STEEL AWAY

Some of our editors’ favorite recent-vintage acoustic guitars for most budgets — plus amps, DIs and more

IT REALLY DOESN’T matter how much of an electric player you consider yourself to be. Having an acoustic lying around is always a good conduit for creativity. Even some of the world’s heaviest metal bands — including those who’ve never been seen in the wild with anything but a black, pointy-headstocked war machine — will admit to using Martins, Taylors, Gibsons and their ilk at home for songwriting or in the studio for layering.

There’s a certain naked honesty to acoustic sounds that’s uncorrupted by other tools of the trade — and they’re a great way of seeing if your ideas hold up on their own before being “effected” and amplified or introduced into a band setting. The sound they produce is as pure as it gets: strings vibrating through a soundboard, echoing through a hole, which then projects waves through the air and into the ear.

If that sounds a bit primitive, that’s perhaps because it is; the modern acoustic comes from a long progression of stringed instruments, such as the Arab oud, the medieval lute and the Spanish vihuelas of the 16th century. Now, thanks to advances in technology over the last century, acoustic guitars aren’t limited to the sounds they create naturally — there are pickups and preamps to make sure you can be heard in just about any setting. Which is why we’ve dedicated this month’s (slightly expanded) gear roundup to all things acoustic, from amps and on-board effects units to the guitars themselves.

Let’s get started!