The Gold Tone PBS-D—or Paul Beard PB Signature-Series Squareneck Resonator Deluxe Guitar—is an elegant instrument with a homespun sound. In terms of looks, materials, and tone, it covers all the bases for slide players looking for high performance in a traditional package.
Carrying on the work of company founder and namesake Preston K. Thompson, who died April 11, 2019, the small cadre of builders at Preston Thompson Guitars, in Sisters, Oregon, is one of those teams that’s capable of delivering extraordinarily crafted steel-strings time and again, and this Thompson 000-14SBA is one of those fine instruments.
The New World Guitars P640S FS nylon-string guitar is an extremely well made guitar & great choice for steel-string guitarists looking to expand their sonic palette.
With its mixture of vintage and modern appointments, the Beard A-Model Odyssey resonator guitar has a stunning look that is certain to captivate the audience at any gig.
Gibson's G-45 Studio acoustic guitar is a more affordable cousin of its beloved namesake, the J-45 acoustic guitar. See how it stacks up on our review.
While not perfectly executed, the Loog Mini definitely succeeds as a fun and inexpensive first guitar for younger children—a great gateway to the standard six-string guitar.
Yamaha's CG-TA TransAcoustic guitar is the company's first nylon-stringed model in its popular TransAcoustic lineup of guitars, which include built-in effects.
Eastman’s Double Top series is among the first to use the boutique-maker idea of a double top—a soundboard incorporating two outer wooden layers over a synthetic core, for enhanced sound and responsiveness—in a production steel-string guitar model.
Given a market teeming with attractive options, it can be overwhelming to find the acoustic-electric guitar that’s right for your style and which sounds great acoustically.
Guild's Memoir series, which includes the P-240 Memoir and DS-240 Memoir acoustic guitars reviewed here, are part of the company's Westerly Collection.
A collaboration between two French companies, the Lâg Tramontane HyVibe, turns the guitar’s body into a speaker that can add several different effects to your acoustic tone, loop, metronome, and interact with a smartphone app for even greater control of the preamp’s parameters.
Few musical pleasures compare to playing well-made small guitars. They’re comfortable. They resonate easily. They reward a subtle touch in ways few of their big siblings can match.
Although known for its steel and brass instruments, National also offers many wood-bodied guitars, both tricone and single-cone biscuit bridge style. The M-14T Thunderbox is the most recent addition to National’s M series of single-cone mahogany resonators.
The Martin OM-28 Modern Deluxe is a lightweight orchestra-bodied guitar, with a blend of vintage and modern features that merge to form a unique, cutting-edge composition.
The Iris’ terrific-feeling neck, with a perfect rounded-C profile that’s .880 at the first fret, split the difference between skinny modern and vintage hefty.
There has been a revolution of sorts in guitar making over the past 15 years. RainSong, Blackbird, Composite Acoustics, and now KLOS have developed carbon-fiber instruments that can withstand the elements of extreme heat, cold, and moisture without suffering damage.
No matter how I played the Angelus, it delivered a nicely proportioned sound, with a spanky top end layered over a controlled bass and midrange. The low end wasn’t cavernous or boomy, which helped it feel balanced across the frequency range, especially useful for fingerstyle parts on open tunings and easy to control through a loud amp.
he player who ends up favoring the Fender Acoustasonic Telecaster is anybody’s guess, but it’s likely to be a musician who places a priority on functional, accessible tools. It’s certainly going to find an audience among those who need acoustic and electric tones at the ready and value the Acoustasonic’s looks and high level of comfort.
How do you choose which guitars to review? Our writers are guitar fanatics, just like you. They’re always on the lookout for new or updated offerings to recommend. We’re sometimes asked why we don’t publish negative or one-star reviews – there are so many great guitars being produced today that we’d rather share our balanced opinions on the instruments we do think you should consider.
Do companies pay for you to review their instruments? No. We are proud of the firm separation between advertising sales and editorial coverage that we’ve held strong since our founding in 1990. We only accept endemic advertising – meaning, you won’t see ads for products or services unrelated to making music with an acoustic guitar; inevitably that means we’ll review products made by companies who advertise with us, but you’ll see just as many reviews by companies who do not. We have never (and will never) take money or gifts in exchange for a favorable review.
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