I happened to pass through Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada yesterday. For you who aren't local, it's a smallish place about 100 miles north of Toronto. Went into Precision Music and tried out a couple of the best guitars they had. Precision is a very crowded store...it's hard to get at the guitars, which are up on hangers, and hard to find a place to sit down and play one, but I got some help from the owner on that.

Well, I played one Martin which I was not very impressed with. Then I played a very expensive Eric Clapton Signature Martin...and it was VERY, VERY GOOD. It was marked down from Cd $5,900 to I think $3,800 if I remember right. Had one little mark on the edge of the headstock, due to a clumsy customer (not me!).

It's a very good looking instrument in every way, with a 000 type body, I believe, not a dreadnought. This makes it more comfortable for playing when seated. The neck is the old V shape Martin neck, like on older Martins. Usually I don't like the V neck, but it seemed to work fine on this one.

The tone of this instrument was REALLY good from base to treble, all the way. Marvelous sound.

The action was a lot higher than what I would usually want. The owner told me this model is set up that way deliberately, to mimic Clapton's setup, so you can really bend the strings, play hard, and still get a good note. Maybe so. All I can say is, even with that very high action it was still a lot of fun to play anyway.

All I can say is "Wow!" Damn good guitar. I thought some of you other Ontario guys might want to know in case you pass through Bracebridge, and you could take a look at it.

I've got no reason to buy another expensive guitar right now, but I love seeing a good one like that and getting a chance to check it out.

Anybody else played one of these?

- LH