A used acoustic guitar offers several adavantages over a new guitar and shopping for used acoustic guitars is extremely easy today from the comfort of your home via the interent. Web sites like eBay, craigslist.org and the web pages of traditional music shops make it easy to find bargains and compare the pricing and availablity of these musical instruments.

Overview

Acoustic guitars are wonderful instruments that have played a very significant part in the music revolution and quality used acoustic guitars are available to get you there on a budget. Acoustic guitars are very capable for playing all types of music from classical to hard rock and are a great option when a clean and pure sound is desired. Acoustic and acoustic electric guitars are made by a number of manufacturers including Taylor, Martin, Gibson, Fender, Alvarez, Yamaha, Epiphone, Ovation and Seagull. The sound of an acoustic guitar is universally appropriate to almost all music genres.

Types

Acoustic guitars come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Acoustic guitars come in 3 distinct body styles: classic, dreadnought and jumbo. They are also available in travel size guitars and reduced sized versions, normally called three quarter acoustic guitars.

Acoustic guitars can either have steel or nylon strings. Classical and folk guitars use nylon strings.

Acoustic guitars have a hollow body and large resonating chamber and may or may not have electric pickups. Acoustic guitars that are equipped with an electronics package are known as acoustic electric guitars. In acoustic electric guitars, the pickups can be mounted either under the bridge, in the body via a microphone, or both. The combination of the bridge mounted pickups and the microphone in the body provide the best overall amplified sound and are found in the better guitars. Acoustic electric guitars are mainly built for playing larger venues where the  sound needs to fill the room. Pickups and microphones can be added later to a regular acoustic guitar to amplify it through a sound system.

Construction

The top is known as the soundboard and can be made of either laminated plies or solid hardwood. Laminated tops resist temperature variations and humidity changes better while solid wood tops give you better tone, resonance and projection. Higher quality guitars have tops made from solid wood and spruce and cedar are most commonly used. Lower quality acoustic guitars are typically made from laminated wood, and slightly better guitars are constructed of a combination of laminated wood and solid wood.

Acoustic guitars generally use one type of wood for the soundboard and another type of wood for the back and sides. Maple and mahogany are often used for the back and sides. Maple, ebony and some exotic woods are often times used for the fretboard.

Acoustic guitars require a little bit more maintenance than electric guitars due to the nature of their construction. Due to the open pores of the wood, too much or too little humidity can cause severe problems to the guitar's body. However, an inexpensive guitar humidifier that is placed in the guitar case will eliminate potential problems. Guitar shops and guitarists with a large collection will even have their own humidity controlled rooms.

Used Acoustic Guitars

Many beginners that are on a budget are tempted to buy a cheap and low quality acoustic guitar that is new, but would probably be better served by shopping for used acoustic guitars instead. By spending a little more on a quality used acoustic guitar, the materials of construction and the build quality will be far superior. This will lead to both a better sounding and easier playing guitar.

Used acoustic guitars can be discovered in lots of places and finding one that suits your wishes can be as straightforward as a search on the internet.  Purchasing a used acoustic guitar versus a new acoustic guitar could be a good way to get a quality musical instrument without breaking the bank.

If you want to buy used guitars you may even end up getting one of the classic models. But a truly classic guitar can come at a high price since they are valued by vintage guitar collectors with big wallets.

There are usually a lot of used beginner acoustic guitars for sale because some people give up on the guitar while others decide to upgrade their guitar. It's possible to buy high quality used acoustic guitars ranging from several hundreds to several thousands of dollars. New guitarists should budget $500 or more and select a quality used acoustic guitar that meets their needs and preferences.

I just got a good acoustic guitar. It has  a solid wood top and I'd like to take care of it properly. The guy at the music store sold me a guitar humidifier when I bought the guitar, and not knowing any better I bought it.

I'd really like to protect the used acoustic guitar that I just got on eBay, a Taylor 814ce. I've read some of the Taylor tech notes and they say that I must keep the humidity at a certain level and to use a guitar humidifier. What is the best humidifier to get? Tags: Guitar Humidifier, Used Acoustic Guitar, taylor 814ce, Acoustic Guitar
]]> http://www.usedacousticguitars.net/what-is-the-best-guitar-humidifier/feed 1 http://www.usedacousticguitars.net/should-i-get-a-guitar-humidifier http://www.usedacousticguitars.net/should-i-get-a-guitar-humidifier#comments Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:05:05 +0000 admin http://usedacousticguitars.net/?p=271 GarlickToast asked:

I just bought a bought a Taylor 814ce used acoustic guitar. Since this cost me $2,000 I thought that I'd take some precautions with it. Is it worth getting a humidifier?