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Post by jackorion on Nov 25, 2017 8:16:40 GMT
In my experience (which includes over 10 years working in guitar shops) the best guitars around that price range are Yamaha, Sigma (the new 'gibson' style ones are really, really good), Faith and, if you can find them, secondhand 100 series Taylors.
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Post by robmc on Nov 26, 2017 20:19:06 GMT
katz if you're in Norwich there's a little / tiny shop on St Benedicts called 'Make Some Noise' that sells second hand gear, usually worth a look for interesting guitars... I found my Kinkade in there, they had an Oak Avalon in the widow last time I looked, don't know where he finds them. Hit and miss though.
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Post by birdo on Dec 1, 2017 7:19:10 GMT
" make some noise " does have some great finds in it. I remember seeing a beautiful gretsch Tennessee rose.
As for budget guitars have a look at Alvarez . I bought one of their masterworks series folk guitar. It's an all solid mahogany guitar that they claim is handcrafted. It's a beautiful guitar and sounds great. I can't remember exact price but it was between £400-£500 .
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Post by stringdriventhing on Dec 1, 2017 8:46:35 GMT
At one point I was thinking about getting a Walden, but when I tried one out I found the neck profile too slender for me, which is what I think about nearly every Taylor I've played too.
So I guess you'll be looking for something with a similar neck profile? In which case... Tanglewood, Faith (2nd hand) and Sigma would be worth a look. I think Alvarez guitars are pretty good too.
I'd basically play everything I could play my hands on until I found one that ticket the boxes. Happy hunting :-)
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Post by jangarrack on Dec 1, 2017 9:48:57 GMT
Oops, I forgot to include the quote I was referring to so started again.
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Post by jangarrack on Dec 1, 2017 11:20:30 GMT
I have 4 steel string acoustics that fall in the £300 to £600 price range. The brands being Vintage (2) and Tanglewood (2). Both of the Tanglewoods won their way into my collection in head to heads testing them out among a good few other possible guitars, some much more expensive. Three of these four cost less than £400 when I bought them during the last 4 years - prices are quite a bit higher now with the crappy exchange rates. One of the Vintage Guitars cost £340 in April 2016 and now it's over £400, often well over. The two Vintage guitars are both Gordon Giltrap signature models (they have different woods and different sound as a result) and these are as good as any guitar I have tried or owned. Which includes guitars up to £2,600. But I'm not good enough to bring out the best in higher quality guitars, so it's really been a case of finding that point on the graph where quality and ability both peak for me. But it's so much down to each individual guitar even of the same model. One of my Tanglewoods is a TW73 and I tried another one in a shop a couple of years back - it was nothing like the one I had at home either in sound or feel. So I try to look for a range of a general type of guitar at my budget price to try out rather than concentrating on any specific brands. Mark Your mention of a Tanglewood TW73 reminded me of probably a couple of years or so ago, I was having a nose round the guitars in a local music shop and being a sucker for small guitars, a very attractive looking gloss finish cedar/mahogany 12 fret slothead caught my eye and I had to have a noodle on it. This little guitar had punch, tone and articulation well beyond its size, was well set up, incredibly comfortable and easy playing. I was more than a bit surprised and completely taken with it, I regret not buying it as if I remember correctly, it was at a reduced price of around £600. Interestingly, I also tried a similar style guitar that despite having a big brand name and being twice the price, was unimpressive in comparison. The guitar I was so taken with was a Tanglewood TW73W with the wider 1.75" neck and pickup/preamp installed. I wonder if they were a limited run as I have never seen another one since. This is the only Tanglewood guitar I have ever played so would be interested to know how other models in their range compare.
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Post by stringdriventhing on Dec 1, 2017 12:22:50 GMT
I'm sure I've mentioned this before on here, but my daughter's wee 2nd-hand Tanglewood TW73 (with unusual paddle headstock) was annoyingly the best sounding guitar in the house for a long time... now that distinction goes to my Furch Her TW73 is seriously a great guitar and put my Martin 00015-S to shame. So my point is (as I'm sure you are aware) that you can get cracking asian-made guitars for under £400, but my advice would be to buy the one you play... there's a lot of variation between individual guitars at this price point and if you're tempted to go for a great internet deal on something you've played in a shop you may end up very disappointed. If you come across a cracker then buy it!
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Post by grayn on Dec 1, 2017 12:38:42 GMT
The singer in my band plays a a Sigma. It's a couple of years old now. Acoustically it is a very nice guitar. The electrics are nowt special though. As has already been said, it's hard to beat Yamaha, for budget guitars.
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Post by vikingblues on Dec 2, 2017 10:36:11 GMT
I'm sure I've mentioned this before on here, but my daughter's wee 2nd-hand Tanglewood TW73 (with unusual paddle headstock) was annoyingly the best sounding guitar in the house for a long time... now that distinction goes to my Furch Her TW73 is seriously a great guitar and put my Martin 00015-S to shame. So my point is (as I'm sure you are aware) that you can get cracking asian-made guitars for under £400, but my advice would be to buy the one you play... there's a lot of variation between individual guitars at this price point and if you're tempted to go for a great internet deal on something you've played in a shop you may end up very disappointed. If you come across a cracker then buy it! I'm not surprised to hear that about your daughter's TW73. A good one is undoubtedly capable of punching well above it's weight. A lot of variation indeed between different guitars of the same model at that price point! I saw it explained by Ervin Somogyi along these lines:- You get a number of pieces of wood that will be made into guitar soundboards. Due to the nature of wood the physical properties of all the pieces will vary hugely - things like density. At this point a luthier will be testing each piece individually and will thickness the soundboard to the amount that will maximise responsiveness for that particular piece. A factory will have a standard thickness that will be the same for every soundboard. Due to the desire to minimise QC failures and warranty returns the factory will err on the side of safety. So that increases the average thickness. This results in a normal distribution curve when it comes to soundboard responsiveness. There are relatively few that are very responsive. There are then a fair number that are good, then the majority that are a bit too thick so less responsive than ideal. Then there's a fair number of pretty lifeless soundboards, and finally a few that would have been better turned into park benches. There's some very interesting articles on his site including this one on The Differences between handmade and factory made guitarsThe more I've experienced different acoustic guitars the more the above scenario has made sense. Especially when I tried that TW73 in a shop and it was so different to my own. Mark
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katz
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Post by katz on Dec 2, 2017 16:47:40 GMT
Thanks to all for suggestions. In the end I bought another Walden. It sounds very very close to the one I already had. I really like that resonant tone that cedar top Waldens have. I think I am entering a new phase of GAS, especially the mahogany and red cedar ones.
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