Hi John........Rick's comment was about half tongue in cheek as we've had a lot of talks around here about the quality and sound and durability of Yamaha Guitars and Rick was even at a "Blind" test at Mandolin Brothers once wherr the Yamaha won hands down over rosewood Martins and top line stuff. Once the blindfolds were removed, the Yamaha dropped to the bottom. Evidently a vintage Martin sounds better if you LOOK at it!

Yamaha DOES make dreadnoughts and in both their more expensive and less expensive models. The reason you don't see them is more a question of "panache" than anything else. They're great guitars, but that guy with the 70 vintage Martin Deadsound-28 will never admit it.

Spaw