Thanks, CH. I now am playing my guitar in the "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger" mindset. I figure if I just keep slogging through it, either I'll end up with very strong, calloused fingers and that's how it's supposed to be, or when I finally do decide to bag it with this guitar and get another one, it'll seem like a dream in comparison.

Blue Jay's son in law is a luthier and I think I'll schlepp the guitar down to him one of these days soon to see what his assessment is ...

Meanwhile, I can say that my guitar playing has hit one of those times of exponential growth. I went along for so long so laboriously changing fingering between chords and working so HARD at it all, and I noticed the other day as I was meandering around the house, that I was actually playing without even looking and changing chords (in the simple ones I've mastered -- C,D,E,A,G and some useful 7ths and minors) relatively smoothly. I tend to see how far I still want to go and feel that I'm not a kilometer down the path, rather than seeing how very far I've come over the past few months.

Still, my fingertips are complaining, loudly, every step of the way...

WW