What makes a guitar a 'Work Horse'?

[Rosewood99]

I guess any guitar could be called a workhorse. They all have saddles don’t they?

[Oldguy64]

Originally Posted by Davis Webb

Solid legacy guitars are called work horses. What makes them that?

For me, my J45 has features that make it that for me

a. short scale length, can play longer without fatigue, easier to play
b. tone is good for most genres of music, even balance
c. light weight

By contrast, my Larrivee D40 is

a. heavier strings
b. distinctive sound

and so I view it as a speciality guitar for composition in my case.

What makes one for you?

Or is the saying meaningless? For something meaningless you sure hear it alot.

I don’t “gig” per se.
But I used to play at church every Sunday.
I consider a “workhorse” the guitar I can grab, walk on stage and plug in and go.
The ability to plug and play is essential.

[jseth]

I'd say that a work-horse guitar would be one that "does it all"... one that accommodates all the styles I choose to play, that sounds great strummed, fingerstyle, single notes, all of it. Those are the things that I look for in a guitar... and those are the things that I have in my one 6 string acoustic guitar!

Only having the one guitar really makes the choice very easy!

[Mark Stone]

I would say your workhorse is your go-to --- the guitar you reach for most frequently.

[CollingsPicker]

Originally Posted by lowrider

What makes a guitar a workhorse? The marketing department!

This. I was going to post the same but thought I’d read responses first.

[BluesKing777]

A real workhorse/road warrior acoustic guitar is the Maton 808 size with AP5-Pro dual source pickup system in a Maton brand Hiscox case. Done! Hit the road!

TE has his custom shop versions made x 3 but it is basically a Maton 808 still...just hand made instead of factory. But he does his own easy setup/repairs on the move!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a8OeqEVklM


BluesKing777.

[L20A]

My work Horse is my GPC-16 Special Rosewood Martin.
It is slightly smaller than a Dreadnought but has a huge punch.

It sounds great both acoustically and plugged in.
Light weight and with light gauge strings, it's a joy to fret.

This guitar does everything that I ask it to do.

[1stGuitar]

Originally Posted by Nymuso

I can’t be quite that analytical. For me a workhorse guitar is the first guitar you reach for unless there’s a reason not to.

^^^^^^^
Ditto. Can’t think of a reason to not agree.

[Wade Hampton]

Rather than try to define a workhorse guitar for everyone, I think we have our own workhorses that work for each of us.

My workhorse guitar is a 1998 Larrivee OM-03W that I was able to pick out at the Vancouver factory. It’s got an LR Baggs RT pickup and onboard preamp that sounds good and is easy to dial in, and I can play just about any of the songs that I know and pull them off.

It’s a very plain guitar, no frills to it at all, and I paid wholesale cost for it, so I don’t worry about taking it anywhere.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Bushleague]

My definition is a guitar where its tone quality is quite high in relation to how much I care about said instrument.

If the tone quality scores twice as high as the amount of concern I have for its wellbeing then that guitar is a good workhorse IMO.

[Rosewood99]

I would think a work horse guitar would be one that could do everything for a long time. As opposed to a thoroughbred guitar that might do one thing very well.


The definition of workhorse is a horse or machinery that performs dependently over a long period of time.

[Davis Webb]

Great replies....I agree with much that has been said and more importantly understand what you said.

I found also that the Taylor 314ce is a workhorse....I take my J45 and the Taylor to each gig in case a string breaks.

That is what I have found too, the idea that it sounds good doing anything and is rugged.

[ewalling]

Originally Posted by sstaylor58

I believe Taylor has called their 314ce their workhorse, which I would agree with. It does everything it’s more expensive brethren do but with less flash. It is a simple, practical, durable and great sounding guitar.

Taylor's marketing plan seems to be to get the same customer to buy various Taylors up and down its food chain. No other maker works as hard to make this happen. A primary method has been to sell the 'variety-of-tonewood' thing. "Wood and Steel" alerts us to the 'striking' differences between various tonewoods from time to time.

The 300 series instruments have been called an 'entry-level' all-solid wood guitars, no doubt to tempt the buyer to scale the dizzy (and expensive!) heights of 'non-entry' instruments. Calling them 'workhorses' probably has a slightly pejorative nuance to it: if you're 'merely' playing a workhorse, why not treat yourself to a little of the really good stuff?

[Tony Burns]

Their will be multiple opinions- and they are all correct !

To me :

Well built
Decent tone and spot on tonation
affordable ( for a working musician -were not all famous and wealthy )

Ive always though of guitars like the older American made Guild D-25 as a good example . they sell any where from 200 to 1000 used
( depending on their condition ) mine is hot rodded ( new bone saddle - and tuner upgrade -plus tonation tweak )
if I had to travel with a guitar -that's the one Id take ( and it wont let me down )




.

[zombywoof]

I never even heard a Gibson J45 referred to as a "workhorse" until Bozeman started using it as a marketing strategy.

If any guitar deserved this moniker though my vote goes for the Harmony Sovereign H1260. The kind of guitar which you would have no problem carrying around slung across your back but sounded so good when you swiveled it around to play.