Hey Don--I'd be curious about watcha own; I don't think Lowdens or Goodalls have much "folk" association, or bluegrass association either. Don't know much about Fylde (sp?) guitars, or Avalon since Geo Lowden forced them into the new name, to mention a coupla others. Dana Bourgeois makes a sig model slope shoulder named after Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek, and I've seen more than a couple of "Country Boys" at fests too.

Beer---them thar Blueridges got themselves a lotta buzz going although I don't much care for the MOP overload on the headstock, but the solid wood models they were selling got a lot of great reviews. Guild has a Chinese line (GAD's I think) and Breedlove's got a Korean import too. Maybe China's gonna be the new Japan for Asian import gits. Yow! Now I'm sure ol' Martin'll be back with his input on all this-but I'm no rocket scientist-it's pretty obvious anyone with a screen name of MARTIN GIBSON has made his choices pretty clear! I guess I'd want to avoid the "Felix" model Martin makes. :>)