Tonefiend Forum

That's a great question! But my opinion is probably extremely unhelpful. I play a lot of different instruments and therefore have cycled through a ridiculous number of instruments over the years. I guess I have 3 groupings of classifications. 1. I don't really like playing it. 2. It works for X style/genre/whatever 3. I have a connection with it. I don't bother with the 1s. I buy and hold onto the 2s if the price is right and I have a current need, but I'm happy to get rid of them when I no longer need them for X. I buy the 3's when we first meet and I hold on to them forever (or until they die). There's no defining why the 3's are perfect fits, but they just are.You'll know it when you play them. If you're in a store and you find one, then buy the display model that you're playing - don't get a new one out of the back. It won't be the same. For what it's worth, my 'special' instruments were never bought new. They were all either dinged up display models or unidentifiable old instruments without labels or histories (100+ years old in the case of my favorite violin which I paid almost nothing for in Portugal and has since replaced my 'valuable' ones). One of my special guitars cost me $13 in a street market in Bangkok. I wrote a couple hundred tunes on it before it warped itself to death. There have been a couple that I wanted, but couldn't afford. It didn't bother me much to leave them behind. It's one thing if you want an instrument to sound a particular way live or recorded, but if you're primarily concerned with playing, then you don't have to bother explicitly searching for a specific set of physical characteristics. So, my advice is to just demo as many local new and used in your price range as you can. When one of them particularly excites you or uniquely responds to your style of playing, then buy it. If you're having trouble deciding between two or three different ones, then don't buy any of them because clearly none of them was particularly special.

On the other hand, it's better to have something to play than to be forever searching for 'the one'. In that case, just buy something that works and 'love the one you're with'....

I generally play every single note on the fretboard first (bottom to top chromatically) to determine factory setup. Gives me an idea of how much work I will need to do on it to make it play the way i want. If a guitar feels good, sounds good and plays good then it should meet the "keeper" requirements.If you have a specific need for a certain build of guitar you should do the whole research,test hands on and ask around (friends,forums and music stores) There are people that only play so-called crappy guitars and make them sound great , it is amazing and makes no sense. If you want an acoustic my vote is for a Mcpherson ,oh wait none of us can afford one of those!I have a mid range Korean made Alvarez acoustic/electric sounds decent , plays OK 500 bucks or so.Budget acoustic are hit and miss , I bought a MusicYo acoustic for 80 bucks was a fine beater after a fret leveling. Entry level Taylors have ebony fretboards at $799. Guitar Center is a great place to touch and feel things if you are on a budget, Musicians Friend will take back a guitar you don't like (shipping may cost you) and has many low priced ones .Buying a guitar sight unseen over the internet is not for the weak at heart.Good luck with the search !

check out the Taylor GS Mini line - especially the mahogany. I've actually got a Baby Taylor that the music 'just pours out of''. You can reach anything on that short scale and it's incredibly responsive. I look ridiculous playing it, but the sound is awesome and the 'fun-to-play' factor is very high.

Friend has a Taylor mini its pretty spiffy,plays nice& sounds good. Yamahas are a good bang for the buck guitar. A little work will make a cheap guitar much better,new nut,machines saddle and fretjob will fix the playability isssues. Improving the sound a little bit these upgrades can be done slowly when you can afford them.

I just did a Alvarez RD17CE Regent Series Dreadnought Acoustic-Electric Cutaway Guitar was on sale at Musicians friend for 149 Bucks. Satin finish smooth neck sounds decent, a little tinny/brightish . It has some basic issues,the tuners are awful replaced with Planet Waves Trim Lock 60 bucks , nut is cheap plastic gonna spend 15 bucks for Tusq XL nut from Graphtech and change that next week.Saddle is fully compensated and comes with an extra one so I am leaving that for now. Took about an 1/8 inch off the saddle height it plays nice now,strung it with Cleartone 10s extra light for a beginner/kid so all in all about 250 bucks and it is a decent guitar he will get a lot of use out of.Built in tuner is just always great and it has an easy read green light feature that is nice.If you have about 1/10 of a drop of patience you can do everything I did just by watching some how to videos plenty of info on places like Stewmac.com or Premier Guitar. Youtube has tons of info just be careful and compare and examine what they are saying,try and find actual professionals not hacks like me to help you.