Myth or Fact -- Bigger Guitar Is Louder

[CharlieBman]

It's a proven fact...bigger guitars are...bigger.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by CharlieBman

It's a proven fact...bigger guitars are...bigger.

Yes but that is just the physics
And then there is the perception

[Birdbrain]

Today after the bluegrass jam, the mando player approached me to say, "That new guitar of yours really sounds LOUD." I took that as a good thing. He should know because his Flatiron F-style mandolin is one of the loudest I've ever heard. I've been attending this acoustic jam for over a year, playing a changing assortment of guitars: Seagull Folk and Mini Jumbo models, two Tacoma Little Jumbos and even a Tacoma Chief, which did sound loud to me because of the offset soundhole aimed at my ear. But I always wanted louder, because the room is large an un-acoustic and the group, which sometimes reaches two dozen players, includes a piano that's capable of playing as loud as, you know, a piano. None of my other acoustics got that kind of reaction before. I was digging it too, from the deep bass to the crisp, strong trebles. So what was this might guitar?

Since I abhor dreadnaughts, it had to be a 17" Tacoma Jumbo- "big around the middle, and broad across the rump," as the song goes. It was the top of the Tacoma line 16 years ago, with a spruce top and solid koa body, plus about a half square foot of abalone across the fingerboard. It moves air and kicks tail with the vey best I played. It's a big guitar, and sounds like it.

Tow of the smallest sound big for their size -- the Simon & Patrick Pro Folk, and the Tacoma Chief. But that's a different thing.

[Robin, Wales]

As has been said within this thread... Bigger bodied guitars are only louder in some frequencies. And I find that dreads can lack focus and be "messy" for me in some playing situations. I like punchy articulation when I play, and am usually using a capo. So my acoustic archtop and 000 stand out on stage better than my D-18. I mic' rather than plug in, so I'm acutely aware of the timbre a guitar produces that the mic' then amplifies. And I have found it a lot easier to mic' a 000 and get a solid clarity foh than a dread.

I play a lot of concerts without a pa. And again I will choose my 000 to reach the back of the room for my playing styles (flat picking or Travis picking) rather than my D-18. A dread is particularly weak when capo'd up above the 4th fret compared to my 000.

Overall, my D-18 was a "loud" Martin dread - pretty much exactly as expected. But its volume was not useful for me in the register where it sat - it certainly got 'lost' in the band mix. My acoustic archtop and 000 are better stage guitars. The archtop in particular spits out notes with a precision that cuts through in a bar room. And my 000 has better attack than the dreads l have had.

Dreads = louder..... But not always a usable "loud".

[DCCougar]

Guild JF30-12. 17.25" wide lower bout, 5.5" depth at endpin. Braceless arched lam maple back. LOUD.

[PinkLine]

This is what happens when you ask opinionated people to provide simple answers regarding a complex matter they may not understand. But if you insist on a simple answer: "It depends."

[Leocino_2804]

Everything else the same, the bigger one is louder, IMHO

Having that said, everything else includes alot of things, including the build quality.