical acoustic guitar features woods for the top, back, sides, bracing, neck, fingerboard and bridge which could all be different woods. Confused?
The best acoustic guitars with steel strings would traditionally feature a spruce top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides. But due to restrictions your guitar will now feature an array of solid woods from mahogany, maple, sapele, ovangkol, koa, walnut or other sustainable woods.
All of these wood choices, particularly the top, can affect the tone of your guitar making it warmer, brighter, softer and so on.
The best thing to do is try a few different guitars to find your tone.
The Shape
As well as a choice of six string, twelve string and baritone guitars, acoustic guitars come in many shapes – from parlour through to jumbo – both traditional and cutaway.
Martin Guitars have a great guide to shapes as do Taylor Guitars.
Again, take your time to find the right shape for you, which will depend on whether you sit down or stand up to play, have long or short arms, want lots of volume, whether you strum, fingerpick or a combination. The choice is endless.
The last time I bought an acoustic I spent about an hour playing around ten guitars to zone in on my favourite; with an acoustic the sound you hear is what you get and can’t really be ‘shaped’ like an electric guitars’ sound can, so make sure you like it!
Hybrid Guitars
If you are looking for a guitar that features traditional electric and electro-acoustic sounds using either pickups or digital modelling/electronics and even a combination of these, then you need a hybrid guitar.
These can be played unplugged as an acoustic or plugged in as an electric, with varying degrees of success we might add!
Read our guide on hybrid guitars
Top Ten Guitar Companies
As you might expect the list of the top acoustic makers also includes some of the oldest companies around – Martin and Gibson.
For more detailed information on each read our guide to the Top Ten Guitar Companies
Some of the oldest guitar companies are still around today; these are mainly American, Japanese and Spanish – no surprise there! Read our guide to the Top 10 Oldest Guitar Companies
The UK also makes some great acoustic guitars and we are blessed with some truly innovative companies. Best of British
Archtops vs Flat-tops
To gain volume back in the day, archtop guitars were designed and these went on to feature pickups being the forerunner of the electric guitar.
Archtops have stayed around, being used in jazz and for a ‘softer’ sound, and are still popular with players.
The ‘flat-top’ is the traditional style of a guitar with a ‘flat’ top soundboard, rather than a curved or arched top.
Amplifying your acoustic
If you want to amplify your acoustic to play live on stage then you are going to need to choose a method of doing so that also keeps it sounding good.
At the end of the day you want what the audience hears to be what you hear ie: the ‘natural’ sound of your guitar. This is not easy!
You have five main options which you can read about in our Guide to Choosing an Acoustic Pickup
Once you have a pickup you will need a dedicated acoustic guitar amplifier. Read our Guide to Acoustic Guitar Amps.
How to Choose an Acoustic Guitar
Whether you are a beginner, a seasoned amateur, professional player or a collector there is a guitar (or guitars) out there for you from a hundred quid to hundreds of thousands!
Read our guide on how to choose a beginner guitar
Generally guitars come in three main price brackets:
- Budget – up to £500
- Mid price – £500 to £1500
- High end – £1500 to infinity
We can also add in Signature guitars which are a copy of, or one designed for or by your favourite artist; and Custom guitars where you can specify what woods, shape, finishes, colours and add-ons you want, making the guitar totally unique to you.
If you are left-handed, you can get these too, although not all guitars come in lefty versions. Who makes lefty guitars?
You can buy new or second hand (pre-loved): see our guide to buying second hand