"Beater" acoustic guitar?

[AndrewG]

If I'm not 100% happy with a guitar I won't play it; and that goes for anything from a £200 Yamaha to a £2000 Martin and all points in between. I also don't subscribe to leaving your best guitar at home when gigging. If getting it damaged is the concern, well it can get damaged just as easily at home as anywhere else. Like the man said, these things are meant to be played, not cossetted like a baby or obsessively polished like antique furniture or objets d'art.
If I have a great guitar which inspires me why would I relegate that in favour of something inferior which does not? A crude analogy, maybe, but you won't find a concert violinist leaving his multi-million, 400 year-old Stradivarius or Amati at home because...

[markd]

I think this is why God made CF guitars. Also Yairi laminates.

[EatingHumblePie]

I think there are many occasions where you cannot control the conditions and a beater comes in handy: outdoors or at parties when one of the guests may want to find out how easy it is to play the guitar.

I've hat a neighbor make a significant dent into the top of a guitar. Luckily that was my trusty old Takamine G-240, which to me looks better the more distressed it looks.

[Klimski]

My acoustic is both my beater and my 'high-end' rolled into one. I'm happy because just bringing it from my attic studio to the living room usually entails hitting a door, doorjamb or other solid object somewhere...

[Skarsaune]

Some of you don’t teach groups of small children, and it shows, lol.

My VoyageAir goes anywhere. I’ll take the nice ones out for gigs, sure, but I leave a $100 Tanglewood in my closet here at work. Makes me happy to play just about every day at lunch. Matter of fact, taking it out now.

[Goat Mick]

I've never bought a guitar to be a beater. If I don't like the guitar and feel that it has some quality that speaks to me, then I won't buy it. That being said I've got expensive (to me) guitars and I've some inexpensive guitars. All of them leave the house, but if the circumstances I plan to be in are questionable (party, bar gig, outdoors, etc.) I'll take one of the inexpensive ones instead of one of the more valuable ones. I think that just makes sense.

[roylor4]

Originally Posted by AndrewG

If I'm not 100% happy with a guitar I won't play it; and that goes for anything from a £200 Yamaha to a £2000 Martin and all points in between. I also don't subscribe to leaving your best guitar at home when gigging. If getting it damaged is the concern, well it can get damaged just as easily at home as anywhere else. Like the man said, these things are meant to be played, not cossetted like a baby or obsessively polished like antique furniture or objets d'art.
If I have a great guitar which inspires me why would I relegate that in favour of something inferior which does not? A crude analogy, maybe, but you won't find a concert violinist leaving his multi-million, 400 year-old Stradivarius or Amati at home because...

Your opinion and you're certainly entitled to it but I absolutely disagree that an instrument can get just as easily damaged at home than at a gig. I play 100+ gigs a year and IME, it's not true for me anyway. Just them simple actions of packing and unpacking and setting up/breaking down X 2 for each gig opens itself up for stuff to happen.

For some of us, it's about picking the right guitar and p'up combination for different type of gigs.

That said, I don't have any guitars over 5 bills right now but If I had a 2k guitar it would mostly live at home - but that's me.

Also comparing a world class touring musician that would own or play a Stradivarius such as Yo-Yo ma to someone that plays everyday working-man's gigs is an apples to raisins comparison.

[AndrewG]

Originally Posted by roylor4

Your opinion and you're certainly entitled to it but I absolutely disagree that an instrument can get just as easily damaged at home than at a gig. I play 100+ gigs a year and IME, it's not true for me anyway. Just them simple actions of packing and unpacking and setting up/breaking down X 2 for each gig opens itself up for stuff to happen.

For some of us, it's about picking the right guitar and p'up combination for different type of gigs.

That said, I don't have any guitars over 5 bills right now but If I had a 2k guitar it would mostly live at home - but that's me.

Also comparing a world class touring musician that would own or play a Stradivarius such as Yo-Yo ma to someone that plays everyday working-man's gigs is an apples to raisins comparison.

Well, the comparison I feel is apt. The principle is the same; play the best instrument you have if you're entertaining. Does your home not have table corners, door jambs etc? A hefty G7th capo slipped out of my shirt pocket and bounced off the top of a J-40 after a gig whilst leaning over to shut the case lid, leaving a couple of nice dents in addition to the scratches my dog made earlier. Stuff happens, and I'm not about to get precious about a working instrument. After all, that's what they are designed for, and not ornamentation.
Again, if damage is a concern at gigs don't take your guitar out of its case until it's time to play. Put it back immediately after. Simple common sense.

[roadbiker]

I have several + $2K guitars (a Guild and 2 Taylors). I bought an Epiphone Masterbilt a while back to give my Guild a break every now and then (that was before I bought my first Taylor, an 814ce). The Epiphone became my travel guitar (until I bought a GS Mini). I took the Epiphone on a plane and had no problems with it on either the outbound or inbound flights. The problem happened when I got home. It was in a gigbag that slipped out of my grasp as I walked into my house. It fell only about 6 inches and hit the oak floor, but I knew there was a problem when it hit and the strings started vibrating. When I took it out of the gigbag, much to my chagrin there was a nice chip on the top near the binding on the bottom bout. Oddly enough, even though this is an all solid guitar, the grain didn't show where the chip was. I brought it to a local, reputable music shop in Buckhead, Atlanta for repair, but they did a lousy job. They offered me a reimbursement that I never received. After a while I decided that, even though it's a pretty nice guitar, it would be my travel/beater guitar to take anywhere I could drive for vacation (on the plane I take the GS Mini). The Epiphone Masterbilt came with a satin finish. After the "accident" I rubbed the finish to a nice glossy finish, which did two things: it improved the look of the guitar and it made the crappy repair less noticeable.

So the short answer is, "yes" I have a beater guitar to travel with. If I go someplace local to play with friends, then I take one of my good guitars.

[Steve DeRosa]

IME the black art of post-purchase guitar setup has come so far in the last four decades that any reasonably well-made instrument - or even a borderline one - can be made to play like a higher-priced piece...

If you've been in this game for any length of time I'm sure you've visited/played at venues where (for lack of a better term) it would be highly inadvisable to bring a "real" guitar, whether it be a question of damage, theft, or personal injury - there was a local singer/songwriter who was attacked at an outdoor acoustic-music festival last summer (fortunately a group of mutual friends in attendance came to her aid), and I've been in a couple of risky situations myself over the years...

During my lifetime I've bought several instruments strictly for their utility value - spent a few bucks on a good setup and keep them well-maintained so that they're not a burden to play - so I can save the good stuff for more-controlled situations; FWIW there's fair precedent for this approach: many a pro in the postwar era would have an ES-125/ES-150 or Epiphone Zephyr - all modestly-priced instruments in their day - for teaching and in-the-trenches club work, and save the L-5/Super 400 or Deluxe/Emperor for the upscale gigs...

If you catch me at a coffeehouse or open mic, I'll likely have either my old Ovation Custom Balladeer or the Carlo Robelli J-45 knockoff that I used to keep in my classroom closet - if you want to hear the Avalon you'll have to wait for an auditorium show or church service...

[Condition1]

Not relevant, sorry

[BT55]

Originally Posted by DenverSteve

I use my travel guitar - an all-solid wood, great Voyage Air VAD-1 - as my "beater". It was purchased as a go anywhere, do everything guitar so it is the go to for my uses. It is mint, superb, gorgeous and rivals any of my other guitars but it is the designated travel-the-world guitar and it has served its purpose. For me, even when out and about or traveling or gigging it's still about the music and enjoyment of making music.

I have a Voyage Air VAD-04 as my “beater” guitar. Mine is also in excellent condition. Installed a pickup, tuners, bone nut and bridge pins and it’s ready for any occasion. Great full size dried that can travel anywhere.

[Woolbury]

I take my '46 Gibson everywhere, and have had so many campfire sessions I can't count, prob 20 yrs worth. I don't think it ever sounds better than around a campfire, and so many times folks have thanked me for bringing along a 70yr old instrument to share with them. Id be crushed if something happened to it, but Im glad that I just stepped up and "used" it all these years. I also have my '95 Collings, which is all shiny and unscratched, and Id be reluctant to take that to many of the outings I get to play, but don't have to think too hard about that since I have the Gibson. I aslo have on old Yamaha that sounds pretty nice, and Ive taken that the last couple times I had to take a guitar on a plane. So I guess I cover all the bases, taking a good guitar out, having one I leave at home, having a beater. All 3 seem to make sense for me.

[roylor4]

Originally Posted by AndrewG

Well, the comparison I feel is apt. The principle is the same; play the best instrument you have if you're entertaining. Does your home not have table corners, door jambs etc? A hefty G7th capo slipped out of my shirt pocket and bounced off the top of a J-40 after a gig whilst leaning over to shut the case lid, leaving a couple of nice dents in addition to the scratches my dog made earlier. Stuff happens, and I'm not about to get precious about a working instrument. After all, that's what they are designed for, and not ornamentation.
Again, if damage is a concern at gigs don't take your guitar out of its case until it's time to play. Put it back immediately after. Simple common sense.

No, the principle is not the same. Not in the least. Not for me. At a bar gig I will play 3 different guitars in the course of a gig and 2 different ones in any set. Putting then in cases is not an option. They need to be plugged in and ready for me to hit an A/B switch and must be easily accessible.

I don't play on a stage separate from the audience 95% of the time. Many of us that play regularly know what I'm talking about. Our "stage" is 80-100 sq ft of open space.

I know where all the corners of my furniture and walls are. All it takes is one drunk or one person with dementia running into my guitar stand.

If you do not live and play in the spaces I do, you cannot (or choose to not) understand. It's that simple.

[Goat Mick]

There is also the fact that as soon as you plug into a PA or amp the playing field gets level pretty quick. An inexpensive guitar with a good pickup will sound pretty dang awesome to your audience. Now put me in front of a mic for a radio or TV spot, I'm going to be playing my best sounding guitar. I think real world practicality should be considered also.