Rick Derris Wrote:
Anyone have any opinion on the difference between "regular" acoustic necks and "fingerstyle" neck on those Masterbilts? I realize the fingerstyle has a wider neck but I'm curious if that has a reall effect on playing or strumability. How is the sound much different between a smaller body and a "jumbo" body?
The wider neck will feel more like a classical guitar. The thinner one is closer to the feel of your tele's neck. It's really a preference, as far as I'm concerned... if you have big enough hands, then stretching across a wider neck is no big deal. My acoustic's got a thin neck, but we got them tiny midgey hands, too.
As for body size, I used to love jumbo's because they project a lot of sound, and they boom down on the low end. They sound like the whole band all at once, lots of bass. Then, when Busty and I started playing out all the time, I got to where I really think they do more harm than good in a live setting. That is, the guitar is only supposed to occupy a certain tonal range within the total output from a band, and when it has too much bass, it fights the bass or keys or even vocals for the same space. A nice tight midsize or even slightly small-bodied guitar might sound a little less like a recording of a beautiful guitar, but it would be easier to handle, lighter in weight, and would punch through a mix effortlessly.
But then you're probably gonna just strum it on the couch, so really go for whatever grabs you. The jumbo's have a great wow factor in person (how is so much sound coming from that guitar?!) but if you use the electronics live, they'll feed back sooner and take more work to stay out of everyone else's way.