You said:It did have quite the lacquered shine though, which makes it look great, but according to what I've read here on the Cat that's not so great for sound quality?
Actually there's more debate about that than this thread suggests. It seems to me that if the non-gloss finish were so much better for the sound, we'd be seeing a lot more of the top-end guitars in non-gloss. I do prefer the look of the non-gloss, but it is more easily scratched up, so I glued on a pickguard.
Mick, sorry to hear about your Seagull. That's awful.
Willie-O, wouldn't one or more of the kids be interested in the little Martin?