Interesting, Sandy.

You were probably at his gig during the Celtic Colours Festival a few years back when he kept cussing at his brand new custom built Santa Cruz. It looked spectacular, abalone everywhere, but he didn't like it much. Didn't harm his playing any, though ...

I find it puzzling that he would plump for a German factory guitar, however, when there are so many outstanding Canadian luthiers (like Oscar Graf and Mario Proulx) who could build him a custom guitar which would be tailored to his every whim. Maybe the Santa Cruz
experience soured him ?

That said, the Lakewood is a fine guitar. I owned a very nice maple Lakewood D10 until I landed on it from a height of five steps after skidding off the porch one wintry Massachusetts evening. I still have the remains in the case, can't bring myself to throw it away ...