Jumbos

[swarfrat]

I debated putting this in OT, but it says "discussion about guitars and basses"...

Any fans of the jumbo around? I've been playing slabs exclusively for about 20 years now, and find myself wanting another hollowbox.  I love the physical presence that an aggressively handled jumbo projects. Wompf and slap at the same time. I've also noticed that while CNC has vastly lowered the relative cost of decent electric guitars (when I was a teenager, working man's electrics were more like $600 new, now there's any number of $300-400ish guitars that would fit the bill.)  Acoustics don't seem to have been as dramatically impacted.

I had a Guild JN-4 in college - one of the last of the US made midrange Guilds. I'd really like to stay well under a grand. I wanted to like the Takamine 520 series I played a while back but .. it just lacked the liveness of the others. I'm not sure if it was endemic to the model, or just guitar to guitar variation. Anyone have experience with the Alvarez J80 / Yamaha LJ6 / or anything else I should be considering in the category of "acoustic guitar suitable for aggression, $500-$900 range"?

 

[Cagey]

I suspect the price of acoustics hasn't dropped like it has for electrics because there's not a whole lot you can do to take the labor out of the things. With the electrics, it is as you say - the CNC machines are doing most of the time-consuming work. Plus, using the automation means higher and more consistent quality.

On the other hand, I believe the quality of acoustics has gone up pretty widely, too. Used to be there were only a few "good" acoustic lines, and everything else wasn't anything to write home about. Now, even the lesser units sound fairly good and the better ones are as good or better than they ever were.

If I were in the market with under a grand to spend, I'd be looking at Yamaha and Carvin for the best bang for the buck. I think you can do pretty well with those. If you're not in a hurry, you could just set the money aside and wait for a panic sale of a previously loved Taylor.

 

[swarfrat]

Yeah, while it's possible to automate, to a degree dependent on what you're willing to invest, stuff like assembly, gluing and clamping... you have to be making them by the gajillions and not simply bazillions. I remember trying to get quotes on something as simple as a custom cutter... Very doable, long lead times, but mostly I just couldn't make the math work. I'm not adverse to buying Carvin, love my '84 X60C, but I bought it 2nd hand, and got to play it first. I might buy a slab sight unseen, but I kinda feel acoustics are more individualistic.

That said... 14" hips and 1.87" thickness puts the Carvin squarely in the Cosmo cover girl category. These blue eyed floozies... their beauty and their style, goes kinda smooth after a while. Fat bottom Guilds make the rockin world go round. I wanted a JF-30 for a while, but knocking the price by 1/3-1/2 will make it more likely to happen someday sooner rather than much much later.

 

[bagman67]

There are a lot of quality mass-marked acoustic builders out there.  Blueridge make a fine axe (I think they're part of the Saga family), as does Seagull (the acoustic line owned by Godin). 


Both have jumbos, but Blueridge doesn't offer a jumbo in the lower-end category.  Their value-priced 14- and 12-fret OOO's are pretty bad-ass, though.


If you can find a Carvin Cobalt 980 used you will likely find yourself with a very nice jumbo guitar on your hands.  The same is true of their Cobalt dreadnoughts - we bought my brother one for his 40th birthday, and it's  pretty dreamy.  I'm kinda bummed Carvin stopped selling their full-sized acoustic line.  I agree the small-bodied acoustics they sell are not really a dedicated acoustic-player's tool - they're acoustics for electrified venues.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

Never played a Yamaha I didn't like. I can't quite believe their prices to be honest... but my next acoustic is going to be a cute little Taylor.

 

[drewfx]

I've always thought acoustics vary quite a bit and I've played identical ones where one was far better than the other. So I think you just have to play them until you find one you like.

As far as being a fan, I have a Guild JF30-12 12 string that I put big strings on and down tune a whole step. It's the alpha acoustic. arty07:

 

[swarfrat]

Yeah, I have a lifelong obsession with 12s, but I only have stable space for one acoustic at the moment. Mostly because i feel sorry for them sitting there all lonely. I'm of similar opinion about Yamaha's - always felt like it plays and sounds a notch or two higher than the price might lead you to suspect. But I don't see a lot of their jumbos floating around stores. The LJ6/LJ16 are definitely on my list to check out.

 

[mrpinter]

+1 on Yamahas. We recently were shopping acoustic guitars for a first guitar for my grandson, for a birthday present. According to reviews and advice we got, we decided that a Yamaha was the best we could get for our limited budget for this. He's VERY happy with it - I think it was an FS720S, or something like that. Their L series jumbos look pretty interesting.

 

[swarfrat]

New contender to go check out:

Alvarez ABT60.  17" wide  x 4.5" deep, 27.75" scale. Sounds like a good candidate for stringing up to near concert pitch, long scale.

 

[swarfrat]

After enough calls to determine that I won't find an ABT60 in the state anywhere, I decided there was just too much potential goodness to pass on for lack of 1st hand opportunity. Especially after reading reviews and listening to a few youtube demos. (BTW there's some really cool cats doing some amazing stuff with baritone acoustics.) Talked the wife into it, started putting it in the shopping cart, left for dinner, came back, and lo and behold, there's a gently used /floor model that popped up since we went to dinner. Kaching. It's on its way.