Top of my list is the Gibson Hummingbird. I’ve had one in my hands a few times and they are incredible. Best acoustic tone I’ve ever heard. Emmylou Harris plays a Hummingbird. I’m here if anyone wants to donate one. Someday, somehow I will get a vintage Gibson hummingbird.
A great low price alternative is the early Alvarez Yairi’s from the late 70’s and 80’s. For $600 the tone is incredible. I play a DY-74 made in 1992. Don’t buy one later than 1994. Yairi retired and died. The current ones are just a name.
A modern American hand crafted brand is Huss & Dalton. Their dreadnought TD-R rivals any Taylor or Martin in quality. I think they started in 1995. Their just as pricey too.
Finagle if your Yairi is in very good condition you can almost double your money on Ebay. You probably paid around $350 to $400 in 1982. They easily sell for $650 and up. Very collectible and popular.
I bought my DY-74 last year and paid $550. It was on consignment at a local shop.
The earlier models are more collectable because Yairi was more involved in making them.
I am on the road for work, but lordy the geekiness I could provide. I have a few old acoustics and have spent years seeking out opportunities to play old/rare/noteworthy acoustic guitars. I am pleased to say that I have played some truly world class guitars - prewar (WW2) Martins, classic old Gibsons, modern custom builds, etc.
I have a few Gibsons and love them, as well as a couple of Martins. If you love a Hummingbird - a square-shouldered Gibson dreadnought - you might like trying my 1946 J-45 (a slope shouldered dread) or my '48 Martin D-18. I love them.
Hummingbirds, J-45’s and D-18’s are classic models, but OP are you talking about models or specific guitars that are “the Best”?
Both. I realize that within any model line some unusually great guitars roll off the assembly line. Somehow just the perfect combinations of wood and grain creates a great sound. Add in thirty or more years of age and it has a rich, warm tone. It’s really not practical for anyone to buy a special guitar. Unless they get the opportunity to play it and the person is willing to sell. I’ve never had one that good in my hands. It would be a treat. LOL are we talking women or guitars? LOL
Anyone with the cash can buy a vintage Gibson Hummingbird, a Martin D-18 etc. It’s hard to go wrong buying a name brand model with a solid reputation. It might be helpful to discuss great guitar models for people that might buy one someday. For example, I know Taylor is a respected brand but I’m not familiar with which vintage models are most sought after by players.
I prefer vintage because of the tone that aged wood produces. I like the dreadnought body style. It fits my arms and hands perfectly.
If you are considering getting a guitar that can be considered excellent, you are likely going to be spending a bit, e.g., more than $1,000. Within that context, new Martins, Gibsons, Taylors, and many others besides the Big 3 can be considered. We really are in a Golden Age of guitar value - a $1,300 Gibson J-35 or Taylor 410 are great-playing guitars.
For lower-priced guitars, I have a Taylor GS-Mini as my travel, beater no-guilt guitar. It’s about 7/8 size, and unfortunately the neck’s width at the nut is about proportional (why can’t it be a standard 1 3/4"?!) but it is a great guitar for the money.
You really have to be prepared to play a bunch and figure out what works for you. Most makes have a reputation for a certain type of sound - Taylors are considered Modern Voiced, with an emphasis on bright, ringy highs and prominent Mids. Martins are considered darker in tone with prominent Lows, and Gibsons are known for being “thumpy” - not so much ring, and the harmonic overtones are more focused on the fundamental note you are actually fretting (Taylors and Martins have more complex overtones) - but those are broad, sweeping over-generalizations that can be really incorrect for a specific model or guitar…
I have a Martin DCM that is about 15 years old. It was, at the time, Martins lowest priced model that had a solid top and was made in USA. I think it was around 750$. I had been looking for an acoustic for a while and when I picked it up and strummed a few chords I was blown away. It just sounded so sweet. There’s a long story involved but I ended up buying it. I took it home and played the crap out of it and every time I picked it up I was amazed at how good it sounded. Other players thought so too. Then I kind of lost interest in it and went back to playing a Strat most of the time. The Martin sat under the bed for a long time and when I dug it out again, it seemed to have gone dead. I changed the strings but that didn’t really change much. But the more I played it the more it seemed to come back to life. Just my perception…maybe. I’ve come to believe that how and how often an acoustic gets played has an effect on it’s sound.
Just something else to consider when evaluating the tone of an acoustic.
It’s funny how a great sounding guitar can inspire someone to play more. This Yairi I bought was a big step up for me in tone, and I find myself “wanting” to pick it up and play. It’s so soothing and it brings me so much pleasure.
Someday I’ll pull the trigger on a serious high dollar guitar. I’ve been watching Huss & Dalton for awhile. They have a dealer in Nashville (Guitar Gallery) and I plan to play one of their guitars during my next trip. I love going to Nashville at least a couple times a year. Huss & Dalton is planning to release a 20th Anniversary Model in 2015. I’d have to play it before deciding on spending that much. A anniversary model could end up being a collectable and a great playing guitar.
I’ll have a lot of fun trying out different brands of guitars. This isn’t a purchase that can be made over the Internet.
I didn’t realize those mid-80s Alvarezes were so well-regarded. I certainly love mine. I’ve had it since 1986, but I’m not exactly sure when it was made; I tried to look it up a while back and the serial number refers to a completely different guitar. I’ve mostly been playing my Kingpin II and my Tele (and my ukes) lately, but now I think I’m going to take the old girl in for a setup.
I’ve played a number of H&D’s. Doper Pork Rind has one and loves it. Good guitars.
But, just to be clear: a mid-30’s Gibson L-00 in decent shape can be had for not much more.
One thing I want to comment on that’s related to your last post aceplace - you talk about how your Yairi makes you want to play. First of all, that is the most important thing. Do you find yourself wanting to pick up that guitar? Until you do, you haven’t found a good one for you. And if you find one, hold onto it.
The other point is the concept of “best guitar.” I have commented on the SDMB about what I have referred to as Truly Special guitars. I didn’t even encounter one until I had been playing for decades - or perhaps I needed to play for 25 years before I could recognize one. They “make you want to be a better player” - when you get a bend correct, or get your vibrato better, or nail a complex chord - the difference when you get your technique correct is BIG and OBVIOUS. They simply give you better feedback. And you both improve your playing and go explore new sounds because the guitar rewards you for it.
I have a guitar that is held up as one of the truly best Gibsons ever made - a 1931 L-1. It was the first Gibson made that followed Martin’s X Bracing. They were so lightly built that Gibson only made them for a couple of years before beefing up the construction - that model became the L-00. The L-1 is basically a steel-string classical guitar - as responsive as a nylon string to a fingerstyle approach. You want the best Acoustic ever made? It’s on the short list. Humbles me every time I play it.
I’m still learning guitar and ear training. I got a long ways to go before I can fully appreciate the better guitars. I know with my Yairi the notes in a chord are clearer and warmer. It doesn’t sound harsh like my other guitar. I notice more quickly if a string is out of tune and hear the note conflict with another string. I’m not sure what musicians call it. Two notes almost in tune create a low pitched rumbling, wa wa difference note. The G chord does it between the sixth string fretted G note and the open G string. Some guitars are muddled so much I don’t hear that in a strummed open G chord unless I deliberately just play the 6th and 3rd string together.
Maybe in a few more years I can describe it better. I need to visit music stores more often and try out different acoustics. Get a better idea of the differences in their sound and how they feel in my hand. What neck styles are easier for me to fret.
Its not anything I need to rush. Its all part of playing an instrument and getting experience.
Indeed. I’ve had my H&D DM for about 7 years now and still love it. It’s their take on a vintage Martin D-18 spruce/mahogany guitar. A friend of mine that is a far better guitarist than I will ever be starts every conversation by asking if I want to sell it to him.
When I went shopping, I tried to set out with as few preconceptions as possible, and even then I managed to surprise myself. I was sure that what I was looking for was a classic D-28 spruce/rosewood combo. Turned out I was wrong about that.
I was fortunate enough at the time to have several fantastic stores to shop at as I lived in Seattle back then. I don’t remember every guitar I played, but I recall my ‘short list’ had Huss and Dalton, Santa Cruz, Martin and Collings guitars on it. In the end, it was a Santa Cruz model that I liked the most, but I though it was only incrementally better than my H&D, but it was something like 1.5 or 2x the cost.
Shopping sure was fun though. One of the signs of a great shop is great inventory, but more important to me was being welcome to play as long as I wanted/needed across many days. It was as if I were ultra-rich and had a library of fine instruments that I could swap on a whim. To a small degree, finally coming home with my pick was a letdown.
The bigger disappointment was that after buying my guitar, I nearly immediately crushed my left fingers in a Linotype I was being careless with. Brand new guitar that I could only play with one finger for months! Once I got two fingers under control, friends pointed out that all the classic Django Reinhardt recordings featured him playing with only two fret hand fingers thanks to horrible burns from a fire. They said “Just play like Django, two fingers is all you need”. Sure, let me get right on that, as if the only thing that had been holding me back was my use of too many fingers all those years.
You, Django and Tony Iommi. Obviously using five fingers is completely overrated…
I agree with the whole it “makes you want to be a better player” when you pick it up vibe. My buddy’s D-41 and his neighbor’s ridden-hard-and-put-away-wet 60’s Gibson J-45 make me play blues far better than my Garrison.
There are a lot of guitars that fit into “great acoustics”; I’m hoping that one day I’ll actually get to pick up a McPherson or a Ryan or a pre-war Martin for examples, and try them out. Not any time soon I suspect…
Just to comment on this - in acoustic guitar circles, the concept of guitars “opening up” is one of those flame-war type of topics. Some folks say we adjust to the guitar we are playing and that leads to the improvements you hear. Other folks - including some of the top names in vintage guitar repair - accept it as a fact that guitars can open up after playing them for a bit.
I didn’t give the issue much thought until I was checking out a 1947 Martin at a shop. It was really fun to play because I loved the neck - but the sound wasn’t knocking me out. But as I kept playing it, it noticeably changed to my ear - just sounded better - bigger lows, a bit more responsive. Made me a believer.
Pork Rink - thanks for sharing your story. I had no idea about your fingers back then - glad to hear you are better! And yeah, aceplace if you are considering H&D, you should also be checking out the other small-batch makers, like Collings, Santa Cruz and Bourgeois. As I said upthread, if you are going to Nashville - go check out Gruhn and Carter. Try the new guitars, but try a few of the 30’s Gibson L-00’s - see how they compare for price based on how you feel when you play them. I can’t state it enough: there’s something about a great, old guitar. When you find a good example, it is a great thing!
I’ll make a point to visit Gruhn and Carter’s store. Thanks for the tip. Nashville is only a five hour drive for me. I get over there a couple times a year.
I had the opportunity to try out a range of Collings guitars in Edmonton and I have to say I walked away very impressed. Was I impressed enough to drop $10k on a new guitar? No. Diminishing returns says that spending ridiculous sums of money will only get you so far, and
there are plenty of guitars for far less including a lot of highly desirable vintage models that I would buy first. Certain D-28s come to mind…
Collings are great guitars. I find them a bit more bright vs. Martins. I think I prefer Santa Cruz across the small batchers I mention above, but have been impressed with all of them.
As for a $10,000 Collings? Yeah, no way - for that kinda cash, you can easily get into a great 1940’s Gibson J-45, a late '40’s Martin D-18 or a late 50’s D-28 made with Brazilian Rosewood, let alone a variety of other amazing vintage guitars. No contest.
Someday, somehow I will get a vintage Gibson hummingbird.
- when you get a bend correct, or get your vibrato better, or nail a complex chord - the difference when you get your technique correct is BIG and OBVIOUS. They simply give you better feedback. And you both improve your playing and go explore new sounds because the guitar rewards you for it.