Hee hee - thanks, number 6. I like it! And for the explanation too. I just found some info about Guitar Scale Lengths at that link - see, you can learn something new every day if you want to! I bet a smaller scale guitar would be heaven on earth for these little hands! As long as it didn't affect the tone too much (I don't like wimpy guitars - chose a spruce-top Seagull with curly maple back and sides a couple years ago for the big, bright tone)

And after drooling over Don Meixner's post last night (I was playing those Gibsons and Gretches in my dreams) I KNOW now what I need is a second guitar...

Been thinking about it for over a year now. Even with the good case I have, I still don't like hauling this one out in the snow and cold for teaching several times a week (I tend to treat my instruments like newborns)> But I thought I needed a better reason than "I WANT!!" before forking out the $$$$. Well, this thread has given me more than a few good ones! I know that REAL guitarists usually have a few instruments to choose from, for different styles of playing. The "this is the guitar I have" mode is wearing pretty thin ... and I could get a smaller scale one, with light strings, which might open up a whole new range of musical possibilities ... and then next year maybe I could get an electric too .... oooo I'm so excited!!

It's interesting to hear of so many acoustic players who use those complex bends. So much for putting the difficulty I'm having down to trying to force a 'lectric technique out of an acoustic instrument! ANd you're right Nick, I am afraid of not only breaking strings but slicing my fingers open every time I try too, which doesn't help ...

Oh and btw I tried the slide-bend combo - it does work, but you know what? It sounds like, well, like a slide-bend.   :-/ There's no way I know of to mask that little "bump" a slide makes ... where a bend is just so smooooooooooth as the pitch changes .... gads if I wasn't such a darn perfectionist about music and sound I'd have an easier life I'm sure! Tried a hammer-on-bend combo too, but that 'bump' is still pretty noticeable.

ANyway I'm off to bank some paycheques now ... and then to the music stores here to see who sells what in the line of small scale guitars. OH LUCKY DAY!!!!    :-)    (But I'll go to the guitar stores AFTER I pay the bills and hit the grocery store of course) Thanks again so much for the help and the ideas everyone .... and I'll be back! Guaranteed ...