acoustic help

cantdecide

i'll be buying a new (or ideally second hand) acoustic in the not too distant future. i'm not a big acoustic player at the moment and i don't have much knowledge of them and i don't have a huge prejudice between styles.
can anyone advise me of the individual characteristics of the woods and the difference in shapes/ cutaways/ builds??
i suppose i'm not really looking for a boomy low end sound, more of sweet, warm tone. i also tend to stay away from heavier strings if that's relevant. i'm also prepared to spend the necessary money, without going too much over about the €1500 mark.
thanks

(does anyone want to suggest what i'll get for my 3yr old takamine EG560C with case??)

Quatre Mains

Hello
well rather than talk too much about specific models, my general advice to you would be to try out similar (ideally identical) guitars that have different wood backs (rosewood, mahogony, walnut, Koa etc), to get an idea of which you like the sound of. Rosewood costs extra but a lot of that is due to the price of the material rather than it's superiority over other woods. However, here is a brief guide from the Lowden site to get you started...

http://www.monmouth.com/~benhan/lowden/home.html

Everything with acoustics is subjective so just buy what sounds best to you and feels good to play(just as important), not what an article says. One mans axe is another's firewood. You can pay 33-100% extra for a percieved 4-5% improvement in sound, that you might not even notice yourself !!!!
I spent a long time checking different guitars before buying mine (a Larrivee OM-03RE), so make sure you do likewise, else you'll end up selling it.

Fingers Mcginty

Johnnycabs wrote:

Hello
well rather than talk too much about specific models, my general advice to you would be to try out similar (ideally identical) guitars that have different wood backs (rosewood, mahogony, walnut, Koa etc), to get an idea of which you like the sound of. Rosewood costs extra but a lot of that is due to the price of the material rather than it's superiority over other woods. However, here is a brief guide from the Lowden site to get you started...

http://www.monmouth.com/~benhan/lowden/home.html

Everything with acoustics is subjective so just buy what sounds best to you and feels good to play(just as important), not what an article says. One mans axe is another's firewood. You can pay 33-100% extra for a percieved 4-5% improvement in sound, that you might not even notice yourself !!!!
I spent a long time checking different guitars before buying mine (a Larrivee OM-03RE), so make sure you do likewise, else you'll end up selling it.

yeah agree with that. One suggestion i have is to stay clear of cutaways.
In my opinion they rob an instrument of it's bass.

TempestSabre

I reckon you should get what feels right to you, and what sound right to your ear. I tend to prefer wide flat necks as that what I started on. But I agree that a cutout robs the sound of both volume and bass. But then sometimes you want that.