The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #165805   Message #3981595
Posted By: GUEST,matt milton
12-Mar-19 - 04:28 AM
Thread Name: Best Guitar for UK folk club?
Subject: RE: Best Guitar for UK folk club?
It'd be tricky to play fingerstyle unamplified to an 80-person room. Maybe if you're wearing those metal nail picks...

I find mahogany guitars with a satin finish project well. I have several acoustics, and if I was playing unamplified and really needed volume I would use either my Recording King ROS-616 all-solid mahogany (OM shape) or my Harley Benton CLP15M (parlour model, solid mahogany top, laminate mahogany back and sides). Both have a satin finish and are noticeably louder than other lacquered guitars I have, though the CLP15M isn't really for strumming, sounds quite boxy when strummed.

While mahogany guitars have a justifiable reputation for sounding 'dark' they paradoxically have a very clear tone, which carries and projects very well. Both of the guitars I cited are as loud as any Lowdens I've ever played.

I'm always a bit disappointed by rosewood backs and sides, I find spruce/mahogany or mahogany/mahogany a preferable combination. But that's just me.

My latest guitar acquisition is a 13-fret-to-body 'Nick Lucas' style parlour guitar by Recording King and is lovely.
https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/recording-king-introduces-greenwich-village-13-fret-acoustic-guitar
That would also do the job, only not as well as the previously mentioned guitars.