... has to be the nylon-stringed acoustic guitar. No doubt, hell it is actual plastic that's resonating and generating the sound, how could it not sound plastic? Your ears should easily pick the similarity that plucking a nylon string on an acoustic guitar produces compared to, for instance, how knocking a piece of plastic with your knuckle sounds like. It's very easily recognizeable.

Sometimes I can't understand why people label synth-driven music to sound "plastic" as it's quite often rather "metallic" sounding instead. There seems to be so strong and almost automatic assumptions that a singer-songwriter personality is always able to deliver more "genuine" results with the use of the acoustic guitar as his accompanying instrument - hence the resulting sound doesn't get considered "plastic" as the approach so obviously underlines its authenticity. Because most acoustic guitars' bodies are made of wood, I guess most people just associate it with very simplistic notions of warmth, cosiness, and so on - insert here any imaginable attribute that connotes a feeling of being in touch with your origins.

But it's plastic, I say.

"The most plastic sound in the world" today is most of the garbage being played on MTV and radio today.

Well, most singer/songwriters use steel/nickel strings. Willie Nelson is a notable exception.

And most synthesizers have plastic keys

But the most obvious point is that "plastic" is just a metaphor meaning man-made, or (as you said) not organic, and doesn't literally describe the sound plastic makes....but I'm sure you knew that.

I honestly thought this was going to be a 3121 thread just off the title alone.

waka waka

You kind of answered it in your original post, man. Acoustic guitars made with the right kind of wood can make nylon stringed guitars sound wonderful. Something like Indian Rosewood or mahogany can help create a great tone. A lot of nylon-stringed guitars, however, get made with cheap plywood -- which does nothing for the tone.

The same is true for steel-stringed guitars. There's a huge difference between, say, an Esteban special and a $1,400 Taylor dreadnought.

SPYZFAN1 said:

"The most plastic sound in the world": that honor goes to Emancipation in my eyes, hehe!

funkaholic1972 said: