Acoustic Guitars, Wood or Laminate? - Sound Comparison!

Laminate is plywood, Gents. This isn't scraps of wood pressed together. It's multiple layers of solid wood sliced thin and glued. the layers are ugly in the middle but not sawdust. Laminate is stronger than solid, but less resonant.

That EastCoast for a hundred quid is pretty damned impressive in its own way.

I don't think anyone claims the wood doesn't matter for acoustic instruments. I think the only time there's a debate is with electric instruments. For an acoustic guitar, you're literally hearing the vibration of the wood, so it wouldn't really make sense if the wood didn't have a noticeable effect on that.

It's ironic that only guitarists care about this stuff haha. Ive never heard anyone walking out of a gig muttering "it was good apart from the guitarist had a laminate acoustic and the tone was not as good as a solid top" Ive got a Martin Jonny Cash it was £700 and I believe under the matt black finish its laminate. I cant tell the difference between tone.

Haha it doesn’t matter since a fishman pickup is gonna make it sound sterile anyways

Tonewood semi matters in acoustics. Not electric. Also, Taylor GS mini that's 90% laminate with the top being the only solid piece somehow sounds a lot better than other brands like Ibanez or Guild that at least say that their 100% solid wood. To my ears anyway, and trust me, I was playing A LOT of acoustics before I settled on the GS Mini.

My Taylor is a solid top, laminate back and sides. It was the best-sounding and best playing of every guitar in the Guitar Center where I bought it of the guitars in my price range, and I played them all before choosing. My D’Angelico Excel Tammany is all solid. It doesn’t sound as good or play as well as my Taylor. They are different shapes, of course, and that makes a difference. I suppose if I’d bought an all-solid guitar instead of the Taylor, it might sound better over the years and decades, but I didn’t buy it as a tone investment; I wanted to play it when I bought it. That was about ten years ago and it still sounds great.

I think you guys are a little confused about laminates used in acoustic guitars. Laminate are super thin sheets of wood laminated together. They do manufacture wood from small tiny pieces of scrap but usually used for necks.

I have a Yamaha FG830, an LL6M A.R.E. and an LS6. These guitars are all solid top with laminate back and sides. They sound amazing.

You've opened a real can of worms, laminate to most companies is not saw dust made into a flat sheet but thinner sheets of wood bonded together, instead of a solid top that's 9/32's thick they use 3 3/32's of solid laminate glued together which is how Seagull and Taylor do it, a laminate handles temperature changes better than solid wood and tends to be a stronger structure which is why it doesn't vibrate as much as a single solid piece of wood.

Difference if any is minimal. I used to have an all-solid Larrivee. Never liked it--the tone seemed "strangled". At the same time I had a much cheaper solid top/laminated back and sides guitar. Both were parlour guitars but the difference was marked. I had the Larrivee for a couple of years to see if it would open up. It didn't so I sold it and kept the cheaper one.

@Pete, good shout about sustainability. Another thing is, you don't feel guilty about playing the laminate guitars around camp fire. My BC Rich acoustic gets a lot of love playing outside at night, sounding good, looking good, and making people happy. Thumbs up. I love you guys at Andertons! By the way, I am winning the Klon pedal, so be ready...!!!

To me, solid top sounds better, but overall playability and the skill of the player matter more to how it sounds in the end. A laminate guitar played by a good musician will always sound better than an expensive all solid wood guitar played by me 😅

Imo your comparing apples to strawberry's. The cheaper the guitar, the less time spent voicing it. If anytime at all. So you need to find a very expensive laminate highly voiced guitar. I can tell from the video that laminate one isn't voiced at all. So of course it doesn't sound as well

Tap on your soundboard with solid wood and tap on the one that doesn't have solid wood. If two guitars are properly voiced, you'll hear the difference in the sound and in the length of the guitar resonating. If still not convinced, tap on the laminated and solid sides. Once again you'll hear the difference.

I’m glad for you guys that Mr.P.R.S. wasn’t a guest in this episode!!👍😎

You're satisfied with a laminated until you try a Solid Top, then you're super excited until you try an All-Solid and then you just want more All-Solids and you never look back...

Older Yamaha Red Label Guitars are Laminated top and back and are some of the most resonate and brightly loud guitars ever made. Prices have sky rocketed on the Red Label ones because of this fact.

My experience is that if a laminate guitar gets smashed it's a goner, but a decent luthier can repair a solid wood instrument.

I think we need a blindfold test.