What a fascinating thread to follow! Thank you for the education and entertainment. You are, however, not "just a picker" in reality, or you'd be pickin' on your one-and-only baby, not "trading up" every few years. I got my '40s D-28 thirty-five years ago, and I knew the moment I laid eyes on it that it was mine for life. Right now it looks about one notch up from Norman Blake's guitar, but it plays like silk and booms like no other. What is this "trading up" stuff??!!