5 Great Big Bodied Acoustic Guitars For Under £350!

[@Ari_Calamari]

Wow, this honesty was really refreshing. I feel like Andertons can be very «salesman»-like sometimes, not wanting to anger guitar manufacturers. But this seemed quite honest without being rude to the Brands.

[@TheHumbuckerboy]

I really appreciate this guy's honesty. The Epiphone's looks stood out immediately for me but it didn't sound pleasing whereas the Sigma mahogany guitar looks dreary but sounded wonderful here. The Larry Carlton is probably my overall favourite of the guitars featured. Mind you, I may just choose the Alvarez !

[@popkorn256]

Yeah, you're spot on dude! Though I kinda disliked the Epiphone's look :)

[@TungstenOvergaard]

This is the kind of videos we need. Honesty at 100%. I’m tired of videos where everything is great and amazing.

[@ibalrog]

Great playing and honest insight from Ben, and props to the recording and editing team - sharp, clean, clear, and well annotated.

[@MadMarchTaffy]

was not expecting to, but I really liked the Sigma

[@VernonFullerMusic]

Great review Ben! You didn't mention it but I'm sure you know that the Sire not only has a Piezo under saddle pick up but also an internal condenser mic. The three soft touch knobs are 1) Pick Up Blend Knob to dial in how much Piezo or microphone is wanted 2) Main Volume 3) EQ Searcher which allows you to increase the treble and mids and reduce the bass level or vice versa. As you have mentioned on another Sire review the Sire electro acoustics have what they call the SIB pick up system (Simple Is Best).

[@oceanblue1886]

What a great review, refreshingly honest and open but never mind the review - this guy can play!!!! Wow I could watch the review again for just the playing parts…

[@weedywet]

Bravo to you and Anderton's for being willing to actually criticize the instruments you're reviewing. that's a real review!

[@HC_GUITAR]

For £50 more you could get a brilliant Faith naked neptune baby jumbo! All Solid Wood.

[@gordonbuss3981]

I love the way Andersons are honest about stuff. I do love my Epiphone Dove bought used though.

[@lowellcalavera6045]

Sigma is a treasure you never see in the US. I picked up a solid Sitka /and rosewood 000-28 copy in Germany. One of the best guitars I've ever owned.

[@Lalairu]

I found an 00015m Sigma for 270 euros time ago. Could not afford it anyway, didn't have any money saved. I wish I could go back again XD also they could put the old decal too. Take care of your Sigma :)

[@yamahamusicians]

Nice to see someone not trying to "sell" you a guitar but just giving an honest opinion. And I have to say I agree. The Alvarez sounds surprisingly good for the price point and would also be my first choice followed by the Sire, which I think is the best-looking of the bunch. I would not spend my money on the others.

[@vendome6846]

I agree the Alvarez is best sonically in terms of dynamic range, I like the Sigma mahogany too.

[@patrickoneill9659]

Sire all the way. What a great-sounding guitar. It would cut nicely through a band as well.

[@chrisggoodwin777]

I neither want nor need a new acoustic, nor do I know anyone in the market for one, but I continue to watch these videos to hear Ben and his fantastic playing 😁

[@tmeyer2022]

Good reviews. I have minor differences in preference, but then I'm an amatuer, not professional. Alvarez AD30CE - Impressive, like the comments about playability. Sigma DM-15 - Full booming low end - no brightness in trebel end. My least favorite but still good. Epiphone Dove Studio - Good bright treble, Crisp tones overall. Fender Redondo - My personal choice - crisp low end, bright treble, Tuner could be more accurate. Sire A3 - Very impressive.

[@chrisgray4785]

This video made me buy that Sire Larry Carlton 🙌🏻🎸

[@judosailor610]

I always thought Ibanez made a great low end acoustic guitar. one of my first guitars was an Ibanez $199 special that I bought off a friend for 100 bucks. Loved that thing. Would like to see a decent Ibanez in this lineup for comparison.

[@petethompson3510]

Super! Honest reviews! I agree on the Epi and Fender being lower down the scale in terms of tone

[@Thomas0661]

I would pan the Sigma and the Alvarez L and R and call it a day. IF you want, you could use the Epiphone to do the "Nashville tuning" for over dubs. Great sounding guitars!

[@stevieboy444]

That was cool. Ben's willing to give honest opinions & he's a great player. That's 2 good reasons to listen to him.

[@jeg1972]

It's great to hear your view on the guitars as always... And your playing is still top notch!

[@MrSlash00r]

The playing on the Sigma .. fantastic.

[@lhvent]

Nothing like an Alvarez Guitar. I just got an Alvarez AD66SHB. A great mahogany top guitar. I used to have an AD30. A great guitar as well.

[@kenfndr]

My uncle has an ancient Alvarez, it sounds so sweet.

[@scottfishkind5335]

I recently traded in the Fender Redondo Player for a Walden O550E. The Fender was a beautiful looking guitar with a very comfortable neck and decent pick-up. I initially purchased it because I was looking for an affordable acoustic with a cutaway. I wanted so much to love it, but over time, as Ben said, I wanted more from it in terms of the overall sound. The Walden I purchased in its place (trade in plus a few hundred extra) blows the Redondo's doors off in every way and it's an OM size guitar. It is unfortunate that a guitar of that size (the Redondo) with a solid top, is so lacking in overall tone and even volume because they really are beautiful guitars (mine was the sunburst).

[@SilverWatcher.]

The blue fender had my ear 🙏🏻

[@itguy8900]

Still love my Ibanez I got 15 years ago. Still great

[@MrSpeed-lt8gr]

That Alvarez sounds beautiful. They are all great guitars though.

[@I.M.Guitar-Nerd]

Indeed! I've got an AG60CEAR and I love it.

[@daltonboudreaux1200]

Forget the guitars, this dudes playing is fantastic!! Love it!

[@richardlynch5632]

Highly appreciated demo😎👍 Refreshing actually 😉😎👍 Agree with you're analysis. However...have found with "some" of Epi's offerings, after time (aging) they can become better...?

[@brianb.5661]

What is this honesty! I love it. Thanks for providing excellent content. Now to work on my actual skill...

[@rexsolomon6325]

Ben, enough of losing weight man - please! We love your acoustic guitar wizardry and super-friendly presentations. =)

[@ChrisHendrix117]

Will there be a video featuring Jumbos? Kinda thought that this might be it…

[@jeffanderson8384]

Awesome, honest reviews. Thanks!

[@mr.smithgnrsmith7808]

All solid mahogany guitars are amazing….love them

[@Lalairu]

I would love to see a folk/grand auditorioum video too :)

[@thefray123]

Beautiful playing

[@usmcyounggun6879]

I love the look of the fenders and that fender headstock. But I think Alvarez probably make the best acoustic guitars out of this group, especially for the money. But I just really like to have fretboard markers on my guitars.

[@e-rodmikeyeyraud4801]

That Alvarez is the best sound IMO 👌

[@petestaint8312]

Agreed! Killer sound. 👍

[@benoitleinheiser5939]

Hi Ben ! Great jam ! Hope you’re fine.

[@JonnyMoto]

I'd love to see some thin body classical eletrics

[@ACIDICMELTD0WN]

Great playing as ever Ben. I presume this is before you had your argument with the car door :/

[@viperBSG]

The Sire all day long!!!

[@TheDeedeeFiles]

Like the cut away acoustic guitar

[@vlady8me]

Wonderful demo of big body acoustics and small body in the other video. And i do love singe cut solid body guitars too. But please PLEASE do a massive review on all the jazz box models Andertons sells? I can watch demos of damn near any guitar except jazz box style geetars. Please fix this.

[@stuartferguson8967]

for me the Sigma sounded the best by a long way.

[@Lavietto]

Alvarez sounded great followed by the Sire and then the Sigma. The rest i did not like at all !

[@jonathanpeden9930]

Spoiled for choice! I'm struggling to pick a favourite just from the video, I would have tp play them all in order to make a choice

[@Lez325]

Fender @ £319 - not what the web site says Fender California Series Redondo Player in Belmont Blue - Andertons Music Co. £249

[@georgemoore7231]

In my humble opinion, the Alvarez is clearly the best sounding of the guitars. I would rank the Sire next followed by the Sigma.

[@davedavem]

Super wonderful excellent! I'm into small bodies, I cannot lie. And I've ordered one from Andertons for Christmas! Excitement!

[@limpindug]

Top demo Ben as usual. Beauty is in the ear of the beholder, bang for the buck is in the pocket of a Scotsman. 😂😂Respect and stay healthy all

[@brocluno01]

Yeah, I'd prolly go for the Alvarez too :-)

[@charleskitterman1304]

A Yamaha FG830?

[@naturalrestingface1884]

Ben's sounding like Stephen Stills on that Sigma... The one thing the blues ain't ...is funny!

[@jameswhite1450]

Man it’s hard to buy in that range. It’s tough to recommend any of them soundwise, considering what you can buy starting $500 imho

[@bassyey]

I feel like cheap acoustic guitars havent improved as much as cheap electric guitars. Probably because it's harder to hide cheap materials and build process here. Everything is what makes the sound.

[@jameswhite1450]

@@bassyey exactly right!

[@MarcCoteMusic]

I mostly play Strats, so I'm clearly a Fender guy... That said, I'm always surprised how poor their acoustics sound. Obviously, the construction techniques for acoustics are vastly different to those of electrics, but just for the sake of professional pride you would think Fender would invest a little more in their acoustic division. Interestingly, none of these guitars hold a candle to my $500 Can. Norman B18, acoustically, at least.

[@xXN0SK1LLZXx]

Like I like a good honest review. But I would hire him as a used car salesman

[@dxcman1]

What no Yamaha????

[@davewood482]

At last some negative honest reviews. I had a Epiphone hummingbird it sounded dreadful.

[@zachelmquist4932]

The Sigma and Fender sounded best.

[@MarkJVSomers]

There's no low end, but it is blue.

[@Siebenstein83]

For me: 1. Alvarez: very impressive overall 2. Sigma: very nice and different 3. Sire: okay sounding 4. Fender: on sale (Jan. 5, 2022); still pretty bad 5. Epiphone: absolutely horrid, price hike to 399 is rough.

[@Bettys_Eldest]

The sibilance on the spoken word is painful when using headphones, which is a shame.

[@mertgunes9854]

My god man, how does one learn to play like that??

[@PatatoKeftes]

The Sigma and the Alvarez are pretty honest efforts at making a good sounding acoustic instrument. They sound good. Fender acoustics have always been a pile of dogshit with a fender headstock. An effort from a corp to get a piece of the pie they were never due. The epiphone looks great but the sound was meh. Sire sounded decent and as far as I can remember it is well made, copying tha taylor 3 knob system is great, it is less intrusive and looks classy. But it is a hypocritic piece of garbage. Larry Carlton had as much involvement in the making of that instrument (or any of the LC Sire line) as Lionel Messi had in the making of those Lay's chips with his face on the bag. Remove his name from the instrument, make it honest again, it is an instrument that Larry never played, never toured, never developed, his name is just a sticker and a paycheck.

[@billyellow4849]

Why do fender put their name on cheap far-eastern acoustics when they are so careful to keep their branding to American electric guitars only?

[@danyjr]

WTF...has he fell ill? He looks so skinny.

[@ravusursi893]

Why all the stupid faces and body shaking whilst playing? Eric didn’t, Mark didn’t and neither did Jeff, so stop it, it isn’t impressive! Just hold the bloody guitar properly and stop with the silly wobbling!

[@MrRizoable]

Can you stop being a dick? Some people just feel it that way. You are not a musician, or at least a pretty bad one.

[@ravusursi893]

@@MrRizoable Fanboy!

[@MrRizoable]

@@ravusursi893 It's the first time I have seen this dude in my life. I don't even dig his playing, cause I play e-guitar. I just hated your stupid comment.

[@bobevans6545]

Don't listen - keep shaking that guitar - if it's good enough for Wizz Jones it's good enough for me.