Body shapes and sizes, and how each one sounds.

Both 0 (Single-O) and Parlor guitars have remarkable projection and focus. When you play a single note on them, there’s this immediate response that you don’t always get from larger guitars: the body just moves with you and each note has its own distinctive sound to it.

These small guitars let you hear the single note, where larger guitars blend everything together into a chord. It’s perfect for blues and folk music where that midrange focus really helps your playing cut through.

The 00 is like the Parlor’s slightly more versatile cousin. You still get excellent definition, but with a touch more tonal range. There’s a little bit more sparkle on the top end compared to the Parlor, though perhaps a little less low end. The range of tones is a little bigger, making it more versatile but less distinctive in its specific sound.

The 000/OM might be the most versatile body shape of all. It’s currently one of the most popular shapes worldwide, and for good reason. You can really play it beautifully with your fingers, it’s delicate and articulate, but it’s also suitable for strumming.

When you play an OM, you get all the highs, all the lows, and everything becomes one. My Collings OM2H is one of my absolute favorite guitars. I showcase this guitar and explain why I love it in my video “The 3 most beautiful guitars in the world!”.

When you strum that first E chord on a good dreadnought, something magical happens. The room just fills with sound, and you feel the guitar pumping, moving air around you.

In country and blues bands, guitarists were fighting to be heard over the much louder banjo players, so the dreadnought was invented. There were no PAs back in the 20s and 30s, so if you wanted to be heard, the guitar had to be bigger.

My Martin D-42 is a dreadnought, and it’s one of my most treasured instruments. You can hear how powerful this guitar sounds in my comparison video “The 3 most beautiful guitars in the world!”.

The Grand Auditorium is like the “love child” between a dreadnought and an OM. Bob Taylor (co-founder and president of Taylor guitars) popularized this shape, and it serves a specific purpose: providing versatility for players who want to do a bit of everything.

The narrower waist makes it more comfortable than a dreadnought, while the overall size gives you more projection than an OM. It’s perfect for strumming and for fingerpicking, basically the ideal guitar for electric guitar players transitioning to acoustic. My Taylor 716ce has this shape. You can see and hear how this guitar sounds in this video here.

There’s something special about slope-shoulder dreadnoughts. While they’re very similar to standard dreadnoughts, they have this wonderful natural compression, especially when comparing a standard dreadnought like the Martin D-28 to the iconic slope-shoulder dreadnought, the Gibson J-45.

When you strum hard, the low end doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the sound, you can control it. Your right hand really controls the low on that slope shoulder, where with a regular dreadnought, it’s harder to control. This makes slope-shoulder models excellent for recording.

Jumbos are statement guitars, both visually and sonically. They’re big and bold. The natural jumbo sound has a lot of low end, which is why they’re often built with maple back and sides to add some clarity to the tone. There’s not as much midrange, so the tone is quite scooped in the middle.

It’s a great guitar for those who really like to play big and powerful open chords. When I think of a jumbo, I immediately picture Elvis Presley with his Gibson SJ-200. It’s a flashy guitar, and it’s also a guitar with the most beautiful inlays.