do any members like to play acoustics too?

most discussion is based on electrics but I`ve been playing my acoustics a lot more recently, anybody else like to play flat tops?

I love acoustic. I only played my Larrivee D03r for about 5 years until about a year ago, when I started getting back into playing electric. Now I am on an electric binge, but still, if I could only pick one guitar, it would most surely be an acoustic.

I started out on acoustic guitar @ age 8 and wasn't very interested in the sound as I had a sister that was about 10 years older than me and the sounds coming from her radio and record player were the Beatles, The Monkees, and Jimi Hendrix.

I wanted something that would put THAT SOUND out there and a nylon string classic guitar wouldn't cut it. After about a year or so I gave it up.

Within 2 or 3 years I picked up the cello; played for 4 years and the last two years played 1st chair in an 85 piece orchestra. That is where I recieved my real musical training.

By the age of 15, I had grown bored of 4 years of the cello and rediscovered the guitar; electric guitar!!! I went nuts, literally. I picked up the cheapest piece of junk around, something that looked like it came from an old Sears & Roebuck or Wards catalogue. It probably wouldn't have even made a good boat paddle but it was electric. TWANG, TWANG, TWANG, LOL...............

Well before long I went to my 1st ROCK concert = Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow; the 1976 Rainbow Rising Tour, and MY discovery of the STRAT!!!!!!!!!!!

Life would never be the same.

I was now playing an old 70's Gibson SG II at that time and I was determined to get my hands on a Strat, sooner or later. This was after all the '70s, LOL.......I actually lived 'That 70's Show'.....................

I finally purchased a brand spankin' new Strat for myself on my 20th B-day and if I had only known at the time I could have purchased a really old one worth much more for much less. Oh well........

Here I am years later and my main guitar is still a Strat; the best guitar design ever IMHO.

My favorite acoustics that I have owned were actually a mid 70s Alvarez Yairi DY-74 and a 1977 Tokai CE 500 Cats Eyes (now in Sweden); both excellent Martin copies that could never be beaten in my book.

The thing about playing acoustic for me was that I always missed the playability of an electric, particularly the playability of a Strat. No matter what I play I always come back to a Strat. Again, a Strat IMHO is the best guitar design, ever.

I have had a very light weight parts Strat, a runt, a FrankenStrat, set up for years and it's just a neck bolted to a very light weight body, and a steel bock trem; no pick guard, no electronics, just a neck, a body, a floating bridge, and some strings. It looks like Hell but it rings like a bell, louder than you can imagine, nearly as loud as an acoustic and the playability is all there; string bends, the action, the ergonomic comfort of a Strat, it's all there. One could always slap some piezo bridge mumbo jumbo stuff on there too, like some Parker new age stuff for some acoustic effect.................

I found my ultimate acoustic long ago and it's a Strat. Who would have imagined?

I mostly play accoustic at home becaus I don't enjoy playing low on electric.
Folk/pop stuff: Rod Stewart first records, Some XTC, Nick Drake, Kinks, Traffic etc...
I have an Orville J-200, a beaten up greco EJ-160 and an old ?piphone 12 strings with bolt on neck and lots of repairs that sound really good.

Often play unplugged on my Greco/Gretsch 6120 too

I have a beautiful Norman 6 string lefty acoustic. I got it two yrs ago for Christmas when I decided I wanted to learn to play guitar. It's been a long haul for me, it appears it doesnt come naturally to me! But I have come a long way too, I take weekly lessons and am excited that lessons resume today.

Funkynassau

Love to....I have a very old Gibson LG-1 that is perfect for fingerpicking blues - kind of a small parlor guitar.

Also have a Tokai J55 - similar to a Gibson J45 with rounded shoulders and I have a Taylor 25th Anniversary dreadnought - really pretty to look at and to the ear.

I find myself practicing alot on my acoustics and then gigging on electric. Does wonders for your finger dexterity and for building callouses - the switch to electric is effortless......

Hi there....

I do have a few acoustics in my collection.... Most are japanese: a Yamaha red label FG 150, an Aria Folk Guitar with a bolt-on neck, a Takeharu Conservarte requinto, a korean Washburn EA-10 (looks a bit like the acoustic Nuno of Extreme used in the video for their song "More Than Words")..... I also used to have an OM bodied Morris guitar and a Hotaka Dreadnaught that i gave away to my brother....

I find japanese acoustics to be of quality build, and very toneful, especially the older ones from the late 60s and early 70s.... I never hesitate to buya good japanese made acoustic when i can get my hands on one.... Even the lower model japs are still better value than some of the korean acoustics i've seen around....

I still have to get a Cat's Eyes acoustic though, those are very rare here in the Philippines....

Chum

sneakyjapan said:

most discussion is based on electrics but I`ve been playing my acoustics a lot more recently, anybody else like to play flat tops?

Click to expand...

The first Japanese guitar I ever bought "new" was a flat-top Epiphone acoustic back in 1971. Everyone I knew back then always referred to Epiphones as "Japanese Gibsons" never really taking into consideration that Epiphone had been an American guitar maker for a jillion years. I still have that guitar and play it regularly although it's gotten a little beat up over the years:





Here are some of my other MIJ 'acoustic' obsessions......





Both are acoustic/electric ObGs (Orville by Gibsons):



The J-160E is a '92 and the Chet Atkins is a '91.



Both are as nice as any new Gibson I've seen or played in the last 20 years and just like "all my other ObGs," they sound absolutely stunning!

"Old" epi and OBG together:

very, very nice!! The back of that epi is just sick.

I own a Cat?s Eye CE-1000 '81 made but I?m not an acoustic player(steel string guitars).It?s a shame but it?s in its case most of the time.
I put it for sale but I finally regret selling it as far as I?m a Tokai fan,but I always think it would be better being player by some live player somewhere.....guitars are made to be played.

btmish said:

very, very nice!! The back of that epi is just sick.

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Yep, thanks! That's not the first guitar I ever had but it's the one I've had the longest --36 years (since 1971). I remember at the time when I bought it, the guy at the music store making a big deal out of the three-piece back and how it made the sound better.

Detailed history (or correct history, anyway) is kinda hard to come by about a lot of older Japanese guitars. About 10 years ago, I found a book in the downtown L.A. library about Epiphones and their history with Gibson and read a little snippet about my guitar for the very first time and photocopied the page:



$300 was a lot of money for a junior high kid back in 1971. I've been through a lot with that guitar. It's even traveled with me around the world three times.

I have been playing the guitar for 20 years now ...and I've never owned an acoustic. I keep saying I should get one "one of these days" and never do. Oh well, I started playing to make noise not play "Kumbaya" so I'm not too choked.

Ironically, my first guitar was a MIJ LP copy. A '68 Custom knockoff made by Goya - I wish I still had that one.

Jim

Jim Jones said:

I have been playing the guitar for 20 years now ...and I've never owned an acoustic. I keep saying I should get one "one of these days" and never do. Oh well, I started playing to make noise not play "Kumbaya" so I'm not too choked.

Jim

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Yeah, me to (for making noise). My Dad got my first guitar (acoustic) for me when I was 7-years old. When I turned 11 he got me a new white, rosewood neck '65 stratocaster. Which I (unfortunately) used for a down-payment on a used car when I was 16. Live and learn?? 'Didn't know if I had a kept it, eventually I could have traded it outright for a brand-new car.

But I've had a few 'electrics' since then. Some which I've kept:

http://forum.japanaxe.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=543#543

http://forum.japanaxe.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=1344#1344

http://forum.japanaxe.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?p=1496#1496

Jim Jones said:

Oh well, I started playing to make noise not play "Kumbaya" so I'm not too choked.

Jim

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Kumbaya? That's what you associated playing acoustic guitar with when you started playing? I don't think Robert Johnson, Lightnin Hopkins, Django Reinhart, and all of the others who influenced "electric" people thought so.

Alot of people don't play acoustic because it's harder than electric - it's alot tougher to get true, clear and expressive tone through a hollow box than it is with pickups, amps and pedals to help you along. I'll tell you what, practice on an acoustic and see what it does for your playing when you pick up an electric again.......

I have always had a acoustic guitar around. My first guitar was an Airline 3/4 size from Montgomery Wards. I have had Epi, Yamaha,
My G&L`s and My Fernandes` get more play time now. But I will always take out and play My Takamne Grand Ole Opry, Or my Gibson J- 50 built in 1950 it is one of the sweetest sounding guitars I have ever owned. And I also have a Ibenez AEG10 acc/ electric classical.
I have always felt like it was part of learning and playing a guitar to practice and learn from an acoustic. And to practice from a acoustic then switch to electric makes the switch much easier.

I have 2 from the Larrivee Lite series...the OM and the L
and a Larri OM-01
have a Lakewood M series walnut that is outstanding
have 2 Morris MIJs, one is all solid and the other has laminated sides
have a Yamaha LL33J as well as other 1960s Yamaha acoustics
and a few 1960s Yamaha classicals

marcusnieman said:

Jim Jones said:

Oh well, I started playing to make noise not play "Kumbaya" so I'm not too choked.

Jim

Click to expand...

Kumbaya? That's what you associated playing acoustic guitar with when you started playing? I don't think Robert Johnson, Lightnin Hopkins, Django Reinhart, and all of the others who influenced "electric" people thought so.

Alot of people don't play acoustic because it's harder than electric - it's alot tougher to get true, clear and expressive tone through a hollow box than it is with pickups, amps and pedals to help you along. I'll tell you what, practice on an acoustic and see what it does for your playing when you pick up an electric again.......

Click to expand...

Hey Marcus,

I see your point totally - and I agree one hundred percent, acoustic playing is about the single best way to improve your electric playing. It requires way more finger strength.

That said, when I was 16 I didn't give a **** about Robert Johnson. I wanted to be Jimmy Page with a Les Paul around my ankles and a big Marshall stack behind me.

Jim

That said, when I was 16 I didn't give a ^&*( about Robert Johnson. I wanted to be Jimmy Page with a Les Paul around my ankles and a big Marshall stack behind me.

Jim[/quote]

Now that I think about it, me too!!! I didn't have a clue who Robert Johnson was for at least a decade after I got into guitar....it was Jimmy Page, Robin Trower, Pete Townshend. Jimi Hendrix, Clapton, etc who gave me that itch.....

marcusnieman said:

That said, when I was 16 I didn't give a ^&*( about Robert Johnson. I wanted to be Jimmy Page with a Les Paul around my ankles and a big Marshall stack behind me.

Jim

Click to expand...

Now that I think about it, me too!!! I didn't have a clue who Robert Johnson was for at least a decade after I got into guitar....it was Jimmy Page, Robin Trower, Pete Townshend. Jimi Hendrix, Clapton, etc who gave me that itch.....[/quote]