Acoustic guitar advice

So The other day when I got my martin strings at a pawn store I checked out a 2nd hand acoustic guitar with a real nice body for 550 $ from Ovation and it sounded really nice but I'm still trying to find my way and expand my knowledge and not rushing to buy a new guitar .

So anyways I would like to ask the community what type of acoustic guitar brands they have really enjoyed . Yes everyone has their preference and whatnot but I thought it be best to ask what brands have real good track records and that won't cost me a fortune lol .

The other good part of the pawn shop is they have a layaway plan so if there's a real nice guitar I want but can't afford it outright , if I pay 30-50 % they'll put it on layaway for me .

Granted they say I will need to have to put enough money into the layaway plan to buy the guitar in 3 months but sometimes they'll stretch it into 4 months as long as I'm still putting money in for it .

as far as brands when I visited them they had a lot of Takamine , 1 Ibanez , 1 Ovation and 5 to 6 low entry acoustics but they do often get a lot of epiphone's as well from time to time .

I also won't stop visiting those reference sites Razbo as they do help , But I really want my next acoustic to be a one I will enjoy . So any help that will make my next choice easier would help .


I'm considering this layaway plan a lot but not until they have a more broader selection granted I only tried out their ovation and one of their takamine acoustics

It's a jungle out there, when it comes to acoustic guitars! Even if you have $5000+ to spend, it's extremely hard to find something good.

So in my experience it's just a matter of trying as many as possible and then reacting when you find something you like. The tricky thing about that is that they can be good for different reasons; One guitar may sound really nice for recording, another one may play really nicely and be good for amplified live playing and so on... So just be aware of what you'll be using it for!

For lower end acoustic guitars, I'm continuously impressed with the YAMAHA acoustic guitars. The FG700S is $2-300 and sounds really good, but the models just "above" that one are great too.
If you want to be able to plug in, get an L.R. Baggs M1 sound hole pickup (About $170 I think). You can install it yourself and it sounds way better than most other pickup systems.

Hope this helped you!
Anders

Originally Posted by: Merwood
I also won't stop visiting those reference sites Razbo as they do help , But I really want my next acoustic to be a one I will enjoy . So any help that will make my next choice easier would help .

Ha ha! At least someone listens. :D For all my "sage advice", I make a critical mistake sometimes, and I don't spend enough time really testing a guitar before I buy it. I recently made one of my "diamond in the rough" purchases, and took it back twice to exchange before getting one I was satisfied with. At a pawn shop or private sale, you would be real lucky to return anything.

So you can learn from my mistakes. Go there and try them out. More than once. Turn the tuners (they should be nice and smooth), bend the strings, smell it, shake it, and FEEL it. In the end, it doesn't matter what you pay or what label is on it, it if feels right, then it should be yours.

I wish you the best of luck. I know you've been a bit disappointed with your current model. :(

Not sure if this really answers your question, but let me tell you a story

Whilst I was up North visiting my brother, he took me guitar shopping, because he knew the manager of a local store. When we got there they were closing, but I had enough time to browse around and spotted a £400 blonde Epiphone I thought was ideal for me - within budget, sounded nice - pretty much what I wanted. It was too late to buy it so we decided to go back the next day and get the guitar. Returning the next day, around lunch time, we happened to bump into my brother's friend as he was leaving for lunch. His parting words were "We've got a Fender there on offer - you should try it."
Now, I'd already set my heart on this Epiphone so went straight to it; picked it up, confirmed it was what I was looking for. On a whim I asked about the the Fender the manager had mentioned and picked it up genuinely not expecting much. I played a Dsus2 and instantly fell in love with the guitar. I asked about cases for it, got a few set of strings thrown in and walked away with bargain, paying a third less than I came in to spend, walking away with a guitar that still has pride of place my "collection".

If it breaks the bank, or you're not 100% sure how far you want to go with acoustics, it's probably not worth the money. If, on the other hand, an instrument "sings" to you and you can afford it, buy it - just make sure you play it to get your money's worth.

That's just my opinion though...