Accoustic Guitar Upgrade Advice

Sasquatch

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I know there are some seasoned guitarists on this board so I thought I'd draw upon your collective experience and intelligence to help me out with whether or not to upgrade my acoustic guitar.

I'm a beginner guitarists, been playing 3 years now after my awesome wife got me lessons for father's day, but have made slow progress on account of only having 10 or so minutes a day to practice. I am beginning to show signs of improvement, however, and have saved some money so was thinking about possibly "upgrading" though I am unwiling to spend over 1k.

I currently have a Seagull S6 which has served me well. I'm a smaller guy so the concert hall shape/size fits me fairly well and it's not obnoxiously loud to annoy my family when practicing. I primary do scales, chords, a few pop/rock songs, and blues licks.

I was thinking of purchasing one of the following:

http://www.seattleguitarstore.com/seagull-maritime-sws-mahogany-gt-qit-burnt-umber/

http://store.dustystrings.com/p-17-taylor-114ce.aspx?FilterByCategoryID=3

Unfortunately, I'm not knowledgeable enough to understand specs or good enough to go in and see which ones plays best for me. I'll be asking my instructor for his advice but thought I'd solicit yours since i've seen a few guitar thread on here. Feel free to chime in about other models I may not know about.

Thank you!
 

Maverick84

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I can't help you with acoustic model recommendations as I'm an electric guy myself, but what I will say is, if you can spare the extra cash, have it professionally "set up" after purchase, with the major focus being on the "action" of the strings, or how high or low they sit above the neck. For a beginner like yourself with a small frame (and presumably smaller-than-average hands), it may suit you to to have the action of the strings lowered so that there is less effort required to press them, also because acoustics typically have a higher gauge of string than electrics. A drawback of lowering the action too much is that you'd start to get buzzing of the strings against the frets, but a professional setting it up would know that and adjust it accordingly.

Regardless of the guitar's price point, I've had experienced heads tell me that getting it set up right off the bat is more often than not going to improve the sound of it

Looks like you're in Seattle huh? I've had a recent resurgence in my fandom of Nirvana and have been re-learning a bunch of their songs on guitar lately

what kind of music are you into?
 

BrAinPaiNt

Mike Smith aka Backwoods Sexy
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Not an acoustic guy either...however I have been told you can't go wrong with a Taylor when it comes to acoustics.
 

Vtwin

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I'd go try some out myself if I was you. Don't worry about your skill level. If you can string three chords together and know even a simple scale you can compare guitars for feel and sound. You don't always have to spend top dollar these days to get a nice feeling/sounding rig. I helped a friend shop for an acoustic for her son last Christmas and was blown away by the quality/dollar ratio as compared to the way it was when I bought my last new acoustic in 1992. You just got to try them out. Good luck and have fun.
 

YosemiteSam

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I extremely complex way to buy an acoustic guitar.

  1. Play as many as possible
  2. Buy the one you like best.

I've played cheap guitars to $5000+ guitars. The guitar I own? A $400 Taylor Big Baby. (with electronics upgrade) I love it so much that the only interest I have in buying another acoustic is if Taylor ever makes a Big Baby cutaway.

My electric guitars are much higher priced guitars, but for some reason. $400 Big Baby sounds better and plays better than many $3,000 Martins and even other Taylors IMO. Everyone that I know that has picked my guitar up and played it were flabbergasted at the fact I only payed (actually) $375 for it. (thanks Paul at Sweetwater!)
 

Maverick84

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just ordered a Boss DS-2 and an Electro-Harmonix Small Clone yesterday.... I was serious about my Nirvana fandom resurgence. lol
 

BrAinPaiNt

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My best advice would be to follow the above advice to try different ones and pick the one you like.

You can decide to buy a guitar on how it looks, how it sounds or how it feels.

I have multiple electric guitars. Have played some of the more expensive guitars like Les Pauls or Strats...but when I go through and play my guitars I keep coming back to one over and over and over even though it is not the best sounding of the bunch.
If anything I should switch out the stock pickups for some EMGs.

However the neck of my dean razorback is best feeling neck of all my guitars and of any guitar I have played. It is just so comfortable. When I play my other guitars I can tell the comfort level is different for me compared to my dean neck.
Sure it is a wild looking guitar, the dimebucker is not a pickup I care that much for and the guitar itself is pretty long and it has so many points that you gotta be careful not to hit it on something...but again...I just can not beat the feel of that. I can play longer on it than my other guitars and my other guitars are not thick les paul or strat style necks...(BC Rich Warlock, Schecter Diamond Series, Jackson Dinky).

I think this would be even more of a factor in an acoustic guitar.

I know I have played some crappy old acoustics where it just flat out killed your fingers to fret it after a few minutes. Nothing is worse on a guitar player wanting to play guitar than a guitar that they just find uncomfortable to play.

If you find one that just makes it comfortable to play...chances are you can change some of the pickups, electronics and or settings on an amp to make it sound good (within reason).
 
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