Acoustic Paradise

Why Seagull Guitars are the Best Bang for the Buck NOTE:   this post reflects our opinion on Seagull guitars. We are not sponsored by or affiliated with Seagull, Godin, or any other related company, nor have we been asked to write about them. This is our unsolicited but glowing recommendation and endorsement of their products, based only on our experience. If there's one thing you'll see consistently on this blog when it comes to discussing quality acoustic guitars, it's that we give exceptionally high marks to Seagull, across the board. Perhaps of note, Seagull isn't actually our favorite  guitar maker, nor the one whose products we own the most of! (That would be Martin, btw.) We've ranked our top ten acoustic guitar brands before, and though we placed them high on that list, there were others above them. In other words, we believe you can get another guitar better than the very best Seagull, if you're willing to pay up for it. What we consistently say, howev

So you're interested in buying a guitar to learn on, or perhaps for a family member who wants to pick up the guitar. But where to start? It can be a bit overwhelming when you actually start looking at all the options! Hopefully, the Dos and Don'ts provided below will help demystify the process for you, and give you some guidance to ensure you find the guitar that is the right fit for you. I'll start with the "don'ts," because in my opinion, avoiding some common mistakes will help immensely, even if you don't read far enough to get to all of the "dos." DON'TS: Don't buy a "toy" guitar. I'm starting here and spending a lot of time on this one, because it's extremely important! What do I mean by a "toy" guitar? Essentially, a guitar that's aimed at beginners who don't know anything about musical instruments, isn't made by a reputable musical instrument manufacturer, and many times can actually be purch

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked which strings they should use on their guitar...well then I could afford to use Martin's Titanium Core strings on all my guitars (ba-dum-tss)! Seriously though, It's a common question, especially from newer players. And since I've addressed this question numerous times in Facebook guitar related groups, yet it still seems to be asked again and again in those same groups, I thought I'd write a post to spell out my opinion and advice on the subject. What kind of bothers me when I see these conversations on social media is not the fact that people are asking the question. As far as I'm concerned, ask all the questions! But the answers I see in the comments are the troubling thing, just because they're not all that helpful, and yet people who are new to playing guitar are taking them as solid advice. So, what makes those comments unhelpful? Simply put, most people just drop the name of a brand. "You should use D

We've all seen a hundred different lists of the "best acoustic guitar brands," and pretty often I'm sure we all scratch our heads at those lists. Or for some of us, we just can't resist posting our comments about how wrong they are! I've done that enough times that finally it occurred to me: if I'm so sure I know what the best brands aren't ...why haven't I made my own list to tell the world which ones they are ? Maybe because it's not quite as easy as I'd like to imagine it is? Okay. On the surface, it's dead simple. But when you look at the reasons for disagreeing with everyone else's lists, you quickly realize you're probably going to fall into the same traps. Most notably, you're likely going to weight your list heavily based on your own preferences. There is, perhaps, no such thing as an entirely objective list of the best brands. Add to that the fact that many brands include a range of guitars from absolutely awful, t