Folk guitars with electronics

Among folk guitars with electronics, you will find acoustic guitars with a built-in pickup and a body smaller than a dreadnought or jumbo, almost all with steel strings. They include parlor and travel guitars, smaller bodies that manufacturers describe as folk, and manufacturers' own shapes, such as Takamine New Yorker or Fender Malibu. You can connect the guitar to a combo amp, mixing desk or audio interface, so a small guitar can also be used on stage or for recording. Most models have a solid top, and around two thirds are intended for advanced players.

Which body shapes will you find here?

• Parlor – a small body with a narrow waist and a focused midrange sound: Bromo BAR6E, Takamine GY93E and GY51E with a New Yorker body, Gretsch G5021E Rancher Penguin, Yamaha CSF3M and CSF1M, Sire Larry Carlton A3 and A4.
• Travel guitars – a scaled-down body you can pack for a trip: Pasadena PT-100E and PT-200E, Bromo BAR3E, LAG Sauvage TE.
• Smaller bodies described as folk – Epiphone L-00 Standard, Gibson L-00 Special, Martin LX1E and LX1RE, Washburn Deep Forest Ebony.
• Mini guitars and manufacturers' own shapes – Cort Earth GO in 3/4 size, SX SS760E, Fender Malibu and Lava Music Blue Lava.

What electronics are fitted to folk guitars?

Most models have an undersaddle piezo pickup and a preamp with a volume control, often with bass and treble EQ as well, and three-band EQ on some models. The Takamine GY51E has a tuner in its preamp, Sire Larry Carlton A3 and A4 combine an undersaddle pickup with a microphone, and the Gretsch Deltoluxe Parlor has a magnetic soundhole pickup. Yamaha CSF-TA TransAcoustic and Lava Music Blue Lava Original FreeBoost have built-in effects, including reverb, that you can hear even without an amplifier.

Who is a small guitar with a pickup suited to?

A parlor or travel guitar with a pickup is a good fit if you play solo and accompany your singing in a café, on the street or at a camp, and want an instrument that is easy to carry. To play through an acoustic guitar combo amp, you need an instrument cable, and the preamp is usually powered by a battery. For models without electronics, see folk guitars. You will find large-bodied guitars on the dreadnought guitars with electronics and jumbo guitars with electronics pages, and other shapes in the electro-acoustic guitars with other body shapes category.