Ahem, (putting on raincoat to enter the mudslinging)

I appreciate all the comments, but especially those that dealt with my original question. Spot, you are right and I do very much thank you, also Brucie for posting the url, and to McGrath for the blicky. Yep, that's the guitar.

When I bought the guitar I knew absolutely NOTHING about guitars. I went into a music store that had dozens of acoustics and showed da man how many greenbacks I had. He sat down and said "This is a good one" and played a little ditty on a guitar. He did that with about three of them and then played the Yamaha. I said "That's it!" I have no idea what models he played before it or after it, I just know that my ear picked up a noticable difference between this one and the others. It has a gorgeous, mellow tone and is a very nice piece, indeed. I was told at the time it was hand made at Yamaha (a claim I now believe was more salesmanship than fact. I have another brochure somewhere that says it was "partially" handcrafted, whatever the heck that means). The really high end LL series are individually handmade but not the "11".

However, since that time I have worked with a local luthier who has custom made me my little guitar "family." I showed him the Yamaha and he pointed out the fact it was Mahogany plywood. (You can see the grain through the soundhole does not match the grain on the back). However, that in no way means it is cheap. There is a distinct difference between inexpensive and cheap. A guitar may be both, but just because it is inexpensive doesn't mean it is cheap. He pointed out that many nice plywoods have as rich a tone and last as long or longer than single pieces. The difference is when you move up into the pieces that cost many times the cost of this Yamaha the construction and tone of the guitar should be noticably different. That is true of my custom-mades. I am NOT dissing the Yamaha. It is a sweet guitar. But, a sows ear is a sows ear and a silk purse it will never be.

And so my original post pertains to this yin-yang of guitar ownership. Do I keep a nice low-to-medium value guitar, sell it outright, or keep it in view of maybe one day trading it in on a medium-to-high or high end guitar? Or as was suggested above, spruce it up a little?

And I have genuinely, genuinely enjoyed the responses. My thanks especially to McGrath and Richard and Bert and Terry. Not knowing much about the Yamaha line I really did not know what I had. Your input is invaluable.

(shucking raincoat and fluffing my fur)

Freightdawg