Went down to Toronto and played about 30 guitars today. Bit of this, bit of that. Bourgeois guitars, Santa Cruz, Guild, Collings, Beneteau, Martin, and on.

To make a long story short, I have the nicest guitar of everything I tried already. But I did get a little surprise. I did get a kick out of the Collings OM1 and I did get to play a DS1A which was fun, but did sound a little like my 000. And a little not. But I do want something different second time round.

So anyway. The guitar that surprised me was a beat up old guitar. It had been dragged behind a car, mauled by a bear, had most of the top wood finish (and some of the wood itself) scraped right off. But it was a tough guitar and had lots more life left in it. It won for wonderful even tone and overall quality of play. It was a 1964 Martin D28. It was better than the new martins, that's for certain. A D35 I played (I think it was) was way too heavy on the base side. Just overwhelmed the trebles. That is the first time in my life that I've played a dread and felt quite at home doing so.

I would have considered it for a beater guitar. Can't do any more damage to it. But they priced it pretty high. $4000. I thought that price was out of control. $2k and I might have done it. Wish they'd drop the price.

But the kicker is, I don't play dreads and I didn't think I liked Martins.

Any unusual guitars spark any interest on your travels of late.

Stuart

What shop(s) in Tornoto?

12th Fret in TO.

It's one of the few stores up in this area that has some selection.

Though why they located it in East Toronto is beyond me. Most of the wealth is in the west.

Wish I was younger. Would open a store.


Stuart

Yes, 12fret is quite a store. Wonderful selections by top luthiers.