What’s your favourite all-rounder?

[EasilyAmused]

I’ve found myself getting called for more acoustic guitar than ever before this year, which has been a nice change in my gig life! For years, I’ve worked with national touring artists in all sorts of styles, playing electric guitar, despite having studied classical guitar 20 years ago and having some pretty strong finger style and flat picking chops.

Anyway, this year, things kind of shifted. I’ve ended up playing acoustic in so many settings - with country bands, with a symphony, doing bluegrass, folk duos, pop gigs, church gigs, solo finger style for weddings, etc….

My only “good” acoustic is a Martin 000-15m. I LOVE that guitar, but it does sound a little small for stronger strumming, though it has great punchy mid range for single notes, and mine is surprisingly loud acoustically. It is a great guitar, but not necessarily the best “everything” guitar for me.

So I’m curious, what is your go to “all rounder”? Fwiw, my budget is probably capping out around the 3k range for an additional guitar at this point.

[RP]

I no longer have the guitar that would be my best all-rounder. It was a Taylor 814...

[Pickcity]

I’m sure it has been and will continue to be a discussion that will never be settled among players with opinions, as we all have them. I’ve always felt that I cannot go wrong with a good dread. It will cut when I need it to cut, and if I need less, I simply lighten up my playing. Dreads have been used in almost every style of playing imaginable, and I would guess they are the most highly used and recorded acoustic guitars of all time, in almost all genres. Soft playing, hard playing. A good dread covers a lot of ground.

Your 000-15 should be just fine for most anything, I would think, but you mentioned it sounded a little small for strong strumming, so yes, a dread should solve that problem.

All of this is just one guy’s opinion, with the caveat that one size does not fit all, and there is no Swiss army, do it all guitar.

As of now my “go to” is my Gibson SJ200. It has everything a dread has, and then some.

[Accent]

I get the most mileage out of a Cordoba Cadete 3/4 classical, mostly cause I'm old and fried. It's light and easy on me, and I'm then also on a Fender CP-60 parlor for steel strings. I got rid of anything over concert sized.

[Robin, Wales]

How about picking up a Yamaha FG800? It would give you the chance to try out a dread size strummer / all rounder for less than $300. In most, if not all, situations, the audience is not going to know that it's not a $3000 guitar.

You could drop in a sbt or a ust or a sound hole mag p/u or use a stage mic' and just play around with the whole package while making your mind up about an "all rounder" based on your experiments.

[Denandannie]

My best all rounder belongs to someone else. Am an idiot for selling a Gibson Songwriter.

[Wade Hampton]

My two most versatile guitars are my 000-42 and my Larrivee OM-03W. I string them with mediums and use them primarily as rhythm guitars, and they cut through anything.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Wardo]

I have a lot of guitars but I think my HD28V and 70th Broadcaster are the ones that do the best job of covering what I play.

[TheGITM]

Guild D-55 would be my swiss army knife guitar.

[BrunoBlack]

The best all-rounder I own is a Sexauer FT-16. It does it all with excellence.

[EasilyAmused]

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

How about picking up a Yamaha FG800? It would give you the chance to try out a dread size strummer / all rounder for less than $300. In most, if not all, situations, the audience is not going to know that it's not a $3000 guitar.

You could drop in a sbt or a ust or a sound hole mag p/u or use a stage mic' and just play around with the whole package while making your mind up about an "all rounder" based on your experiments.

But I’m going to know it is a $300 guitar!

I just played some shows this weekend where we were mic’d with condensor mic’s, the audience was quiet enough that you could hear a pin drop, and l was paid near 1K per night…. The group I was with had rave reviews and booked 5 more shows with similar money from that night alone…. As I mentioned, I’ve done gigs this year playing with orchestra- the cellists aren’t going “ah, why bother bringing a good instrument, the audience won’t notice.” While they aren’t going to notice in the louder country gigs, they sure are going to hear it in these more intimate acoustic settings!

I should add, more than likely, this guitar will end up being recorded too - I get calls for recording work on electric all the time, and with the way my acoustic live gigs are picking up, I could certainly see that then spill over to studio too.

Back to the guitars: There’s also the playability thing. I’ve been playing professionally for 25 years and I hate to sound snobby, but I’ve just gotten used to a certain quality of feel/playability/dynamic response.

I do have a cheaper dreadnaught guitar, and it is good for what it is, but it also does not have the dynamic response or range of a higher quality instrument. My 00015m is a far more dynamic instrument, better neck, frets, everything I’ve picked up enough high quality dreads to know that a lot of the shortcomings of my dread are more about quality as opppsed to body style...

Anyway, I really just want a high quality, workhorse guitar. It doesn’t need to be the last guitar I ever own, but it probably needs to be the only other acoustic I can buy for at least the next 5 years.

[porterr68]

Even though my current pick is a good OM, a Gibson J45 is probably the king of versatility.

[Bluenose]

I take an all rounder to mean a guitar that sounds good either fingerpicked or flatpicked. In my collection of 4 I'd have to say my 2012 Eastman E10SS. I know that wouldn't be a crowd favorite here but I got to tell it like it is. I also own a Martin 00028 MD , OM18A and a National NRP Tri Cone.

[sinistral]

For an all-rounder, I would suggest an OM (e.g., OM-18, OM-28 or variants/similar) an M-36 (that’s the guitar that Carl Miner took to the B.I.G. guitar show the other year), a J-45 or a x14 series Taylor. Since you already have a mahogany guitar, perhaps go with rosewood (or the maple 614ce). If you can spring for it, an OM-28 Modern Deluxe, Pre-War Guitar Co. OM or Collings OM JL would be higher-end choices that would make great gigging guitars.

[tinverse]

In general, I think the D-18, D28, J45, and OM-28 are pretty much the workhorses everyone has used since forever. I guess the 814CE too, but I personally think they sound awful.

My personal workhorse is my Boucher BG-42-GM. I play it most of the time. I think it's the Alvarez Yairi FYM60HD, but it looks like it would probably be an awesome workhorse OM.