Spaw, I used the eye, ear, and hip-pocket approach when buying a guitar a few years ago, and ended up with a Peavey acoustic, made by Landola in Finland. It has a solid European alpine spruce top and laminated mahogany back and sides. I wouldn't swap it for many of the more expensive guitars I've tried. The point of this is that I am ordering a bouzouki, and I wonder if the combination of woods would translate from one instrument to another. Have you found that people who like a given combination on guitars like the same combination on dulcimers or are there too many other variables? John