One more thing... when you own an instrument from a small/boutique luthier, you can feel kind of special, like a member of an exclusive club that 99.9% of the world do not know exists... and then be amazed if by chance you meet another owner, like I did at a folk festival in the UK in the 1980s ... my then guitar (by Dick Knight), somebody else's mandolin by the same maker!

my Dick Knight guitar + friend

I sold that guitar to a friend several decades ago for a bit over $1k (Australian dollars) (600 or so UK pounds). Later I found out that David Gilmour (and also Mike Oldfield) had the same instruments, more or less, and Gilmore's sold at auction for 56,250 UD dollars!! (estimate was only USD 2k-3k though).

- Tony