Have you walked in our store and seen the wall of Acoustic guitars? They come in all shapes and sizes. What does this mean, and which one is right for you? Well, let’s break it down!
The body shape will fit a certain style of playing and some of these guitars are more versatile than others. Below is a graph of different guitar shapes you may see in our store or in others. Below we give a brief description of each of these models.
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Parlor | This guitar is one of the oldest body shapes and is popular in blues and folk style music. This type is great for finger picking and is comfortable to hold. This instrument style produces good projection while also hearing the distinctive notes.
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OO | This guitar shape is slightly larger than the parlor. There are more highs and lows in the notes which provides for a larger range. There is still great definition in the notes since it is still a smaller body style.
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OOO | This is a very popular shape guitar that you might see. It is very versatile as it can be good for finger picking or strumming. This guitar can easily be played with different genres of music.
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Orchestra Model | This style offers comfortability while playing and is very versatile with different playing methods and genres. Since this body style is still on the smaller side, it has direct highs, great midrange, and clear lows. The biggest difference between the OM and the OOO is that the OM guitars usually have a longer scale. This then affects the tension and tone.
*Martin popularized both the OOO and the OM models*
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Grand Auditorium | This style is versatile as it combines the Orchestra Model with the Dreadnought style. This body style is wider on the bottom like a dreadnought but a tighter waist similar to the OM style. This is a great all-purpose guitar.
*Taylor help popularize this body style*
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Dreadnought | This style is most commonly used by singers and songwriters. It is well suited for both picking and strumming. Under the dreadnought family, there is the Sloped-Shouldered Dread. These guitars really blend together all the chords and produces a full sound.
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Jumbo | This body style is the largest and is primarily used for strumming because they have a great bass kickback. This style of guitar is often found in Country music. A Gibson SJ-200 is a good representation of this body style.
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