Myth or Fact -- Bigger Guitar Is Louder

[muscmp]

no question.
however, someone could be playing a bigger body guitar more quietly than someone beside them playing a smaller guitar loudly.

play music!

[rmyAddison]

It depends.........

12 fret Martin dreads can be monsters, but "some" small boy sizes can cut/project just as well, just not as much low end.

Louder to me is not a major decision factor at all, tone and balance are far more important to this old player.....

[rdmiller]

I'm a builder. I'm working on # 12 currently. Volume has everything to do with cavity size. And the proper sized sound hole. If it were possible to build two guitars of identical woods, bracing, soundboard from the same place, all materials the same. Let's say a parlor and a dread or super Jumbo. I assure you the larger guitar is louder.
There are many details in a build that make a great sounding guitar as well as one with volume and projection. I'm still learning about all those small details.
Comparing two different sized guitars even from the same builder or factory is not an apples to apples comparison. I have a super Jumbo and a Small Jumbo both which I built- the Small Jumbo has more volume. Why? The super is braced too tight. (one of these days I'll reach inside and make some adjustments). The Small has a torrefied top and is braced properly. It is a responsive guitar. The super doesn't sound bad but it does sound different. But it is more quiet than the SJ.


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[tonyo]

Listen to an old parlor guitar. A good one is quite loud. These were common before amplification so had to be loud.

Originally Posted by Mark Stone

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".

I officially edit this opinion lol. I just played my three guitars together, and the smallest one - the Yairi Classical - is clearly the loudest of the three, and the epi jumbo, although loud, is the quietest of the three. So for me personally, the opposite is true. But still I say, as a general assumption, fact.

[Glennwillow]

Myth or Fact -- Bigger Guitar Is Louder

There are so many aspects of guitar design that affect loudness that it's hard to draw clear conclusions. I suppose that's why there are so many differing comments here.

I would put project and loudness under different categories.

The loudest guitar I own as a Gibson Advanced Jumbo Luthier's Choice. It's also the biggest guitar I own. Because of its treble response, it also projects very well.

- Glenn

[macmanmatty]

Originally Posted by rogthefrog

How did you control the plucking force?

I used a .70mm pick and hit each one as loud as I could over D Am G A C E Em and Bm chords

[j3ffr0]

Originally Posted by Mark Stone

I officially edit this opinion lol. I just played my three guitars together, and the smallest one - the Yairi Classical - is clearly the loudest of the three, and the epi jumbo, although loud, is the quietest of the three. So for me personally, the opposite is true. But still I say, as a general assumption, fact.

lol -- I did this little test too and my results were the same as yours. I not only used my guitars, but some really nice stuff in a store too. That's why I started the thread. I wasn't entirely surprised given my experience in live sound. It takes a lot more power to drive an 18" sub and produce the low frequencies. but is it louder than a radial horn with a good 4" compression driver? I know which will make me reach for hearing protection.

[JeffreyAK]

Loudest guitar I have ever played, hands down and absolutely no comparison, is my spruce/mahogany S18 12+6 harp guitar, which probably has at least half again the top surface area and air volume of any normal guitar. It absolutely fills a large room, and my left ear rings a bit after I play it if I keep my ear too close to the second sound hole. Number 2 on the list is my S12, which is 6+6. The presence of the harp strings complicates the comparison, but I don't see how they would add volume to the guitars - they certainly reverberation.

[Mr. Jelly]

A fiddle is pretty small and loud. :-)

[Alan Carruth]

macmanmatty:
Interesting test. I'll note that in anything of this sort 'all else equal' gets to be a real consideration. You've used a variety of instruments from different manufacturers, and no doubt the design philosophies did as much, or more, to determine the outcome as the body sizes or materials. The real test would be to pit high end production or, even better, luthier built, instruments of different sizes, but otherwise similar in materials and construction, against each other.

rdmiller wrote:
"I'm a builder. I'm working on # 12 currently. Volume has everything to do with cavity size."

I'm a builder. I'm working on guitar #134 currently, with a few hundred stringed instruments of other types thrown in. I wish it were that simple...

Violins are loud because they're bowed. The bow, in effect, 'plucks' the string once for every cycle of vibration, replenishing whatever energy was lost since the last time. Nobody can move a pick that fast. Given the limited horsepower in a plucked string the problem guitar makers have is getting any sort of volume out. One result of that is that the guitar is (believe it or not) one of the more efficient musical instruments. Violin makers have the opposite problem, in some respects: how to control all the power the bow can put in. A fiddle that was as efficient as a guitar would suffer from so many 'wolf' notes as to be unplayable.

[Mr Fingers]

My experience and the tendencies of the market and players in general are consistent with macmanmatty's numbers. (The difference of a decibel or two is audible and significant -- not a small thing at all.) We always end up hearing about this one parlor guitar that was louder than my buddy's D18, etc., and of course there are oddballs, exceptions, and outliers. And yes, some builders can get get real loudness out of a smallish body, and some dreadnought builders produce surprisingly tight and unassertive instruments. But across the years and across all makers and players, it's surely the case that larger guitars produce higher sound pressures. Loads of specific exceptions, but the overall tendency is well-established, no?

[CycleBob]

I'm not a guitar builder, but i can say that it makes no sense that guitar size and volume / power isn't correlated. A guitar the size of a matchbox will not be able to move enough air to create appreciable volume.

It seems clear from the discussion that there are several other variables that are important so the correlation will be nothing like 1:1. If you tested enough guitars though you'd no doubt be able to say on average a jumbo is louder than a parlor, but I wouldn't make a big bet that any individual guitar would be louder than another based on size alone--it seems like there are many exceptions.

There are also some very good points about the perception of volume or loudness that also factor in here.

[#GoKingsGo]

I have 8 flat top guitars including a J45 Custom. Whilst it does have plenty of volume, I think my Collings OM2H-G might have louder volume as it certainly has the best tone as well. IMHO, I think materials, engineering and craftsmanship have the more effect on loudness than sheer size


Martin 00028EC Clapton Signature
Martin D18 Retro
Gibson J45 Custom
Fender Custom Shop '51 Nocaster Ltd Relic Esquire
Fender Custom Shop Eric Clapton Strat
Fender American Professional Strat
Breedlove Pursuit Nylon
Taylor Big Baby


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[bluesman62]

A myth.I have a little blueridge with a big dent in it and it is louder than most if my bigger guitars.I had a collings 01AVN It sounded like a gibson jumbo on steroids.