Acoustic Electric Guitar Recomendations

Cafe Society
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Acoustic Electric Guitar (recommendations)

I have just started to pick up the guitar. We have two really crappy guitars now. I am mainly learning on a borrowed electric that I don’t plug in. Anyone that knows shit about guitars hardly can stand to pick up our acoustic. The electric sucks as well. Some neighbor kid had it for a couple years and it is all banged up.

My wife can play fairly well. Surprisingly so without a decent instrument. My daughter is in her 4th year of violin and is showing interest and ability at the guitar. I am teaching my self with books and on line videos a bit. It has only been a few weeks I have noticed my interest is increasing and my ability and control over my fingers has greatly improved. Everyone in the family is in guitar mode.

My wife and I decided on an Acoustic Electric Guitar.
We figured we could afford 300.00 – 800.00 or so on a guitar. Not sure about the amp. We have a borrowed cheepo one and may just keep with that at first and spend our available money on the guitar for now.

There are a million guitar manufactures out there. For most things in my life a prefer little known specialty products. Some little know luthier in the backwood somewhere. My initial research turned up mostly 1500+ guitars. Those are out of my price range.
This is I think what we are looking for.

[ul]Acoustic Electric (Unless Dopers Convince me otherwise)[/ul]

[ul]That my and my wife can both play and my daughter can pick around at for a couple years till she grows into it.[/ul]

[ul]Not a large instrument. We are a bit smallish[/ul]

[ul]300-800 dollars (I can be convinced larger or smaller if absolutely necessary or if we are on the borderline of a much superior instrument for a bit more.)[/ul]

[ul]From what little I know so far I think we want a steel string solid top guitar.[/ul]
[ul]For kinda rock and blues type stuff.[/ul]
[ul]on board tuner or something of the sort to help us tune the thing[/ul]
[ul]Nice looking[/ul]
[ul]don’t care if it is used[/ul]

We live in about 5 hours away from a guitar store. So we will have to buy a guitar from an on line retailer unseen. Or on our next trip to Anchorage be armed with the info needed to buy on in an hour or less. We have also a 1 year old that will not do to well in a guitar store for multiple hours while we try out guitars.

So a little info on what to look for at the store and how to land a deal and a few brands to hone in on for the store. Or a good model to go ahead and buy on line.

Anything will be better than what we have at this point.
Thanks

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Do a search on “guitar” here and in IMHO (I think) and there have been a number of threads on this subject.

Since you are “on the small side” and your daughter is interested, I would strongly recommend you consider Taylor’s Big Baby - I think is about 7/8’s the size of a regular acoustic, and made with Taylor’s attention to detail and tone/playability, but with less fancy stuff, so it should fall in that price range…

here’s a link on Musician’s Friend:

Not sure if they come acoustic/electric, but these days, dropping in a pickup is no big deal - you can get one that fits into the soundhole…

There are other inexpensive-but-good makes, like Takamine, Yamaha, Tacoma (I think now owned by Fender), but Taylor makes consistently well-made instruments I can recommend (long time player and a big geek about details)…

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That is a nice looking guitar. Thanks for the recommendation.
I did do a search on this board (main reason I pay for a subscription)and I found most recommendations and similar threads for beginner guitars for under 300.00.

We have a bit more to spend if is seems worth while.

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I really like Seagull brand guitars. They are solidly made, excellent for the price. It looks like they have some dealers up in Alaska as well, which is good, because I would always try a guitar out before buying.
I can also second the Taylor. I’m a fan of Taylors - they sound clean and crisp to me, unlike the sort of muddled sound of a lower-end Martin.

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I bought this guitar a few months ago. It’s very awesome.