Wow! What a thread... I just discovered it as I was looking at what my Martin D12-35 was worth and there are so many good/valid opinions here that I had to ring in with mine.

Background...

I'm 78 and have been playing since I was 10. I started out on an old Kay arch-top and smashed it when my father kept giving me a bad time about playing "worthless" music (I guess I had a bit of a temper back then). Time passed and I started playing again. When I joined the Navy I had a shipmate who had a Gibson 12. Loved the sound, hated the feel - it had a neck like a baseball bat. But I was hooked on 12-strings.

I had a Gibson ES330 that I played in a band on the Navy base and when I got out and got married we had some gaps in our finances and I sold it rather than starve. STUPID!!! Bought for $300 and who knows what's worth today (that was in 1968 or so).

When we had money again my wife bought a used Martin D12-35 from a want-ad in the local paper for $300 and I was hopelessly hooked. That was in 75, it's a 71 and I love playing it still.

The rest of the story...

Now I can afford feeding my guitar addiction. In addition to the D12-35 I have a Taylor 12, A Martin D28 Retro and my hands-down favorites, a Tonedevil Harp guitar and a Tonedevil nylon strung gypsy jazz parlor-sized guitar. The Tonedevil guitars are custom built for me to specs that the luthier and I worked out (Tonedevil is a small family-owned shop in Idaho).

Never say "never" but with that caveat I never will buy a new guitar that isn't custom. I don't play the Martin 12 out for fear of damaging it (that's why I bought the Taylor) but mostly I play the Tonedevils. Check them out if you're up for a new instrument - Price? NOT cheap... my two guitars from them averaged over $5K each. But well worth the money.

--P