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Best guitar you've owned yet...

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Fred	22 May 25 - 05:38 AM
MaJoC the Filk	22 May 25 - 09:53 AM
GUEST,Ray	22 May 25 - 11:19 AM
gillymor	22 May 25 - 12:47 PM
Robert B. Waltz	22 May 25 - 02:41 PM
GUEST,Ray	23 May 25 - 03:21 AM
Robert B. Waltz	23 May 25 - 08:13 AM
Robert B. Waltz	23 May 25 - 08:16 AM
Backwoodsman	23 May 25 - 12:29 PM
GUEST	23 May 25 - 12:49 PM
Fred	25 May 25 - 07:15 AM
GUEST,Ray	25 May 25 - 09:57 AM
Fred	25 May 25 - 11:06 AM
Fred	28 May 25 - 05:05 AM
GUEST,Ray	04 Jul 25 - 01:06 PM
Fred	04 Jul 25 - 02:15 PM
GUEST,Ray	04 Jul 25 - 05:22 PM
Fred	04 Jul 25 - 05:57 PM
gillymor	06 Jul 25 - 09:09 AM
GUEST,Guest Tom	06 Jul 25 - 11:35 AM
G-Force	07 Jul 25 - 04:40 AM
Tony Rees	09 Jul 25 - 04:32 PM
Tony Rees	09 Jul 25 - 09:28 PM
Tony Rees	10 Jul 25 - 02:09 AM
gillymor	10 Jul 25 - 08:07 AM
Fred	10 Jul 25 - 08:27 AM
gillymor	10 Jul 25 - 10:29 AM
Tony Rees	10 Jul 25 - 04:10 PM
Tony Rees	10 Jul 25 - 04:31 PM
Fred	10 Jul 25 - 05:18 PM
Fred	10 Jul 25 - 05:32 PM

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Fred
Date: 22 May 25 - 05:38 AM

RBW,

Ah, the possibly having to say goodbye to an old and dear friend, at least I'll be spared that! Though would I have minded? I'd have the memories. It's hard to say, and I guess I'd have to live it to know. But if I could go back to my youth, I'd hang on to the good guitars I've had rather than part ex or swap or sell which never really worked.

Fred

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 22 May 25 - 09:53 AM

Instruments for me come in two sorts: Those that are so good that I couldn't bear to part with them, and those so bad that I wouldn't dare sell them. Each one has a story to tell (if not a full-on saga). One or two of my guitars fall into both categories at once.

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 22 May 25 - 11:19 AM

Beyond repair? Won’t mention any names but a friend of mine managed to smash his vintage D28 - he’d ski’d to the local session with it in a gig bag on his back and fell over on the way home.

We recommended a (now retired) luthier to him who did his best to persuade him to put a new top on it but no, he wanted the old one repairing. I remember seeing the small pieces of Brazilian rosewood he used to patch the back where the neck block broke through! The job took ages, presumably cost him but, as far as I’m aware, he’s still playing it.

Nothing is beyond repair, at a cost, except possibly a piano.

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: gillymor
Date: 22 May 25 - 12:47 PM

Then there was the guy who broke into Bill Monroe's house and splintered his famous Gibson Lloyd Loar F-5. Judging from the before pictures it looked like it was totaled but Gibson put it back together and Monroe's first report indicated that it was almost all the way back.

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 22 May 25 - 02:41 PM

Ray wrote: Nothing is beyond repair, at a cost, except possibly a piano.

I suspect you haven't owned a 12-string guitar. :-p

Look, the instrument I was referring to "merely" needed a new fret job, so yes, in the short term, it could have been repaired. But the advice was that it was not going to last much longer, and I accepted that and saved the money to use for another instrument. If you brace a 12-string enough to make it as mechanically sound as a 6-string, the sound stinks. But if you don't, they tend to implode, eventually. (Gordon Bok tells stories about how he and Nick Apollonio (sp.?) argued and built instruments and watched them collapse until they found the best compromise they could.)

And what about when it does implode? You need a new top, possibly a new neck, possibly a new back. Is that really the same instrument? And it's still going to implode again.

For that matter, there is a question of my heirs. This was a Washburn 12-string. A miracle Washburn, far better than it had any right to be, but the resale value is small -- and I'm getting old enough that I have to think about the value of the instrument to my heirs. A middle-aged Taylor has a lot more resale value than an ancient, repaired Washburn.

So I let the Washburn go.

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 23 May 25 - 03:21 AM

Bought a 12 string in about 1964. It’s been hanging on the wall for at least 50 years but I’m sure it’s still playable!

I also love my old axe. I’ve replaced the handle several times and once treated it to a new head. ….but it’s still the same old axe.

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 23 May 25 - 08:13 AM

Ray wrote: Bought a 12 string in about 1964. It’s been hanging on the wall for at least 50 years but I’m sure it’s still playable!

Check the model. Some of those older instruments are valuable -- if they haven't suffered too much use.

But used 12-strings really don't last. Consider the Stella model that Lead Belly used. There is demand for them -- partly because it's what Lead Belly played, but mostly because so few of them are left. They're under-braced -- like all 12-strings with good sound.

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 23 May 25 - 08:16 AM

gillymor wrote: Then there was the guy who broke into Bill Monroe's house and splintered his famous Gibson Lloyd Loar F-5. Judging from the before pictures it looked like it was totaled but Gibson put it back together and Monroe's first report indicated that it was almost all the way back.

Although the story I heard was that no other mandolin player could get good sound out of that Loar. It was built like a brick. In that case, breaking it actually let them fix some of the problems it had developed over the years. Monroe was not easy on mandolins!

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 23 May 25 - 12:29 PM

Are you there Fred? Check your PMs please…

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: GUEST
Date: 23 May 25 - 12:49 PM

RBW wrote - Check the model. Some of those older instruments are valuable -- if they haven't suffered too much use.

Not this one. Best quality Italian plywood. All I could afford (and all that was available) when I was at school.

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Fred
Date: 25 May 25 - 07:15 AM

Ray,

If you're wondering what on earth I'm on about over this Dickie geezer, it goes back some (maybe 3-4 months) when I wasn't sure if I could post his contact details for you, but now I am and I did. See above lol.

Fred

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 25 May 25 - 09:57 AM

Hi Fred,

Thanks, I did wonder! The ‘phone number comes back to a Dicky Fontaine - Fontaine Guitars - on t’other side of Nottingham from me. His only web presence is via facetube and instacrap so I can tell nothing about him or his work (being averse to such anti-social trivialities).

Fortunately, I have no current need for a luthier.

Ray (currently in Dingwall)

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Fred
Date: 25 May 25 - 11:06 AM

Ray, FWIW, someone on another forum who uses this Dick fella, says "Fast turnaround and superb work every time". Maybe so, but I'd still want to see examples of his work before I had him do anything.

Fred

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Fred
Date: 28 May 25 - 05:05 AM

Putting this here rather than create a new thread.

For those within striking distance of the town of Melton Mowbray (Leicestershire UK) Hay Guitar Services has recently started work.
The owner, Will Hay, is said to have very high standards of workmanship. He has a website up, check him out.

Cheers
Fred

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 04 Jul 25 - 01:06 PM

Fred - somewhere back in this thread (or maybe elsewhere) we discussed the guitar repair shop working out of PMT in Salford. It appears that PMT has recently gone bust (always thought it was an inappropriate name!) and consequently the repair shop has moved out. As of last week they’re now at Unit 5 St, Mary Industrial Park,Talbot Road,Hyde,SK14 4HN.

Sorry to hear about PMT but the repairers are now less of a drive from me.

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Fred
Date: 04 Jul 25 - 02:15 PM

Ray -

Yes mate. However from mid July, Steve and crew are moving again. The details are on their website.

PMT I never had much to do with. Tried a few acoustic guitars they had but never found what I would call a good 'un.

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 04 Jul 25 - 05:22 PM

I don’t think they’re moving again, I think they’re opening a second workshop. Can’t say I’ve ever bought any other than a capo from PMT and most of such places don’t stock anything I’m remotely interested in.

All the decent shops have now gone and the UK no longer even has a case manufacturer. (Keith Calton sold up several years ago, Pegasus has wound down and the owner of Hiscox has retired.)

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Fred
Date: 04 Jul 25 - 05:57 PM

Ray -

Tell me about it! The nearest decent guitar shop for me is GuitarGuitar Birmingham . There are a few shops closer but they've never got what I'm after...

There IS a guy who has a guitar workshop in Melton Mowbray, about 13 miles from me, who is said to be "Phenomenal". Promising - until I found out that the geezer who told me that is a close friend of his!

Fred

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: gillymor
Date: 06 Jul 25 - 09:09 AM

After I shipped off my D-18 to my grandson I got to missing the old box so I struck a deal with a picking buddy and now have a Bourgeois Country Boy (also a Sitka/mahog Dread). Wouldn't say it's the best I've had but it's only a couple of years old, been lightly played and already sounds good and projects well. It'll be fun to hear it mature.

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: GUEST,Guest Tom
Date: 06 Jul 25 - 11:35 AM

My fave has less to do with tone, resonance, etc. than intrinsic value. My favorite guitar is a 1933 Martin smallbox that was passed down through my family. It means a lot to me. And oh yeah, it does sound great.

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: G-Force
Date: 07 Jul 25 - 04:40 AM

My (only) guitar is a 1957 Martin D18 which I've had since 1969. It's definitely seen better days and now only plays in tune if I put a capo on. But as my left hand is so arthritic now I don't play it any more anyway.

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Tony Rees
Date: 09 Jul 25 - 04:32 PM

OK, I'll bite...

I have owned maybe 10 flat-top acoustics over the years (c. 1971 to present) and had regular access to several others... Gibson and Epiphone flattops, 4 Martins, a Fylde, a John Bailey and several other boutique luthiers (2 of which I still own). However my favourite since 1987 is a regular '73 Martin D-35 which I have often compared with others for sale and never found anything I liked better (for my style) - at least in my price range! (Say not exceeding 2k-3k in UK pounds). A 1999 pic of me (taken with a very early digital camera that used a floppy disc!) accompanies my home produced solo album, all recorded on that guitar, see here.

More recently I acquired its "big sister", a 12-fret Martin HD-28VS, which has even more sound and a quality and resonance all its own, but not quite the clarity of the D-35. Both great to play though. My other present holdings are both luthier built here in Oztralia, one by Gary Rizzolo of Rizzolo Guitars and the other by Jack Spira of Jack Spira Guitars... both are beautiful instruments and have their own sound and feel, and would be hard to leave behind in a burning building as well! I *think* the D-35 is the best all rounder for playing "out" and with other musos, but the others certainly are not out of the picture.

You can see a more recent photo of the Rizzolo in action (a bit distant) here played by some old geezer (thanks to John Penhallow for the picture!) while the Spira guitar is here: Spira jumbo S4 Australia

I put up a pic of the 2 Martins side by side for a comparison of their size and appearance for use in a Wikipedia article, here: Martin dreads side by side ... A picture (or several) is worth a thousand words methinks!

Tony

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Tony Rees
Date: 09 Jul 25 - 09:28 PM

You don't see many Spira guitars around, which is why I share this, now expired listing on Reverb for the same model as mine, the S4 Jumbo, which could come in different wood choices (mine is "standard" rosewood with spruce top). A range of nice pictures as well. The description of the sound, although stated as translated from a Japanese site, is actually pretty good!
Jack Spira S4 guitar for sale (presumably sold). Now I have to get mine out of its case to be reacquainted with my fingers...

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Tony Rees
Date: 10 Jul 25 - 02:09 AM

The keen-eyed observer may spot that the Spira S4 guitar illustrated on Reverb (5 years later than mine) has a round soundhole; his earlier version had an oval soundhole per my picture posted above, like a cross between the "gypsy jazz" (Selmer) and round hole/folk style appearance. Not sure how that alters the sound, if at all, but it certainly makes for an interesting look!

- Tony

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: gillymor
Date: 10 Jul 25 - 08:07 AM

I tend to go for instruments that are not too ornate but Spiras guitars and zouks are very attractive.

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Fred
Date: 10 Jul 25 - 08:27 AM

For me it's about tone and feel. Looks doesn't bother me much, unless it's very blingy. That would kinda put me off.

TEHO I guess

-F

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: gillymor
Date: 10 Jul 25 - 10:29 AM

When I choose an instrument it is first and foremost about sound and playability but I appreciate musical instruments as functional art forms as well. A friend of mine has a small house that is bursting at the seams with hand-made instruments from all over, Australian digeridoos, African percussion and kalimbas, Native American flutes and Hawaiian ukes and other exotic stuff from other locales, many of which he's collected in person. Going up there to pick with him, he's proficient on hammered dulcimer and concertina, is a magical experience.

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Tony Rees
Date: 10 Jul 25 - 04:10 PM

gillymor wrote:

> When I choose an instrument it is first and foremost about sound and playability but I appreciate musical instruments as functional art forms as well.

Yes I have the same view. My particular Martins are basically plain(ish), factory built instruments and although of course they are built by skilled workers and have an intrinsic good aesthetic / attractive look, they are not fancy and I own them for the sound they produce along with their playability. My small-luthier acquisitions are something different - beautiful creations in their own right that also sound nice, as well as being the expression of the skill and personal design flavour of a single luthier, plus a point along their particular journey (they will not be building exactly the same way in say 2010 as opposed to 2025). Also if you have met or have had some personal interaction with the luthier (or seen their place of operation) that makes for a richer experience as well. Plus of course (although this is not the case for my instruments, which have either been purchased from a luthier's existing stock or I am not the original owner) one can have a say in the design choices to get something unique or otherwise individualised if a non-standard instrument is desired - as well as perhaps a warm fuzzy feeling that you are supporting local, or not so local, artistic enterprises.

I know one can do the same from e.g. the Martin Custom Shop as well so that would no doubt be an equally worthwhile experience.

People buy works of art to hang on their walls. We are lucky, we can also buy works of art/craftsmanship that also produce beautiful sounds.

- Tony

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Tony Rees
Date: 10 Jul 25 - 04:31 PM

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

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Fred
Date: 10 Jul 25 - 05:18 PM

Look good 'uns, Tony. Do they gig?

-F

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Subject: RE: Best guitar you've owned yet...
From: Fred
Date: 10 Jul 25 - 05:32 PM

Ah, ya sold 'em. I've been there, sold an incredible sounding Gibson Hummingbird that I've never gotten over. Haunts the hell out of me still, 30 years later. If I could buy it back, I'd jump at it.

-F

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