Buying a concert classical guitar is one of the few purchases a musician makes perhaps two or three times in a lifetime. It is also one of the hardest to get right in a shop, where every guitar sounds different in a different room, and the one you play first always sounds a little better than it should. This guide will not choose for you, but it will help you ask the right questions, in the right order.
1. Start with where you play
The room decides more than most players think. A guitar that is glorious at home can disappear in a church, and a powerful concert instrument can feel loud and hard in a small flat.
- Home, lessons, small rooms: look for warmth, an easy response and a voice you enjoy hearing for hours. You are the main listener.
- Recitals and recording: look for evenness across the strings and registers, a quiet, clean attack and good separation.
- Concert halls, competitions, ensembles: look for projection, the ability of the sound to reach the back of the hall, and enough headroom to play loudly without the tone breaking.
2. Then think about what you play
Repertoire shapes the ideal guitar. Romantic and Latin American music loves warmth and singing trebles; Baroque counterpoint needs clarity between voices; contemporary music often asks for extremes of dynamics and colour. If your music lives high on the neck, access to the upper frets matters too.
A note from us: players often choose for the music they would like to play one day, not the music they play now. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as you know you are doing it.
3. The top: cedar or spruce
The soundboard decides more of the voice than any other part. Cedar is warm and immediate and sounds full from the first day. Spruce is clearer and more articulate and opens up over months and years. Neither is better. Cedar or spruce: the full comparison.
4. Solid top or double top
A traditional solid top gives the intimate, complex voice that defined the classical guitar for 150 years. A double top, two thin skins around a light Nomex core, gives more volume, a quicker response and longer sustain, which matters on a concert stage. The double top explained.
5. Back and sides
Indian rosewood gives deep basses and rich overtones; ziricote and Java ebony are denser and more focused; mahogany is direct and honest. The back woods colour the sound less than the top, but you will hear them. Our tonewood library.
6. Reaching the high frets: cutaway or raised fingerboard
Above the twelfth fret the body of a traditional guitar gets in the way of the left hand. There are two answers. A cutaway removes part of the upper bout; a raised fingerboard lifts the fingerboard above the top and keeps the full body. Read about the raised fingerboard.
7. Hearing yourself: the soundport
A traditional guitar sends its sound forward, to the audience. An additional soundport in the upper side lets the player hear the guitar almost as the listener does. Players who try it rarely want to go back. Read about the soundport.
8. Comfort: armrest, neck, action
An armrest keeps the right forearm off the top; a well-shaped neck and a correct action make the left hand’s work lighter. These details decide whether you enjoy the guitar after the first hour, not just the first minute.
A ten-minute test in the shop
- Tune carefully, and if possible play in a room of a similar size to the one you play in most.
- Play the same short piece on every guitar: something slow and lyrical, then something fast. Use music you know so well that you can listen instead of reading.
- Play one note softly, then loudly. A good guitar keeps its colour at both extremes.
- Walk up the first string from the open E to the twelfth fret and beyond. Listen for weak or booming notes.
- Play a chord and listen to the end of it, not the beginning. Sustain and the way the sound decays tell you a lot.
- Ask someone else to play while you stand a few metres away. Projection cannot be judged from behind the guitar.
- Put the guitar down for five minutes, play another, then come back. First impressions fade; real qualities stay.
Five mistakes to avoid
- Choosing by the first chord. Every guitar sounds exciting for ten seconds.
- Comparing guitars with different strings without knowing it. Strings can change a guitar more than you expect. Choosing strings.
- Ignoring comfort. A guitar you do not enjoy holding is a guitar you will not practise on.
- Judging projection from the player’s chair.
- Forgetting papers. A fine guitar should come with a serial number and a certificate. Why it matters.
Where the Arrius models fit
| If you need… | Consider |
| Warmth, depth, comfort and a voice you hear while you play | Arrius MPR-5000 — cedar and rosewood, resonance port, raised fingerboard, armrest |
| Maximum power for halls and competitions | S-1000 — cedar and spruce double top |
| A traditional all-solid guitar with your choice of woods | MPR-400 |
| Free access to the highest frets, robust construction | MPR-100 S — rounded cutaway, lattice top |
If you are still unsure, tell us what and where you play. We will describe honestly how our guitars differ under the hands, and which one suits you. You can also try them side by side at our distribution centre in Passaic, New Jersey.