what to buy? acoustic or semi acoustic

Very different sounds. All nice, just different.

Semi-acoustic electrics have a very electric sound, anything from Chet Atkins to BB King to Pat Simmons of the Doobie Brothers.

Acoustic with a pickup - acoustic, but not ideal sound. These are good for when there is a lot of ambient sound that needs to be dealt with. There are a lot of different pickup styles out there, some sound very good, but are not cheap.

Acoustic with a good condenser mic (or maybe two) - ideal acoustic sound, but very sensitive to ambient sound.


I'll leave the details to the experts on this forum - we have many here.

ORIGINAL: maharzan
i am having a dilema whther to but a acoustic guitar and record using a mike or just buy a semi acoustic... whose sound is better... does anyone know?
thx

If you will ever need a real sounding guitar track go with an acoustic and a mic. Semi acoustics with pickups were not designed to be used for recording, they are just for live performance. If you buy an acoustic / electric you will be able to choose both sounds. Most brands offer a built in pickup and it adds $100 or so to the price depending on the make. If I had to pick one guitar for recording it would be a Taylor. They are expensive but worth it. Taylor guitars have a nice brassy sound with just the right about of tone without being boomy or having too much "thud" to the bass strings.