$2,150 vs $390

[trumpets]

To my ear guitar #2 sounded exactly $1760 better than guitar #1.

[Mr Bojangles]

I could venture a guess, but it wouldn't be worth much... besides, I'd have a 50/50 chance of being right!

They both sound good.

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by JackC1

Just wondering, classical or flamenco guitars? They definitely sound different and have different characteristics of sound that's considered good.

That's a good point Jack. I'd say that today I heard more non-flamenco players out on the streets. The best player was in one of the back alleyways of the Santa Cruz area in front of a small street restaurant. He was playing without any amplification, just using the resonance of the courtyard. The diners and passers by were silent, just soaking up the ambience. Just a wonderful moment.

[Br1ck]

I walked into Gryphon a couple of decades ago, and a long time employee, Tom Culbertson, was playing a beautiful classical guitar piece. I asked him what that beautiful guitar was. Turned out it was a student rental, value, $100. It's not the guitar guys. Sure he'd sound better on a $3k guitar. I doubt I would.

[TBman]

Many picked the guitars correctly. The $2,150 guitar, Cordoba C12 was the 2nd guitar and the 1st guitar was the Cordoba C5.

I could have thrown in the Cordoba Fusion ($900), just to shake things up

[Methos1979]

It's really hard to compare the two since you played two different songs. A better exercise would have been to play the exact same song recorded as closely to each other as possible. That said, I found I much preferred the #1 guitar sound but that could very well be because the song played was less 'busy' and had more room to breathe.

[JackC1]

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

I'd say that today I heard more non-flamenco players out on the streets.

I mentioned flamenco because the first sound sample has more of that characteristics. It's got this very direct and more percussive sound to it vs the 2nd sample (which now, after the reveal of the guitars, makes some sense since it's a laminate guitar).

Friday, I went to San Francisco, and the busking musicians seem to be out in force that day. Must be the 74-degree weather and sunny day. They definitely make the places more enjoyable.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

It's really hard to compare the two since you played two different songs. A better exercise would have been to play the exact same song recorded as closely to each other as possible. That said, I found I much preferred the #1 guitar sound but that could very well be because the song played was less 'busy' and had more room to breathe.

They have different strings on them as well, which is another can of worms. The bracing on the more expensive guitar is different as well. It's also all solid wood where the less expensive one is solid top only.

It's just for fun anyway, nothing scientific about this at all.

[Hexcore]

Originally Posted by Rosewood99

I would be dubious about making judgments from recordings that most people are listening to on computer speakers.

I agree with this. Our brains can compensate a whole lot, but that does not change the fact that there are profound differences between what is delivered live, through the air, in the presence of a resonating guitar, and what is delivered by any sound system, particularly digitized and computer-mounted. On this forum devoted to acoustic guitars, I'm sure I'm just stating old news. Personally, I find this difference (being present with the guitar vs. hearing playback online) to be so enormous that the supposed differences between the guitars is negligible in comparison. Any recorded acoustic guitar sounds really crappy to me on playback unless the system is really excellent, which is virtually never the case.

[jmagill]

Originally Posted by Rosewood99

I would be dubious about making judgments from recordings that most people are listening to on computer speakers.

Precisely so. These are comparisons of sound clips.
No telling what the actual guitars would really sound like in your hands...
.

[stormin1155]

Really hard to tell from the recordings. I once did a recording comparing five of my guitars. All very different... different woods, different body sizes, different price points... I could clearly hear the differences playing them, but on the recording they pretty much sounded the same. In fact some thought it was all the same guitar.

Both of yours sound great on the recording, but I doubt that you'll be selling your $2,100 guitar because the $390 one sounds just as good...

[sinistral]

One other twist in all this is that some guitars record “better” than others (or at least the sound of some guitars is harder to capture on a recording). So while you may prefer the sound of guitar A to guitar B in person, you may prefer the recorded sound of guitar B to guitar A.

[koolimy]

Thank you for this experiment! Honestly, both guitars sounded lovely, mostly because you played so beautifully.

I preferred #2, which turned out to be the more expensive guitar, but I think you did a lot more processing with the 2nd guitar, right? There's lot more reverb, maybe even delay!

#1 had what I think of as the "cheap classical guitar" sound. But honestly, it suits the song so well, and is beautiful in its own right.

You set out to show how poor playing equalizes the guitars, but I think it's the opposite... Good playing brings out the beauty in each guitar!

[TBman]

Originally Posted by koolimy

Thank you for this experiment! Honestly, both guitars sounded lovely, mostly because you played so beautifully.

I preferred #2, which turned out to be the more expensive guitar, but I think you did a lot more processing with the 2nd guitar, right? There's lot more reverb, maybe even delay!

#1 had what I think of as the "cheap classical guitar" sound. But honestly, it suits the song so well, and is beautiful in its own right.

You set out to show how poor playing equalizes the guitars, but I think it's the opposite... Good playing brings out the beauty in each guitar!

Thanks. There is a different reverb used in the 2nd piece (and more of it).

[Brent Hutto]

I wouldn't have even ventured a guess about the relative quality or price of the guitars. But FWIW, I enjoyed the second clip "Orion" a lot and the first clip, not as much.