Is volume important to you?

[justonwo]

Volume is very important to me. I look for a guitar that can handle heavy fingerpicking and that has a wide dynamic range. If I dig in and there is no proportional increase in volume, it's usually a turn-off for me.

[Hambone Joe]

If you like volume in an acoustic guitar, go to Google Patents and type in Folded Horn Acoustic Guitar. I am new to this site and just found out I can't upload pictures from my laptop, will setup something from an external source later. This is a relatively new 20 year patent for me. I have revised it with multiple port holes in the sides. The body is CNC machined from solid maple, so the walls are 1/4" thick, a beast. It is like having a Bose waveguide or Klipsch folded horn inside an acoustic guitar. I have a mic, small amp and two speakers inside the guitar (protecting for feedback). I love well built acoustic guitars, and will only consider wood for this instrument. IMHO plastic or carbon fiber just does not cut it. Don't get me started on 3D printing, it can not handle a high quality instrument of this size. While the CNC body build is incredible, I am going to need a good Luthier. New technology and old world craftsmanship can, and should, live together.

[BoneDigger]

Only to an extent. I don't need "loud" but I do like to be able to hear it.

[Guitarplayer_PR]

Originally Posted by AndrewG

For me it isn't important. 'Loud' isn't always perceived as 'volume'; projection and how one achieves that with practised technique is more important. A classical guitarist can fill a concert hall, unplugged. Maestro Andres Segovia never used a mic in concert as far as I m aware.

In a "perfect" building, acoustically speaking, you can hear a pin drop from very far way. . . literally

[Ralph124C41]

For me there are two answers:

1) If I were playing in a jam session ... especially a bluegrass one with those impossibly loud banjos ... I would want a guitar that is loud (as loud as one of my Hawaiian shirts, the ones that come with a volume control.) For many years my only guitar was a mid-70s Guild D-55. That guitar had a lovely overall sound ... but like some other Guilds of the period I think it was over-built. It was the heaviest guitar I've ever played. I think the top spruce was slightly thicker than normal. Anyway, it was a quiet guitar, or at least it didn't project well to me although others may have heard me. So it was frustrating to play at these jams; it was as if I was playing an air guitar.

So in that situation frankly I would have preferred a louder guitar than one that actually sounded and played better. No joke.

but
2) If I am playing at home to myself (and my cat), then volume is no concern. None at all. And with Covid and the end (not Covid-related) of the monthly acoustic jam I used to attend, I've only been to one acoustic jam locally and one I went to that is really too far away for me to regularly attend. Neither one is a bluegrass jam so my current guitars provide suitable volume ... especially the one set up with Ernie Ball AB strings which I've found to be the loudest strings I've ever played.

[computo99]

Probably my most important requirement is volume. If it doesn’t have volume then I don’t care much about the guitar having a lush tone or sustain if it’s hard to hear.

[Hambone Joe]

Yes Segovia could fill a concert hall if he played by himself, or other classical guitars. If he played with an orchestra, there is no way he could be heard without being plugged in...not a chance. A grand piano alone would drown him out.

[Guitars44me]

I want it all. Volume, yes indeed! Also, Ergonomics, TONE, and the ability to sound sweet at a whisper too. Plus beauty to behold as well.

After a FULL lifetime of full time music, I am Now 70, and still playing gigs, mostly in senior and Healthcare facilities. But parties and art shows and hope to do some restaurant gigs again if the pandemic permits. House concerts would be fun....

I've said it before and I'll say it again; the Instruments John Kinnaird has been building me for the last few years will part your hair at 40 paces. They sound sweet, FAT, warm and boss at any volume level.

These JKs have allowed me to forgo amplification at almost all my gigs for the last six years. There haven't been many since 3/20, but they are starting to return.

I do sing, and have a LOUD voice. Also honk harmonicas in the rack and footstomp when appropriate. So I can make quite a racket if I want. But sometimes less is indeed more. Haha

We have my SIXTH custom in the works. Hahahaha

BTW, Segovia was still touring and practiced every day at 90. I understand He said he had every intention of being much better before he died!

Play on gang, and tune up often

Paul

[Robin, Wales]

I was standing on the shoreline at Craighouse on the Isle of Jura yesterday evening, playing and singing while looking out towards the Small Isles. My wife was reading a book in our hotel room at the Jura Hotel a good 100 yards up the hill behind me. When I got back to the room she said "That sounded nice".

I don’t have a loud voice. I don't have a particularly loud guitar (although it does have good projection and lovely resonance and it seems to "work" for my voice). I was using light 80/20 strings, which are quieter in the mids than my usual PBs. And I was using a mellow, rounded pick (Wegen M100).

I thought about this thread on guitar volume, and really don't know what to make of it? Perhaps a guitar and vocals does not have to be loud per se in order for the sound to carry some distance outdoors?

[Brent Hutto]

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

I was standing on the shoreline at Craighouse on the Isle of Jura yesterday evening, playing and singing while looking out towards the Small Isles.

As the song say, "Nice work if you can get it".

[DBW]

Control is more important to me than volume.

[mikealpine]

First, I have to love the tone. Then the guitar has to be loud when I want it to be, without crazy effort. I usually have a light touch and still want the sound to jump out of the guitar. For, the ability to change my volume based on attack adds to my overall enjoyment of playing. That dynamic range is very important to me. And when I play along with others, I want to know I can both blend in and stand out.

[SingingSparrow]

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

I was standing on the shoreline at Craighouse on the Isle of Jura yesterday evening, playing and singing while looking out towards the Small Isles. My wife was reading a book in our hotel room at the Jura Hotel a good 100 yards up the hill behind me. When I got back to the room she said "That sounded nice".

I don’t have a loud voice. I don't have a particularly loud guitar (although it does have good projection and lovely resonance and it seems to "work" for my voice). I was using light 80/20 strings, which are quieter in the mids than my usual PBs. And I was using a mellow, rounded pick (Wegen M100).

I thought about this thread on guitar volume, and really don't know what to make of it? Perhaps a guitar and vocals does not have to be loud per se in order for the sound to carry some distance outdoors?

A couple of years ago, I was living in a cabin in the woods here on the coast. Literally no one around. And a guy and his girlfriend decided to park their van in a spot about a mile down from me in the evenings. They were traveling from the east coast and needed a place to park and found this one far away from civilization (but close enough to the beach.)

At any rate, I remember one morning walking to the outhouse and hearing this incredibly beautiful guitar music. I climbed a bit of a knoll to see where it could be coming from and sure enough, I see through the foliage far away this van and this dude playing outside on the other side of the property. I was supposed to be looking after the place so I walked down to say hello. Nice folks, the guy was about 21 years old and a wonderful musician.

Anyway, he was playing a Taylor Mini. Those guitars are really not very loud. But the sound sure did carry far and loud in the forest.

[Shadowfox]

Volume is not so important, but headroom is, and that is closely related to volume. It also give you greater dynamic range.