are better guitars always louder?

[Scuzzo]

ok, so i was playing my Garrison, its one of those funny fiber glassed brace or caged deals with a cedar top and birch sides.. and it has really nice overtones a bit dark but lots of bell kinda of tone.. but its not as loud as some of my cheaper guitars.. it seem not to have the head room as my spruce tops.. but it still has sustain if thats possible? and its very responsive to a lite pick of finger style. but if you drive it too hard it seems to loose something rather then getting louder. I may be confusing amplitude with projection?

[fpuhan]

I think one needs to define the word, "better." I have a cheap-o, cheap-o Gretsch Jim Dandy (~$149) that plays fantastic and sounds great. To me, a "better" guitar is one that feels and plays great -- for me.

[Tony Burns]

loudness is not a indicator

[s2y]

Usually, compared to a similar sized guitar. A nice high end concert guitar probably won't be able to be as loud as a decent dreadnought. Like others said, volume isn't the end all, be all.

A while back, I was at the guitar shop and heard people discussing why a certain acoustic wasn't going to work in a bluegrass setting. First, that's not the intent of that particular guitar. Second and more important, there's almost ZERO bluegrass in my corner of the Midwest most of the time.

[The Bard Rocks]

Headroom on cedar tops is usually considerably less than on spruce.

And do not equate volume with projection. While often found in the same guitar, they are really 2 different things.

I too appreciate volume but would not want a guitar that didn't respond well to lighter playing. If you are recording or using amplification, then volume doesn't mean much. Sometimes it overpowers the voice, all reasons you can understand that there can be very good reasons not to chase it.

[Misifus]

If I may, I’ll recast your question as: “Are more expensive guitars always louder?” No, that is not always true. Many times more expensive guitar may deliver tone that some folks prefer, but that’s quite different from loudness.

[warfrat73]

No.

Unless loud happens to be a primary concern.

I recall a famous builder saying something along the lines of "a lot of people confuse loud with good" or "if I give them loud, many people will mistake it with good." I wish I could remember the quote, but I can't find it right now.

Anecdotally, I've read in a number of places that the Clarence White/Tony Rice D-28, which is generally considered to be the holy grail of guitar tone, is not a terribly loud guitar, but just has great tonal richness, balance and character. Here's a quote from the Fretboard Journal article about it: "It’s not the loudest D-28 around–although it does have a wider dynamic range than most–nor does it have the deepest of lows or the highest of highs, but it is the most expressive. It sings with a voice that simply can’t be ignored" (https://www.fretboardjournal.com/fea...l-martin-d-28/).

[Tnfiddler]

I'm going to respond to this question using an experience I had this past weekend at a Bluegrass Festival. I play my Aged Tone Bourgeois Vintage D Banjo Killer as my Bluegrass rhythm guitar. I was playing in a jam circle and another guitar player in the circle asked what my guitar was. I told him and as it often happens, he'd never heard of the brand. He asked if he could play it and after watching this guy play the last few songs, I knew he was a Bluegrass rhythm MONSTER and I readily handed it over to him. He played it for a few minutes and then let one of the fantastic flat-pickers, in the circle, have a go on it. The rhythm guy grabbed his "unnamed brand" dread and they played a couple of fiddle tunes with him playing rhythm and my Bourgeois being used for the flatpicking part. My Bourgeois is LOUD and one of the loudest dreads I've ever played and this guy's dread was close to it in volume. BUT, where my guitar was miles above the other guitar was in clarity! The other dread was LOUD, but it sounded like it was stuffed full of socks and boomy bass was all you heard. My guitar has a ton of bottom-end due to the double scalloped braces, but it’s so evenly balanced that the mids and highs are just as strong, which makes for a loud guitar through every register rather than just loud due to bass! Every note he was playing, while flatpicking, rang out of the guitar and was crystal clear. It was the first time I've truly heard my guitar in the 2 years that I've owned it and was a huge eye-opener for me. I finally understand why loud isn't always a good thing and if your guitar sounds like it doubles as your sock-drawer, it's a bad thing. I now FULLY understand that projection and clarity are way more important than loud. I heard James Cook from Bourgeois give an interview once, where he said that Dana really works hard to make a dread that doesn't fall off when it's taking a solo or flatpicking and I watched it happen this past weekend! A higher-end guitar may not always be louder, but I have to give it to the ones that are handmade and tap-tuned when it comes to tone and clarity.

[ewalling]

I would have thought that higher-ticket guitars often are louder because they are usually more lightly built. I've found that lighter-built acoustic instruments tend to be louder than more heavily built ones. Of course, there will be exceptions, but I think we can expect a lightly built boutique or handcrafted instrument to be relatively loud as well as sweet-sounding.

[Mbroady]

Depends on the application. If it's a multi instrumental unplugged jam then yep I would say louder is better. If you're sitting in the studio with a decent room sound and good mics then louder s not always better. Then there's everything in between

[buddyhu]

Interesting question. I would say no: many of the sweetest sounding guitars ai have played and heard are not louder. This is particularly true of guitars built for fingerstyle playing.

However, this thread calls to mind an exchange between Jerry Garcia and Tony Rice that can heard in The Pizza Tapes, where Garcia asserts, “louder is better”.

[bufflehead]

I have a concert-sized cedar-topped guitar that's relatively quiet, but a beautiful instrument to play when I'm alone in the living room. I wouldn't use it in an acoustic jam where I have to cut through other instruments, but that's not what I bought it for.

Just as it's nice to have some volume when you need it, it's also nice to have a quiet guitar that you can wail on without rattling the windows.

[Andromeda]

My two Alvarez all mahogany guitars sound warm and lush but not nearly as loud as my spruce top guitars.

[RussellHawaii]

Loud is very high on my list of guitar attributes, I’ll admit it. But ‘better guitars’ are not always louder. Tone, visuals, builder, and feel are also up there.
I have a not-so-loud guitar that is my main gigging guitar…it exudes quality, looks gorgeous, plays well, is reliable, and sounds great plugged in, but is much quieter than some others. (This is a Ryan Paradiso.)
As has been said, if you’re recording, or using a pickup, then acoustic loudness loses its advantage and, for live sound, can be a disadvantage because it’s more prone to feedback.
For pure acoustic playing, louder is better in my book, but I don’t equate that with being a ‘better guitar.’

[BoneDigger]

At one time I would have said that loudness was important. However, as I have gotten more into super jumbo sized guitars, I am finding that a guitar can sound great and not be extremely loud.