When I started taking classic guitar lessons in 1954, my teacher (who also ran a music store) sold me a Martin 00-28-G. $175 plus a $50 case (remember, this was 1954. Prices have gone up a bit since then). Spruce top, Brazilian rosewood back and sides.

A few years later and doing a lot of singing in coffeehouses and such, I wanted to get a guitar to bat around with, and one that others would not look at quite so covetously (a few people's guitars having been stolen). The Guitar Review, a rather posh magazine published by the New York Society of the Classic Guitar ran a continuous ad for Vincente Tatay guitars. They had various models at prices ranging from $125, with a cedar top and mahogany back and sides, on up to maybe $700, which would have been a fairly pricey guitar back then. Early on, Richard Dyer Bennet had been playing a Tatay classic (later, one by Manuel Velasquez). So I ordered the $125 one.

When it arrived and I took it out of the case and tuned it up, it blew my mind! It was a fairly plain-looking instrument, with a couple more concentric circles around the sound hole than the Martin had, and no purfling at all around the edges. But the sound!!

My Martin was a very nice sounding instrument, but the Tatay was warmer, mellower, and louder.

The first song fest ("hoot") I took it to, several people commented on how great it sounded, and one guy said, "That must be the best classic guitar in the city!"

$125 well spent!!

Since then I've acquired a few more guitars. My main one for the past several years is a Japanese-made guitar—a blatant copy (inlay, shape of the headstock, general appearance) of the José Ramirez concert guitar that Segovia played—and imported by José Oribé of San Diego and authorized to be sold under his label, and sold locally through The Rosewood Guitar shop (classics only) in Seattle. Cedar top, Brazilian rosewood back and sides. $350. At the time, a Ramirez like the one Segovia played would have cost me $3,000 to 5,000.

By the way, the Ramirez concert model also has a cedar soundboard and Brazilian rosewood back and sides.

I occasionally do a program of folk songs and ballads for the Seattle Classic Guitar Society (makes a nice break from playing and singing for folkies). Now, there is some pretty pricey wood that shows up at those meetings, including a number of Ramirez classics. Because of its appearance—and the big, rich sound—everybody assumed that my $350 Japanese import was a Ramirez!

Yep! For classics, anyway, cedar makes a very good soundboard.

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By the way, does anyone have, or at least have an opinion about, the La Patrie Motif, a nylon-string classic but with a parlor guitar sized body? Looks interesting.

The smaller body size would make it easier for me to play while sitting in my wheelchair. The lower bout of the guitar and the right wheel of the chair want to occupy the same space, and it tends to make holding a guitar in a good playing position a bit awkward. Smaller body would help.

Don Firth

P. S. By the way, Little Hawk, unless you want to switch back and forth between guitars, I wouldn't sweat the wider classic fingerboard. It's easy enough to get used to. In fact--well, you may have seen this before, but when people tell my their hands are too small to play a classic-size neck, I like to show them this little video:   CLICKY.   Check the barre and the four-fret stretch at the very end.