The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #89418   Message #1687192
Posted By: mooman
07-Mar-06 - 08:28 AM
Thread Name: Folk Guitar
Subject: RE: Folk Guitar
There are loads to choose from. The advice "buy the one YOU like" is really the best advice. As to makes you might like to look at as well as Martin and the ones you mentioned:

Gibson (quality control has improved again in the past few years), Lakewood (biased here although I recently sold mine), Avalon, Lowden, Santa Cruz, Taylor, Alvarez-Yairi, Landola (Finland), Brook, Northwood, Furch (Czech Republic - excellent), Fylde (consistently good), Yamaha, Blueridge, Alhambra (Spain - top steel acoustic models are excellent). If you have a vast amount of money I have seen and played nothing better than a Linda Manzer (Canada).

These above are just a few I am familiar with and remember. There are many others. Also innumerable individual luthiers who will produce one-off instruments (I have three such).

Good luck with your search and buy what you like rather than any particular make.

Peace

moo