Members The Unknown Posted September 17, 2014 Members Share Posted September 17, 2014 Under 500$ NEW, the cheaper the better, and I prefer playing with my fingers (bad habit, I'm primarily a bass player ) Any suggestions that wouldn't be a waste of time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onelife Posted September 17, 2014 Members Share Posted September 17, 2014 Yamaha F310 It's under $200 new and is based on a Martin design - somehow they managed to make these things sound really good without being expensive. I bought one nearly ten years ago to use as a beater and now it is may main acoustic for recording and live work. I had a Fishman transducer installed under the saddle with no electronics in the guitar (like some Martins were) and I use it with an LR Baggs active DI. I was concerned that, because it is cheap, the guitar would fall apart but I learned that it is guaranteed for seven years. Mine is well past the warranty and there is not so much as a bubble in the top from the string tension. Sometimes I will retune mine, put in on my lap and play it like a Dobro. With a big glass slide it sounds terrific. I did a radio program in the summer and showed up with my guitar and DI. I told the tech I would like to use the DI and mic the guitar. He set it all up and when I started to play he looked at me with his headphones on and had a big grin on his face as he gave me a thumbs up. Did I mention that the intonation on this guitar is as close to perfect as I have ever seen on any guitar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bigald18 Posted September 17, 2014 Members Share Posted September 17, 2014 for blues any mahogany back and sides with spruce or mahogany top will be great as long as the action is ok for fingerstyle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted September 17, 2014 Members Share Posted September 17, 2014 Under 500$ NEW, the cheaper the better, and I prefer playing with my fingers (bad habit, I'm primarily a bass player ) Any suggestions that wouldn't be a waste of time? Oh boy, we get to corrupt a bass player. I won't try to tell you what to buy for a bunch of reasons, but I will point out some things to look for (or not) in a blues guitar. First, lets talk about some stereotypes: - There is one kind of blues. BS, there is Delta Blues and Chicago Blues and Memphis Blues and Piedmont Blues and a whole lot more. There are ragtime blues, bottle neck blues, gospel blues, nasty blues. There are modern players keeping the old blues alive and modern players creating new forms of blues. The blues is all about the feeling... - There is one way to play the blues. Not true either altho most acoustic blues is played with some sort of fingerstyle technique (plectrums are used a lot more in electric blues). Finger style (or finger picking usually involves the thumb doing some sort of bass thing, and one, two or three fingers doing something with melody or lead. You can play with bare fingers, flesh and nails, a thumb pick and or finger picks. As a bass player you'll feel mostly at home, just train your thumb to do the bass part. - There is one ideal blues guitar. We have some hard core stereotypes of what the old blues guys (and gals) played, but when you look at reality you'll see that they played literally every kind of guitar available http://www.earlyblues.com/blues_singers.htm You don't see a lot of jumbos or dreads, at least before about 1940 because they didn't exist until then, but Gary Davis did a heck of a job on his jumbo Gibson and Doc Watson on a Franklin dread. We associate the sound of the blues with small bodied guitars because that is what was available - The old bluesmen played cheap guitars - again, if you look at the link you'll see Martins and Gibson and Nationals along with the Stellas and Schmidts and other cheapies. I think they played what they could afford or liked. - On a similar subject, some of the cheap guitars (Stella's, Schmidts) were ladder braced which gave them a very distinctive sound. They tend to be cutting, woody and nasty sounding - there is no complexity to the sound. Did the old guys play them because they were cheap or for the sound? I think the answer is yes. - You can only play bottleneck on a resonator. A lot of the old bottleneckers did play resos - mostly Nationals (which were darn expensive back then) - BBF, Bukka, even early Bonnie Raitte played Nat's but the iconic slide player, Robert Johnson, never did. Some of us do play RJ on our resos, but it simply isn't necessary. - The best blues guitars were made out of mahogany. Or birch. Or, name your wood. Again, it might be true that some woods sound a little "bluesier" than others, but I wouldn't let that stand in the way of choosing a guitar. OK, enough stereo types, here are some things that I think makes a better blues guitar. First is the neck. If you are going to play fingerstyle a wide fretboard is helpful, both at the nut and the bridge. I happen to like 1-3/4 at the nut, as wide as possible at the other end. Flatter fretboard. For slide playing particularly, I like as little radius as possible - the guitars that I build all are 20 inches. You can play slide on a 16 but its much harder to do cleanly. Small body. An 00 or 000 or OM is better balanced across the strings than a big box. In fingerstyle you want each string to carry its own - I think a small body does that better. Scale length. This is a crap shoot - short scale is easier to bend notes, but long scale has more tension and is better for tuning down (which you do for slide and lots of blues songs). I happen to like long scale, and in fact have a couple of very long scale instruments. Action - I tend to set my blues guitars with just very slightly higher action than the average person would prefer, mostly because I play so much slide. I like a slightly heavier first string for that reason, and tend to prefer PB strings for mellowness. Remember that when playing slide you still fret a lot of notes so the action needs to be a compromise. Wood - I gotta say that I prefer mahogany but I'm not hung up on it. I recently built an all mahogany 00 and it is a wonderful little blues box. 12 fret slot head. They just have the mojo. But also most have the wide flat fretboards that I like, even in small boxes. So, I won't make any specific recommendations but companies like Blueridge and Recording King are making guitars with some or all of these, possibly within your price point. I normally recommend being very careful when shopping for a used guitar, but some of the old yard sale junkers can be really good blues boxes - they might have high action or not be all the pretty but they've been around and understand the blues. Good luck, keep us informed on what you find Here is that great blues guy, Blind Lemon Pledge with the perfect blues guitar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members garthman Posted September 18, 2014 Members Share Posted September 18, 2014 Recording King ROS-06 or ROS-16 http://www.recordingking.com/products/guitars-all-models/guitars-ros06 http://www.recordingking.com/products/guitars-all-models/guitars-ros16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MePeel Posted September 19, 2014 Members Share Posted September 19, 2014 Look for a Harmony H-162 or H-165. They can be had for under $200 in some cases. They're all solid wood, and since most were made in the sixties, they should be aged to perfection! Mel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mikeo Posted September 19, 2014 Members Share Posted September 19, 2014 You can play blues on anything. I have a lot of guitars, but I tool back and forth to my day gig ( I work in a lab) some days with a Taylor GS Mini Mahogany. They are 500 bucks and probably cheaper used. The scale is 23-1/2", so it smaller. I didn't care for the ES Go pick up, so I'm in the process of of finding something else. Just a suggestion, you may hate the thing. Volume wise it's pretty loud for what its. I also have a couple of Martin 000's and they are well over what you might want to spend. Right from Taylor's site [video=youtube;KSi8fcvcCAc] [video=youtube;07tVlC5sLFw] [video=youtube;19A7mR9btsk] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted September 19, 2014 Members Share Posted September 19, 2014 . . . I tool back and forth to my day gig ( I work in a lab) some days with a Taylor GS Mini Mahogany. They are 500 bucks and probably cheaper used. The scale is 23-1/2", so it smaller. I didn't care for the ES Go pick up, so I'm in the process of of finding something else. . . . . . . Right from Taylor's site [video=youtube;KSi8fcvcCAc] . . . No further suggestions but thanks for sharing. That first vid was done at a local (St. Louis area) shop about 20 miles from me. Cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarcapo Posted September 19, 2014 Members Share Posted September 19, 2014 I'd get one of those 50 year old all-solid-mahogany Harmony 000 guitars. You can usually pick them up on Ebay for around $200-$300...even including shipping. They're all solid wood. ALL Honduran mahogany with spirit varnish finish. Brazilian rosewood fingerboard and bridge. The bracing is red spruce and hide glue. American made vintage and 40- 50 years old. Since they are ladder braced and have a mahogany top they give you that strong fundamental bluesy punch and the 000 size is great for fingerpicking. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1966-Harmony-H-623-Acoustic-Guitar/301317176429 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members valentsgrif Posted September 19, 2014 Members Share Posted September 19, 2014 In that price range, I'm a fan of this one: Epiphone 00. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/EE00VSNH?utm_source=MSN&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=none&utm_term=Bing_PLA_All_Products Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MePeel Posted September 19, 2014 Members Share Posted September 19, 2014 I have a Morgan Monroe Blues 32 that I love. It has a modified V neck that's fantastic. They go for under $500. Mel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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