who makes the LOUDEST but still GREAT sounding guitar?

Al Watsky

The quest for loud is at an impasse , I've played instruments from the late 30's that were as loud as modern instruments despite the modern instruments "scientific approach". As far as the lust for volume goes, IMO its a dead end. Unless your playing around a campfire you will have a mic or pickup broadcasting your sound to the world. If your in your living room its almost certain that your guitar what ever it may be is already loud enough! I guess we all know its fun to have the loudest guitar in the room , the feeling that You Won is priceless , I know, but ? Response is everything , volume and tone are less important and highly subjective qualities.
The quest goes on.
Actually happily the guitars I own are all loud enough ! Yeah !
Guitars are great, lets celebrate !

pickitjohn

Dell Arte-Swing Gitan 42

Dell Art'e swing 42 studio model with indian rosewood back and sides,and a cedar top. this guitar is nothing short of a cannon. one of the loudest guitars i have seen yet. spectacular gypsy tone cuts right thru with fantastic high ends, and a superb bass registry. the best way to describe this guitar is LOUD, LOUD, LOUD......comes with a guardian hard shell case.

with @adrian in the Demo, long gone to ?

Jazzaferri

Hmmm....just measured my DuPont and the Db meter app on my iPad reads the peaks n single notes at just over 100 and the average to be around 95. Chords are a few Db louder.

72 Db seems low as a telephone dial tone at ones ear is 80 Db according to the chart I read. Now I need to find a reference quality meter and test my app.

Craig Bumgarner

I suspect guitar volume would be hard to measure consistently in the field as the variables are numerous and hard to control. The main one is the pluck (or strum). For the measurements to be consistent, the pluck has to be exactly the same every time. There are surely ways of doing this mechanically, but very hard to do with normal playing by hand. We all know how some players play louder than others. At least some other variables includes the distance from the measuring device, the room, the orientation of the guitar, the measuring device itself, strings, pick material & shape, angle of attack, where the string is plucked relative to the bridge, which notes, pluck or strum, etc. It gets complicated quickly.

Getting a system standardized sufficiently that handful of players in different locations could accurately compare their guitars might be out of reach at this point. It would probably work at the extremes, but who needs a meter for that.

On the other hand, we all know it when we hear it. When it's loud it's LOUD. Maybe that's all we really need.

Bones

I would think that a louder guitar is easier to amplify in a concert situation (i.e. less gain needed = less chance for feedback)??

dennis

i think this is a really complicated question to answer, with way too many variables that can affect how one perceives loudness on a guitar..

for starters, it depends on how the player plays the instrument... you give just about any decent acoustic guitar to tschawolo schmitt and he'll make it scream! he 'll probably break a few strings while he's at it.

then there's the perception of loudness from the player's perspective... i've played guitars that i thought weren't loud when i was playing them, but then one someone else played them and i was listening from the front , they sounded quite loud! i've had similar experiences, when people were recording me play, i couldn't hear my guitar and thought that no one else could hear me too, but then when i listen to the recording, i hear myself quite well!!!

and then some instruments have a bit more high end, so the notes cut through better than bassier instruments

i think, ultimately, in the end though, is how one plays the instrument!

generally a lot of the gypsy guitars that i've tried are fairly loud, it would be easier for me to name the GJ guitars that i thought were not loud at all, but then i would not dare say such things publicly!!!

Al Watsky

Sensitive guitars , loud ones are often the hardest to amplify using pickups.
So a loud guitar or one with lush bass response, with a pickup attached, can require lots of EQ post pickup. A more penetrating sound is better , with rolled off lows, its easier to use.
Thats just how it is sometimes.
A guitar just has to be loud enough.
If the player can hear it under most circumstances they will be OK.
Thats why Busatos and other bright balanced guitars are a pleasure to use . On a loud stage though , especially with drummers or horns unless your lucky, you will need a monitor of some sort for your guitar to remain audible to you.
An acoustic guitar will never be loud enough in some circumstances.
I was on a live sound stage not too long ago with an acoustic guitar , a rather shrill instrument, but clear , nothing will allow you to overcome a bass drum, I was inaudible to myself but the room mic picked up the guitar, it went to tape. So this idea of the perception of loudness can be tricky.
A guitar is pretty quiet.

Jazzaferri

If one were going to make this a scientific experiment, one would need an anechoic chamber, a special microphone costing thousands, and a wave form analyzer that is capable of analyzing the spl of the frequency spectrum and track against time and building a plucking machine. Which oddly enough would not be that difficult.

All very doable. I can think of a few Universities with sound labs that have that gear. Trick would be knowing a prof and getting him and some (probably Masters level ) student interested in such an experiment as their masters thesis. That would require some serious thought as to why.

anthon_74

My alta mira is a volume cannon, and sounds great to my ears. I'm guessing that means the Manouche Latcho drom Nuages model is probably pretty loud as well.

Jim Kaznosky

Another vote for Craig's Derecho model. In Thomas Baggerman's first rhythm class at DiJ, when it was my turn to do an exercise, heads certainly turned.