invariably, on these threads, somebody trots out the name of Brook guitars.

I was given a Brook as a present, believe it or not, and when the donor asked me if I was happy with the instrument, I had to confess that I was not.

two problems, one minor, one major.

firstly, the herringbone purfling ran the same way all round the body of the guitar, and I cannot tell you how annoying I found that.

secondly, there was a pronounced kink in the neck at the 14th fret, which would have made refretting and fret dressing impossible.

the upshot was that the guitar was returned to the store (Acoustic Music Centre, Brighton) and I traded up to my present instrument, a Martin D28-S, with which I am ecstatically happy ( with herringbone purfling bookmatched as it should be btw).

I was not ecstatically happy that Brook guitars made no reply to my email informing them of the situation.

to be fair, the Brook did sound great, but not as great as the Martin does.