Marty, a genuine informative answer to my wisecrack post. Very good. It is possible. So in attempt at an actual exchange of information, which, if allowed to develop, could be interesting and informative for both of us. . . .

My start on the guitar was similar, but I think I got lucky. My first guitar was a "Regal." $9.95, plus $5.00 for a fiberboard case, a copy of Nick Manoloff's How to Play the Guitar, a genuine Nick Manoloff "Chord Wheel" (excellent device: it taught me the Circle of Fifths and which chords go with which keys right off), and a free plastic pick (which I never used). It sounded like it was made from old apple crates (probably was), but the fingerboard was fairly accurate and the action was nice and soft (somebody goofed at the factory and turned out one that was actually playable). I got my first really good guitar about a year later: a Martin 00-18. I've owned several Martins and they were all excellent, but fairly early on I switched over to nylon-string classics. In that category, European luthiers make the best instruments. I'm primarily a ballad-singer and I play some classic guitar, so that's the direction I took. Currently, my two prized guitars are a José Oribé concert classic that I've had for about thirty years and an Arcangel Fernandez flamenco guitar that I got in 1961 and has just kept improving over the years. It's been appraised at $18,000, but no sale! The only way anyone would ever get that guitar away from me would be to pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

I think you mentioned once that you were mostly interested in country or bluegrass. Good choice of guitars for that. Did I get it right? Tell me more.

Don Firth