Very surprising indeed, thanks for this test. I had already noticed that the lighter a guitar is built the louder it is, the parlour and the classical fall in that category.
To me, the parlor and classical guitars did seem quieter than the flat top and resonator, even if the numbers say otherwise. It makes me question exactly what is being measured and what it is I'm hearing. Very interesting. Thanks.
RMS does not exactly translate to PERCEIVED loudness. There's something called Fletcher Munson Curve... It just makes sense that human hearing emphasises those frequencies which are most crucial to human speech.
Hi edward. I have an art & lutherie parlor guitar and it sounds much louder than the big ones of my teammates, I can confirm that it's true but i was surprised by the poor performance of the resonator
Very interesting Ed. Perhaps you could have recorded the sound of each guitar at different distances from the pickup source, i.e., 2, 4, 6, 8 & 10 feet away. Then averaged the recorded decible amounts. I am sure that there are any number of ways of doing this type of test. Bottom line is that it can be as complicated or as easy as you want to make it. Also, keeping the downward force of the strumming consistent is key to getting good results as well. In any event, nice job............ 👍👍🎸🎸👍👍
Hey Ed! I think that resonator guitars have an narrower frequency range than other guitars. Now we love them for their tonal quality and not because they're any louder than anything else. But I don't know if they ever worked as intended in a full band situation in those days. It's such a great acoustic blues tone, and once I got my own brand new National tricone that they're building in California these days, I felt like I finally got my hands on the acoustic blues holy grail I always wanted to sound like. I used to listen to a guy in my hometown of Omaha that played an old single cone resonator sometimes in a local bar for years and I fell in love with the sound right away, but I couldn't afford one of my own until a few years ago. The one absolute holy grail guitar that I thought sounded the most authentic for old acoustic blues was a small body 1930's Gibson acoustic I played in a shop one time, but couldn't afford.
I own a flamenco style (lower bridge and action compared to normal classical) Amalio Burguet F3 and it is louder than any acoustic guitar i have ever encountered! Also it's very lightweight.
I love the old blues,and this channel 👍👍... Two 12 bar blues songs you may want to check out is by AC DC.. There's Gonna be some Rockin' and Crabsody in Blue...the tone and the swing is up the there with Muddy Waters,The Wolf...the way Malcolm Young hits that G in There's Gonna be some Rockin'... it'll shake you to the core
This is how comparison videos should be done. Same 'boring' sound, quickly shown on each instrument. Sure, maybe Ed coulda been more scientific, what have you... I enjoyed it.
Apart from the parlour guitar, the dB differences between the guitars do not seem significant. A few hundredths of a dB is pretty small! The guitars all have different timbre, so boiling it all down to a single value in dBs does seem simplistic. It would be more instructive to display a spectrum of the sounds, that is, level vs. frequency. I used to use a free program called Audacity for that.
Agree, usually it's considered the human ear can differentiate between two different sounds, if they are more than 2dB apart. So the decimal values of your analyses are way to sensitive. Having said that, I do believe the parlor guitar is loudest of them all. Actually, that is what I said to myself when I started looking at your video.
Seems to me you were measuring attack rather than sustained volume in which case it makes sense that the parlour and classical guitars came out top. A parlour guitar won't take to being played hard, will soon sound very thrashy, whereas something like a Gibson Jumbo can project well and sound consistently good when played hard. You could repeat the experiment but this time playing each guitar as hard as you can before the sound starts to deteriorate, I think you'll get very different results then.
"Spanish gypsies beat the hell out of them, that's how we got flaminco" love your delivery
The loudest guitar Ive ever owned was a 1920’s Martin parlor. Wish I kept that guitar...Resonators are almost never louder guitars, but more cutting.
Very surprising indeed, thanks for this test. I had already noticed that the lighter a guitar is built the louder it is, the parlour and the classical fall in that category.
To me, the parlor and classical guitars did seem quieter than the flat top and resonator, even if the numbers say otherwise. It makes me question exactly what is being measured and what it is I'm hearing. Very interesting. Thanks.
I think perceived loudness does have to do something with what frequencies you're actually hearing.
I sure do love your delivery in your statements especially on the Classical guitar !...And I do love to play and listen to a Classical guitar.
RMS does not exactly translate to PERCEIVED loudness. There's something called Fletcher Munson Curve... It just makes sense that human hearing emphasises those frequencies which are most crucial to human speech.
Hi edward. I have an art & lutherie parlor guitar and it sounds much louder than the big ones of my teammates, I can confirm that it's true but i was surprised by the poor performance of the resonator
I've tried out those Art & Lutherie parlor guitars and they are impressive little instruments, especially for the price.
Love that parlor guitar! Epic!
Very interesting Ed. Perhaps you could have recorded the sound of each guitar at different distances from the pickup source, i.e., 2, 4, 6, 8 & 10 feet away. Then averaged the recorded decible amounts. I am sure that there are any number of ways of doing this type of test. Bottom line is that it can be as complicated or as easy as you want to make it. Also, keeping the downward force of the strumming consistent is key to getting good results as well. In any event, nice job............ 👍👍🎸🎸👍👍
So I finally got myself a resonator, and what I can say is that it’s not as loud as I thought it would be.
Hey Ed! I think that resonator guitars have an narrower frequency range than other guitars. Now we love them for their tonal quality and not because they're any louder than anything else. But I don't know if they ever worked as intended in a full band situation in those days. It's such a great acoustic blues tone, and once I got my own brand new National tricone that they're building in California these days, I felt like I finally got my hands on the acoustic blues holy grail I always wanted to sound like. I used to listen to a guy in my hometown of Omaha that played an old single cone resonator sometimes in a local bar for years and I fell in love with the sound right away, but I couldn't afford one of my own until a few years ago. The one absolute holy grail guitar that I thought sounded the most authentic for old acoustic blues was a small body 1930's Gibson acoustic I played in a shop one time, but couldn't afford.
I own a flamenco style (lower bridge and action compared to normal classical) Amalio Burguet F3 and it is louder than any acoustic guitar i have ever encountered! Also it's very lightweight.
Interesting. Great video, Edward.
Any slotted headstock 12 fret guitar is a little beast
Ed this is interesting. Love your guitar playing!
I love the old blues,and this channel 👍👍...
Two 12 bar blues songs you may want to check out is by AC DC..
There's Gonna be some Rockin' and Crabsody in Blue...the tone and the swing is up the there with Muddy Waters,The Wolf...the way Malcolm Young hits that G in There's Gonna be some Rockin'... it'll shake you to the core
Very interesting. Great job! Thanks! 🎵🎵🎵
Parlour ✌️
Brightness of the parlor ftw ;)
I feel like the parlor+classical guitar had a louder but thinner sound and the 12 string+resonator guitar had a mellower and larger sound.
I'm looking for the loudest acoustic guitar that can play in a fairly big venue unplugged (unamplified).. What do you recommend?
Thx for the even applied approach and wow......I learned a shit-ton of info
This is how comparison videos should be done. Same 'boring' sound, quickly shown on each instrument. Sure, maybe Ed coulda been more scientific, what have you... I enjoyed it.
Apart from the parlour guitar, the dB differences between the guitars do not seem significant. A few hundredths of a dB is pretty small! The guitars all have different timbre, so boiling it all down to a single value in dBs does seem simplistic. It would be more instructive to display a spectrum of the sounds, that is, level vs. frequency. I used to use a free program called Audacity for that.
Agree, usually it's considered the human ear can differentiate between two different sounds, if they are more than 2dB apart. So the decimal values of your analyses are way to sensitive. Having said that, I do believe the parlor guitar is loudest of them all. Actually, that is what I said to myself when I started looking at your video.
Parlor Guitar - it's Levin Ideal, 1902 year?
Countryside Jack White
Could shed wood be louder?
Seems to me you were measuring attack rather than sustained volume in which case it makes sense that the parlour and classical guitars came out top.
A parlour guitar won't take to being played hard, will soon sound very thrashy, whereas something like a Gibson Jumbo can project well and sound consistently good when played hard.
You could repeat the experiment but this time playing each guitar as hard as you can before the sound starts to deteriorate, I think you'll get very different results then.
Who makes your reso guitar?
What are your religious views
"In the beginning was the guitar . . ."
Some Eggs does that really matter?