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Are $45 Guitar Picks Worth the Cost?
When boutique flatpicks first appeared on Adam’s radar, he was dubious of the concept, having been perfectly content with the standard, 30-cent variety that he’d used for decades…
The Year in Gear
An Audio Deep-Dive Into Acoustic Amplification

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Eastman DT30D Guitar

New Gear: Eastman DT30D

Eastman’s Double Top series is among the first to use the boutique-maker idea of a double top—a soundboard incorporating two outer wooden layers over a synthetic core, for enhanced sound and responsiveness—in a production steel-string guitar model.

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Lâg Tramontane HyVibe 10 Guitar

Gear Review: Lâg Tramontane HyVibe 10

A collaboration between two French companies, the Lâg Tramontane HyVibe, turns the guitar’s body into a speaker that can add several different effects to your acoustic tone, loop, metronome, and interact with a smartphone app for even greater control of the preamp’s parameters.

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Yamaha CSF-TA

Gear Review: Yamaha CSF-TA

Few musical pleasures compare to playing well-made small guitars. They’re comfortable. They resonate easily. They reward a subtle touch in ways few of their big siblings can match.

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National Reso-phonic M-14T Thunderbox resonator guitar

Gear Review: National M-14T Thunderbox

Although known for its steel and brass instruments, National also offers many wood-bodied guitars, both tricone and single-cone biscuit bridge style. The M-14T Thunderbox is the most recent addition to National’s M series of single-cone mahogany resonators.
G7th Performance 3 Capo

Gear Review: G7th Performance 3 Capo

A clever new accessory from G7th, the Performance 3 capo, has a feature that sets it apart from anything else out there: namely the company’s “adaptive radius technology” (ART).

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Palmer Pocket Amp

Gear Review: Palmer Acoustic Pocket Amp

  Most gigging acoustic guitarists know the importance of a great-sounding, reliable preamp/DI box. Not only will a DI allow you to directly interface with a house PA system via the XLR output, but the preamp can help you sculpt the best possible sonic reproduction of your guitar via EQ,…

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MagSlide magnesium acoustic guitar slide

Gear Review: MagSlide Magnesium Guitar Slide

The most common materials for bottleneck slides are steel, brass, glass, and ceramic. I have also seen slides fashioned from copper tubing and plastic cylinders. Now comes the MagSlide, made of magnesium, the eighth most abundant element, as well as the lightest structural metal on earth.

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Guitar & Gear Review FAQs

How do you choose which guitars to review?
Our writers are guitar fanatics, just like you. They’re always on the lookout for new or updated offerings to recommend. We’re sometimes asked why we don’t publish negative or one-star reviews – there are so many great guitars being produced today that we’d rather share our balanced opinions on the instruments we do think you should consider.

Do companies pay for you to review their instruments?
No. We are proud of the firm separation between advertising sales and editorial coverage that we’ve held strong since our founding in 1990. We only accept endemic advertising – meaning, you won’t see ads for products or services unrelated to making music with an acoustic guitar; inevitably that means we’ll review products made by companies who advertise with us, but you’ll see just as many reviews by companies who do not. We have never (and will never) take money or gifts in exchange for a favorable review.

What’s up with affiliate links?
There is no billionaire owner or mega-corporation behind Acoustic Guitar – your support keeps us independent and in business. When you shop for gear using one of our affiliate links, a small percentage of your purchase gets shared with us (at no cost to you) for being the one that referred you. This is one way you can support our work (learn about more ways here.) We do not select products to review based on the availability of affiliate links.