Best Guitar For Songwriting : 7 Essentials to Consider Before Buying

A songwriter needs a guitar which is easy to use in different environments. So it doesn't need to be loud or special, but it does need to score high on playability and usefulness. It needs to be portable and light, and of good enough quality to inspire creativity.

Table of Contents

1. 1. Acoustic or electric

2. 2. Which is Best, Nylon or Steel Strings ?

3. 3. Neck Width

4. 4. Built in Pickup or Plain Acoustic ?

5. 5. Body Shape

6. 6. Other Options

7. 7. How Much to Spend

1. Acoustic or electric ?

For the majority of songwriters an acoustic guitar is the best choice for the following reasons.

1. 1. It's lighter.

2. 2. You don't need electricity or cables or amplifiers.

3. 3. It's much easier to just pick up and play when you have a flash of inspiration.

4. 4. It's easier to take to school or work or round to your friend's house.

5. 5. The neck will be wider so it will be easier to play a fingerpicking style.

6. 6. You won't get distracted by salesmen trying to sell you expensive effects pedals.

7. 7. Your parents, granny, wife, auntie and uncle are much more likely to pay for it.

8. 8. It will smell nicer - seriously !

9. 9. On the whole, acoustic is more accessible and user friendly.

When To choose an electric.

If you're writing jazz, rock, rock and roll, or metal. Then you'll need an electric. But you'll only need an electric for putting riffs and textures together or performing. The chances are you'll still need something user friendly and accessible for actual songwriting.

If you only have the budget for one guitar, make sure you're absolutely certain that you're a metal head / jazz freak before committing to realm of Volts and Amps. Electric guitars are made for guitarist rather than songwriters.

2. Which is Best, Nylon or Steel Strings ?

Assuming you're going for acoustic, they come in two flavours and this is very much a matter of personal choice. But, there are a few of technical considerations which I'll get right into.

Which is louder ?

Most people will tell you that steel strings are louder. Well, that's debatable and only true if you use thicker strings and have a big guitar. And in any case, loudness is not something you should get excited about. Playability is much more important.

And that brings me nicely on to why you should give nylon a try. Thick steel strings are not user friendly, they're hard on your fingers especially when you are learning or playing a lot. Thin, light gauge steel strings are very easy to play but the quality of sound suffers; they are quiet and tinny. On the whole nylon is much easier to get along with.

Can't I just swap the strings ?

With some steel string guitars, you could put nylon strings on them. But if you put steel strings on a guitar designed for nylon, it will bend out of shape or even collapse under the extra tension. DON'T TRY THIS.

Also with steel, there is a bamboozling array of guitar body shapes which make choosing one confusing. I explain these choices later in the article - with nylon, the body of the guitars are pretty similar so it's not as confusing.

On the whole, it comes down to what you prefer. Steel strings sound brighter and nylon is easier to play. Those are your choices.

3. Neck width

I mentioned 'playability' and neck width is the number one consideration when it comes to playability.

Songwriters generally, don't need to be able make lots of fast chord changes like you might with a thin-necked electric guitar. Nor do they usually play intricate detailed passages with the pin point accuracy of a full width classical guitar.

No, 95% of the time a songwriter needs something in between which allows them to do a bit of both.

Don't under estimate the importance of this. If you end up with a guitar which feels horrible and doesn't fit your hand, you'll be fighting with it for as long as you own it. So, think long term, if a guitar feels wrong, reject it.

I'll have to introduce some guitar terms now.

When we say 'neck width,' we measure it at the thinnest point which is where the strings gather to go over the 'nut' and onto the 'tuning pegs' or 'headstock.'

So the 'nut width' is the same as 'neck width' as far as this article is concerned.

Neck widths & Nut widths. Small, medium or large ?

A songwriter needs a neck which isn't too small, and isn't too large. Any of the middle sizes is ok with the upper middle range, that is 45mm to 48 mm, being optimum.

A songwriter is bound to experiment and this size of neck makes the guitar flexible enough to cope with most styles and genres, and easy play.

4. Built in Pickup or Plain Acoustic ?

You can buy almost any model of guitar with either a pickup or without.

You might get a slightly better sounding guitar if you choose not to have a pickup, but I wouldn't recommend it.

As a songwriter you need a guitar which you can use in as many environments as possible. It's better to have a cheaper guitar which you can play in any situation than one which sounds great but you can't plug in.

You need to be able to play your song anytime, any place and seriously, a small difference in the quality of instrument is totally undermined if you have to then mess about with mics or outboard pickups.

Your songs are too important to be silenced by a 'pure bred' axe which can't cut it. So always buy a guitar with a built in, factory fitted pickup, you will not regret it.

The best type of pickup for acoustic guitar is the type which blends a microphone with some kind of piezo or vibration pickup. They are expensive and if you don't have the budget - you may have to settle for an 'imagining sytem' or just getting a standard one.

Imaging Systems

A recent arrival on the pickup scene is the image pickup. It's a very comprehensive equalizer which attempts to match your guitar with what it would sound like in a perfect recording environment. They're very good and a cheaper, more useable alternative to a microphone.

5. Body Shape - Dreadnought, Jumbo, Parlour, Roundback, ooo, oo, om, Oh No !

All of the above body shapes are variations of the steel strung acoustic.

This is what they look like. The only ones to avoid are the big Dreadnoughts or Jumbos. Bigger guitars are bit of a handful if you're small and have a weak voice.

Even if you have a strong voice, I wouldn't recommend a big guitar for a songwriter because they are too loud, especially in the bass.

You might think loud is good, I can assure you it isn't. Because when you go into a room and start playing your big guitar, you'll need to have a voice like an opera singer to be heard over it. And you won't know it's too loud because guitars are built to project the sound away form you. It's a stupid design flaw which some manufacturers are trying to correct.

Also, when you come to record your songs or play live, you'll always have more problems with feedback and booming room modes with a big guitar.

Trust me, spend your money on a better guitar, not a louder one.

If you're tempted by nylon strings your choice is more simple. Apart from the Gypsy Jazz which is a little on the large side, almost all nylon string guitars are perfect for songwriting.

A grand concert Spanish classical is a bit over the top as it's built for solo performance, not to play a supporting role. But you could use any nylon strung guitar, even a flamenco.

A word about round backs.

Round back guitars made by Ovation are actually very good sounding instruments and are the right tone and size. But I can't recommend them for two reasons.

The shape of the back means they are really difficult to keep stable, the newer ones with contour bowl are great but you still can't turn it over and use it as a desk to scribble your brilliant lyrics on to a piece of paper.

But the main reason is that nearly all of them have very narrow necks at 43mm. If you're dead set on getting one I suggest only the 'Folklore' version is anything like wide enough (45mm) for most players. And it does have an 'imaging' pickup, so that's a big plus.

I've owned several and gave up with them because they're too narrow necked and they keep wandering off your lap onto the floor.

6. Other Options

Baritone Guitar.

A baritone guitar is a big guitar with a lower register than standard. It's a bit specialized so I can't really recommend it for most songwriters.

However, because it has a lower register, it can be the perfect instrument for big people with a deep voice. The reason being, the male voice is usually pretty much in the same register as a standard guitar. This can mean you always end up with bass-heavy muddy sound.

With a baritone guitar, the instrument plays lower so a guy can sing slightly higher than the guitar, so it gives a nicer mix. But it's a bit of a handful so is not for everyone.

Tenor Guitar.

Tenor guitar is higher in pitch than a standard. It only has four strings, a small body and is usually strummed like a ukulele.

These are great for people who can't be bothered with six strings and just want to lay down a decent rhythm. They're also good for small hands and folks on a budget, although some are pretty pricey.

Easier to play, easier to get along with: worth considering.

Ukulele

Four, six or eight strings, very small body, and even easier to get along with than the Tenor Guitar.

Great for children and those unsure about if they're musician or not. Ukulele is massive in the UK and their are groups in every town.

Oddly, if you can write good songs with a Uke, then they always go down well and are respected because the instrument is simple and it doesn't get in the way of the song.

You can get Ukuleles with electric pickups.

3/4 and 7/8 size guitar

For people under 10 - 12, you can get 3/4 or 7/8 size guitars.

These are a better introduction to guitar than Tenor or Uke because both those have different tunings and different chord shapes to a standard guitar.

A 3/4 or 7/8 is tuned the same as a standard, has the same number of strings and so you don't have to learn a whole new set of chord shapes when you move up to a full sized model.

This is a real pain in the you know what so it's best to avoid that happening and get a 3/4 or 7/8.

7. How Much to Spend

Emotional and Musical Feedback From the Guitar

When you own a beautiful instrument which looks, sounds and smells good, you can't help but pick it up.

And when you play and hear and feel the nice noise coming out of it, you don't want to be anywhere else.

A good instrument will never cease to amaze you; how it responds to every nuance in your playing and how easy it is to make a nice noise.

This is how you want to feel about your guitar. Loving it, longing to pick it up and not even looking at others because you know it's the right one. This allows you to get on with using it and enjoying.

Wood

There are two main issues which affect the quality of a guitar and one of those is the wood it's made of.

And it's not necessarily the type wood, that only tends to effect how bright or mellow the sound is. It's more to do with whether it's laminated sheets glued together, or solid.

Guitars with solid front back and side are almost always much richer and fuller sounding. Laminated ones are cheaper and usually lacking in overtones and undertones.

Very expensive guitars are often made from Brazilian Rosewood, but we don't need to go that extreme for a songwriting guitar.

Electrics

The other big cost in guitar building is the quality of the electric pickups because acoustic guitars are tricky things amplify.

Even very cheap guitars have half decent pickups these days - but they are half decent - good enough, but not ideal. The sound they produce is often thwacky, thin and prone to feedback.

The best pickups comprise both a microphone and piezo or vibration mix. They are called 'blends' or 'mix' and you'll have a control knob to vary the sound between mic and piezo. This is the type of pickup you should go for. They sound very natural and they'll handle most situations you'll encounter.

A second best is the 'image' type I mentioned earlier. They're very good and a cheaper, to a microphone blend.

Custom Finish

Guitar makers are very good at adding value to their products. But a custom version of any guitar is not going to sound any different to the standard model. It will just look different. Don't be fooled.

Spend your money on other gear rather than a fancy finish or anniversary model. They're sometimes double the price of a standard and in terms of playability and quality, you get nothing return.

A brief summary

To sum up, you're looking for a steel or nylon strung acoustic guitar with solid back, front and sides with a blend or mix pickup.

You may be offered a choice of spruce or cedar or mahogany etc, I'd choose the brightest sounding which is usually spruce because it's easier to hear what you're playing.

All this amounts to at least $ 2,000 worth of guitar. When it comes to guitars, this is the high end of budget buys. You could pay $ 10,000 or more but that's not what a songwriter needs so I wouldn't recommend it.

Nearly all guitars have pick up and non pick up versions - be sure you know exactly what you're getting before you buy. These prices are for the versions with pick ups and were correct in April 2022.

Recommendations

Nylon strung guitars require fewer braces and less structural strength. So all things being equal, they should be cheaper. You do tend to get better value for money compared to steel strung.

Here's my recommendations.

Best Buy For Nylon Strings : Yamaha NTX5 = $ 1,900

Features 48mm neck, solid back and sides, mic blend pickup.

Best Buy For Steel Strings : Martin 00-18 = $ 2,700

Features 45mm neck, solid walnut construction, comes with a wide choice of pickup options which includes a mic blend. BUT NOTE THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO SPECIFY THE BLEND PICK OPTION AND IT WILL ADD FEW HUNDRED TO THE PRICE.