How to Choose the Best Acoustic-Electric Guitar

Without sounding too obvious, you should look for the same thing you look for in any instrument—it should feel great and sound good (in this case, both acoustically and electrically). But don’t assume that just because a guitar sounds good unplugged, it will sound good plugged in. Make sure you run it through an amp or PA system just in case the pickup or electronics are faulty—especially if you are buying a used instrument.

On a less obvious note, you should ask if your acoustic-electric guitar of choice has a built-in preamp. The foremost function of a preamp is to boost your guitar’s output signal. A pure guitar signal typically sounds anemic, something that is particularly evident when you plug a guitar directly into a PA system or audio interface. Luckily, most acoustic-electric guitars automatically have preamps these days, but it’s still crucial to double check.

Also see if your instrument has any special features. Many acoustic-electric guitars offer some great bells and whistles like built-in tuners, volume and tone knobs, feedback suppressors or equalization filters. Most of the time these items are located where you plug in or on the side where you can easily view them. Any or all of these features can come in handy during live performance.

But buyer beware! Unlike electric guitars, most acoustic-electrics require the use of batteries to power their pickups, preamps and added features. That is not necessarily bad, because the batteries usually last for months. But what can be a problem is where the battery compartment is located. We’ve discovered the hard way that some manufacturers make it almost impossible to access or change batteries by placing them in the deep recesses of the instrument. We’re not sure why they do that, but they do. So, before you purchase your chosen instrument, we beg you to make sure you can easily access and change your 9-volt or AA.