i have owned more guitars than makes sense. including at least a dozen red label yamaha's , and they were all great.

i had guild f20 that would amaze people--i don't know why but it sounded better than any guild i've heard since.

even a martin d-28 from 1954. i sold it(hardhearted bastard aren't i). my main instrument is now harp or mandolin.

now i have an old lowden that surrived a fire. it was under water for several hours and cracked but sounds better for it all--and it is an amazing sound. and i have a ted tompson. i met him in vernon twelve or thirteen years ago and i thought his new guitars were the best sounding new guitars i had every heard. i asked if he had brazillian rose wood for the back and sides and he was hungry for the sale and threw the special boards in for free, now ir cost 1500 bucks extra. i didn't really mean to be such a bargainer i just had a finite amount of money.the guitar is now beginning to come into it's owm and it is actually better than the martin D 28 from 54.

i don't think i will sell these two as i am getting poorer as i get older and i doubt i will eber get another as good. as for the fire, the martin was in my bacj room, and although i felt guilty selling it a guy showed up with a lot of cash , something i didn't have, and everything in the backroom went up in flames, so i would have lost it anyway. i do have visitation rights and it is the best sounding martin i've heard except two from the thirties i've played.

i may go buy a sekova for a couple of hundred this week. oh gos so little time so many guitars. as for the fg 180's and such i've sold, i should have kpt one, they aren't easy to find any more and they are as good as many martins from the seventies. i had a yamaha fg jumbo from the fifties that had a twisted neck but a wierd head stock and sounded like heaven. sold it to a buddy who has pprobably let it go--oh well.

oh yeah a buddy gave me a canon of a yairi a few week ago, but it was to pass on to a teenage daughter of a friend who wanted to learn. those yairi's are special too. you have to give a guitar away occasionally or you get jaded/

i had an old harmony with a jombo body but a bad neck. i couldn't play anything but slide on it, then i met a kid who was playing slide on a sears thing that couln't have been worse--presto, i gave him my harmony and watched him busk with it for years!