How many can't live without a cutaway?

[boombox]

Originally Posted by TBman

I find that now I can't live without one. I play finger style and frequently use a capo (at the arrangement's direction) and things can get odd without one.

Yep, that's me too. I have no issues with them at all, though of all my guitars, only one has one: my Avalon, which lives in DADGAD or C tunings for fingerstyle.

[mawmow]

To me the real question is : "Why should I have a cutaway ?"
An the best answer would be : "To climb your scales up the neck".

If you play only "cowboys chords" and never climb up the neck,
you do not need a cutaway which could alter the sound quality a bit.

The problem now is most acoustics equipped with electronics at the factory
do have a cutaway.
On the other hand, a plain non cutaway is a plus if you want the best
electronics installed but the guitar plus the added electronics would
probably cost more than the one with cutaway with factory installed electronics.

So, it is all a matter of "What do I need to play the music I want to play ?"

[bufflehead]

Originally Posted by jaymarsch

I have 5 guitars - 2 with cutaways and 3 without. I like having both.
Best,
Jayne

I have five guitars - only one has a cutaway. That guitar is also my only acoustic/electric, and I bought it as a stage guitar to play amplified outdoors. For that niche, it's fine. Otherwise, I have a strong preference uncut guitars.

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by mawmow

...a cutaway ..... could alter the sound quality a bit.

Does this apply to luthiers who build only guitars with cutaways, too. Clean piece of paper, so to speak, on which to design a guitar from the start with one?

How does one quantify whether such a guitar is inferior to one that "might have had" no cutaway from the start?

[Geof S.]

Originally Posted by mawmow

To me the real question is : "Why should I have a cutaway ?"
An the best answer would be : "To climb your scales up the neck".

If you play only "cowboys chords" and never climb up the neck,
you do not need a cutaway which could alter the sound quality a bit.

The problem now is most acoustics equipped with electronics at the factory
do have a cutaway.
On the other hand, a plain non cutaway is a plus if you want the best
electronics installed but the guitar plus the added electronics would
probably cost more than the one with cutaway with factory installed electronics.

So, it is all a matter of "What do I need to play the music I want to play ?"

I don't really disagree with you. But you can get a fair distance away from "cowboy chords" on a non-cutaway. I don't have any problems playing at the 14th or 15th fret on my non-cutaways, and I don't usually play songs that go higher up the neck than that.


I have both cutaways and non-cutaways, although most of my guitars are non-cutaway. It makes little or no difference to me one way or the other.

[Guitarplayer_PR]

Originally Posted by RXMoore

I prefer the look of a cutaway acoustic, which some purists find positively blasphemous. That said, my next guitar will be a spruce top dreadnought without a cutaway because I don't own one now (which some purists find equally blasphemous).

They're not purists at al. The guitar, as WE know it, developed in the 19th century, but the guitar is way, way older than that.