How many can't live without a cutaway?

[KevinH]

Same here.

Originally Posted by jaymarsch

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

[steelvibe]

I voted for "could go either way". While I typically base my guitar buying decisions on tone, I do admit to having an aesthetic bias to guitars with no cutaway. On some bodies it just looks weird to me (like dreadnoughts). However, some cutaways are actually pretty gorgeous- like the cutaway on Emerald's new X20. I don't care for bulky "blob" looking cutaways if that makes sense.

[Ed66]

If presented with two relatively identical options, I'll always choose the cutaway, since I do capo up frequently (5th to 7th frets) and it makes a number of pieces I play much easier. I recently picked up a Dread with no cutaway because it checked every other box. I'm not sorry about that at all (hey diversity is a good thing ), but it would have been great to score it with a cutaway.

[steelvibe]

Originally Posted by jklotz

I'm a fingerstyle player. Most of my guitars do not have a cutaway, and I'm up past the 14th fret regularly. I sometimes use the neck heel against my palm as a reference point.

The only place where I feel they are necessary, for me anyway, is on a 12 feet guitar.

On a guitar like that I would need at least 10 ft. of cutaway.

[rmp]

Chet Atkins didn't call the area where the cutaway gives you acess dusty end of the neck for nuthin.. "The first 6 frets are where all the money is!"

he was a character...

I can take it leave it. I wont NOT buy a guitar because it doesn't have one, nor will I not buy a guitar because it DOES have one. wait, I think I just confused myself... (which aint hard to do..)

[Twitch]

My guitar is a tool I use to play in a duo, and I must have a cutaway.

Of course one of the great advantages of a duo is the opportunity to pair one player's rhythm strumming against a second player providing leads, solos, fills, contras, etc. which I'm mostly responsible for. Because of that I'm playing way up there quite often.

[FrankHudson]

I have played "lead acoustic guitar"--you know all those widdly bits up and down the neck. Yet I do not own an acoustic guitar with a cutaway. The first guy who I saw play acoustic would just reach his fingers over the face of the guitar to get up high on the neck, and so when I started playing a few years later, I just did the same.

If I found a guitar I liked at a price that I found amendable, I wouldn't turn it down because it had a cutaway.

[aeisen93]

I like the look of the cutaway on my Taylor 814ce. But I generally prefer the look of guitars without a cutaway. For example, I think Martin guitars look much better without a cutaway. I have never needed the cutaway either. I don't play past the 12th fret.

[Rosette]

I could go either way. I don't need a cutaway and don't really like the way they look. But if a guitar clicked for me in all other areas, I'd definitely buy one.

[fngrpck]

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

Yes, especially so on 12 fretters.

Mandatory and ergonomically satisfying. Though Eric Skye does well without one.

[Guitarplayer_PR]

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.

I own 4 guitars right now. Two of them are cutless and two with cutaways. I enjoy all of them for what they bring to the table. Unsurprisingly, for me, the ones with cutaways are brighter; but also may have to be because one of them is a GA and the other has offset soundholes

[caperrob]

I just sold a cutaway and switched to a 000 body. It felt strange at first but I was just noodling and played at the 16th fret and it didn't bother me. I made the adjustment pretty quickly to be honest.

[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).

[BigOrangeBox]

functionally , I love cutaways! Visually, there are some guitars that just don't look right to me with it like dreadnoughts or true classical guitars.

[ljguitar]

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.

Hi Barry

My experience as a player and as a teacher is if people don't play "up there" they are less likely to appreciate cutaway guitars.

I own/play a cutaway, which when I'm playing certain songs, I prefer it because it makes it easier to play clean at the 17th fret.

All my electrics are cut-away, and when I'm playing backing guitar, I'm going to be playing up in the range where that range is appreciated.