Guitar Reviews and Demos

How to Choose Your Next Guitar

Is One Guitar Enough?
Determining (and Justifying) Your Need for Multiple Guitars

New cars come with an owner’s manual, so why not musical instruments?
A Guide to Identifying Common Acoustic Guitar Shapes and Sizes
How to Shop for a Used Guitar

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Eastman DT30D Guitar

New Gear: Eastman DT30D

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.

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Lâg Tramontane HyVibe 10 Guitar

Gear Review: Lâg Tramontane HyVibe 10

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.

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Yamaha CSF-TA

Gear Review: Yamaha CSF-TA

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.
National Reso-phonic M-14T Thunderbox resonator guitar

Gear Review: National M-14T Thunderbox

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.

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PRS_se_a60e

Gear Review: PRS SE Angelus A60E

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.
Fender Acoustasonic Telecaster guitar

Gear Review: Fender American Acoustasonic Telecaster

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.

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Collings C100 acoustic guitar

Gear Review: Collings C100

When you think of the Collings guitar company, one of the things that stands out is nonpareil workmanship. The new C100 is certainly no exception. Although it’s not a fancy guitar by any means, everything about it shouts “quality.” The mahogany back, sides, and neck and Sitka spruce top are…

Guitar & Gear Review FAQs

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.

What’s up with affiliate links?
There is no billionaire owner or mega-corporation behind Acoustic Guitar – your support keeps us independent and in business. When you shop for gear using one of our affiliate links, a small percentage of your purchase gets shared with us (at no cost to you) for being the one that referred you. This is one way you can support our work (learn about more ways here.) We do not select products to review based on the availability of affiliate links.