Suprisingly the Vintage series of guitars imported into the UK by JHS won a major award for the best acoustic guitar under £1000.00 Vintage V300. @ £119.99 (or cheaper) I've not played one, but "The guitar magazine" hardly wants egg on it's face.Guitar quality is so much better these days. Isn't the best selling Yamaha just over £100.00? FG?/DG? A friend of mine has one, excellent tone, good bass, never goes out of tune no matter how much you thrash it. It's true in some cases yer pays fer what yer gets I don't know, but many people I've spoken to say Martins and Gibsons arn't worth the money or are over priced. Taylors are a different class. I do believe it's true that when you hear a real high quality guitar it stands out above many others. I've spent enough time in shops drooling, picking and strumming on them. I'm happy with my Yamaha, so are others, I also very happy with my high end Avalon. But sometimes the quality of the tone belies the cost and many people are suprised when the actually see the guitar that they've heard.For everyone who swears by their guitar there's someone with an oppostite opinion.