Myth or Fact -- Bigger Guitar Is Louder
 

I invite folks to share their opinions here. Myth or fact?

For me it's a total myth. My little H&D 00sp is the loudest steel string I've ever played including many a Martin, Taylor, H&D,as well as a good many Gibsons, some Collings and Mcpherson too. I have taken my little 00sp into a store with a nice selection of good guitars, and it was louder than anything else in there I played. The other really loud guitar I have is my nylon stringed Córdoba. In my pretty broad experience, guitar size has no correlation to volume whatsoever. It does correlate to some really nice lows, however.

Generally speaking fact, but with a lot of exceptions. My Dread Gibson is substantially louder than my jumbo Epi. But as a general thing, I would say "fact".

Myth. While it can be a major factor, projection of a guitar has a LOT to do with type of wood on the sound board, body style/design, and even bracing style. Size can be a factor, but it is definitely not everything.

In my limited experience ... absolute fact.

Limited experience
 

I've owned about 20 guitars and the loudest by a mile is the dreadnaught - my largest guitar.

In the Martin family my O.M. Is louder than the larger Grand Performance size.

So I guess it depends.

I would have to say that, all else being equal, it is a fact. But the truth is, all else is seldom equal. That being said, my fairly new Greven 0000 is really stinking loud!!! Holy smokes!

A small guitar filled with air is louder than a big guitar filled with down.

Lots of factors here.
Sound hole size, wood, bracing, build quality, action, strings and on and on.

I've had/have guitars that are quite loud at the expense of the bass end.

I'd suspect that two guitars, of the same wood, same everything but size, would have the larger guitar louder.

However adjustments might skew that if you changed the sound hole size, etc.

I once read that a larger sound hole made more bass but a smaller sound hole gave more volume. Or it it the other way around? It's too late, I'm getting sleepy.

In the recent small guitars thread that I started, people were talking about the "projection" of small guitars. I must confess that it is not quite clear to me how to differentiate between "projection" and "loudness".

I have not played all that many guitars but feel that my current big guitar gets loud unless I play very gently. A small guitar recently surprised me, but it had a sound port.

Can a bigger guitar be played louder?
Probably.

But at a given level of attack, a smaller guitar may very well be louder.
In my hands, some small guitars can be pretty loud, and dreads tend to be very quiet. Soft fingerpickers may agree, most flatpickers/strummers will probably disagree.

Provided that other factors or circumstances remain the same I would say bigger guitar is louder.

If you listen to David Rawlings play with Gilliam Welch, David plays a small bodied arch top, Gillian a J45 or a dread, there's no question that the smaller guitar is louder but its an upper mid heavy sound that is mostly fundamental and less about overtones and sustain. Same for the Milk Carton Kids with Kenneth's 00 Martin against Joeys J45 (old j45s aren't typically quiet guitars).

In my own experience, larger/deeper bodies have more bass and a rounder, fuller sound that seems louder for the player but less so for the audience and smaller guitars have a more piercing sound that can sound really rich and full to the player, but not so full to the audience. So I guess Im in the 'myth' crowd.

BTw, small sound holes give more bass but less projection, just like porting in a speaker.

Mostly. (I expected Gibson's J200 to be a lot louder than it was given its size when I picked one up to play though).

It seems to me that it's not the size but the depth...larger guitars tend to have deeper bodies so body depth may be confounding the apparent loudness of larger bodies.

Phil

Sometimes I get the impression that you guys don't understand the whole purpose of guitar designs.


It is a myth ....partially.

Guitars were designed for the size of the audience/venue.

Size 0 for the small concert - lounge, size 00 for "grand concert" and 000 for "auditorium".

The later sizes like the Martin dreadnought and Gibson jumbo were designed as rhythm instruments for accompaniment in bands - string to dance, etc. They tended to be less balanced but with more bass projection.

Then the archtop took its seat as part of the rhythm section as a semi percussive instrument.