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What Are Your Acoustic Guitar Recommendations?


JoshuaRichard

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Hey everyone!

 

I am interested in finding a high quality guitar. My price point would be from medium-high to high. Anything custom, obscure, or that you have excellent experience with, or even just the obvious ones. I'm not a connoisseur of acoustic guitars, so I simply do not know many brands that are worth the money.

 

Feel free to discuss it among yourselves as well. Any speculations are welcome. :)

 

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All of them, then some of them, then a few and finally one. Do that. Then once done and you've had the chance to learn a few tricks, you'll repeat a more streamlined exercise of the same thing. This will continue until you arrive at a brand, model and sound you love but I completely disagree with you on. So, I'll postpone my recommendations until you become savvy and then you won't need it.

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please define 'medium' and 'high' in US $.

Martin, Guild, Gibson, Taylor, Breedlove....

 

 

Yes, to me "medium" is maybe 3-5K, high is up to 10 (or more). In that price range I would start with the small boutique shops - Collings, Santa Cruse, and the high will take you to all the custom builders - Greven, Wayne Henderson, Franklin...

 

The other problem with high end guitars is that they really fall into two categories - what I call 'traditional' instruments (which is what I've mostly listed) and 'modern' which are guys like Tim McKnight and Ervin Somogyi. How about telling us your real price range, what kind of playing you want it for, what you have tried and like/don't like.

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Actually this is kind of an interesting post. Joshua doesn't tell us anything about the kind of music he plays, what he is looking for in an acoustic guitar, price range (other than "medium-high to high") or anything else to guide us. So, I checked out his profile to see if I could glean anything from it.

 

It says he is a drummer for what appears to be a metal/hard rock band. He is a Texan living in Nova Scotia, and lists his occupation as "Cashier/Cart Pusher at Atlantic Superstore". I'm starting to wonder if this isn't some kind of troll, but lets play along.

 

Since you are in Canada and asking about "obscure" brands, how about any of the great Canadian luthiers - particularly the group that studied with Jean Larrivee. Linda Manzer, Grit Laskin, David Wren, Sergei de Jonge could all build you a lovely high end guitar, as could David Freeman (no relation) in the $10K range (US, I don't know what the exchange is). If you really want to go overboard, Ken Parker (the inventor of the Fly) is building archtops now at about $30K each (but his waiting list is several years). One advantage of a Canadian builder is that he/she can deal with all the pesky little details of getting CITES material into the country so you won't have to.

 

OK, ball's in your court - any of these sound good?

 

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Yes, it would help if we knew more details about Joshua's music, i.e., playing styles/genres (e.g., pop, folks, celtic, country, etc.), playing techniques (e.g., flatpack, fingerstyle, strumming) and presentation (e.g., solo player, singer/songwriter, band).

 

For example, I play solo fingerstyle acoustic and classical guitar, no vocals, in a variety of genres. The guitars that work for me well will likely not be the same as the guitars that will work well for a rhythm player in a county band.

 

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One advantage of a Canadian builder is that he/she can deal with all the pesky little details of getting CITES material into the country so you won't have to.

 

Excellent point... and that's great news for a person who buys a guitar to keep / use at home exclusively, but it sucks for touring musicians who play overseas... :(

 

 

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There's a Long & McQuade where you are and their web site lists 136 guitars from $3000 to $5000. Martin, Gibson, Taylor, Rainsong, McPherson, Larrivée, Kevin Michael. If none of those rings your bell they have others that are more expensive but It'll be a decent place to start.

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If I were in Canada I'd be heading down to Toronto and paying the 12th Fret a visit. I hear they got LOTS of Larrivees. If I had $8000 to burn I'd be on the phone to Tim and Mary McKnight but I'm a bit biased since they are dear friends.

Halifax to Toronto is a bit over 1100 miles, nearly 1800 kilometers. Your heart's in the right place but that's hardly a day trip. :(

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CITES is a international treaty on the sale of certain endangered materials. Countries subscribe to it and then create their own enforcement system. In the US it is the department of fish and wildlife that enforces it (since many of these materials are animal products). US customs also has a role, I frankly don't know exactly how it works. The US law that recognizes CITES and sets up enforcement in the US is called the :Lacey Act.

 

There are two different classifications of materials under CITES (known as Appendix I and II) covering materials that can be imported/exported but with restrictions (mahogany, ebony are examples) and some that simply cannot be brought in and out (Brazilian rosewood, elephant ivory, bear gall bladders....). There are also different restrictions on raw materials (a board) and finish product (a guitar).

 

There are also some provisions for what is called "pre ban" materials - ie. Martin's stash of old Braz can be used on new instruments providing they can document its age. There are more provisions for older instruments (grandpa's old Martin with the ivory saddle). Lastly, there is a paper trail that allows new instruments to be owned, used and transported across borders.

 

There have been cases of legal action brought against people dealing with these materials - remember Gibson's issue with ebony a few years ago? Yet other companies have no trouble working around these laws (Taylor is the shining example). Most people in the lutherie community know how to make it work also - I was recently offered a very nice Brazilian set with paperwork (for $800, I was tempted).

 

I have never heard of a traveling musician having a guitar seized at the board which is why I asked Phil if he had. However it really is no different from traveling with anything else - there are rules, you should know them - ignorance is no excuse.

 

Lastly, I got to know CITES a couple of years ago when I built the 335 clone for a forumite in Europe and I had to jump thru the paperwork trail on all of the materials I used. It frankly wasn't that big a deal, the guitar passed scrutiny and life is good.

 

I also have very strong feelings about many of the materials on the CITES list and the international traffic in them. I personally will not use any ivory or tortoise materials in my guitars and I know that any shell that I use is legally harvested.

 

The funny thing is, and this brings the discussion back to Joshua and his "high" price point guitar - almost by definition we expect a $8 or 10K guitar to be made out of these materials which means that both the builder and the buyer better be aware.

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None of which tells me--or anyone else--whether Canada has CITES restrictions on rosewood. If you know, a link would be helpful.

And I also have no idea what the OP means by ''My price point would be from medium-high to high.'' I pointed him at Long & McQuade's $3000-5000 inventory as a starting point. They carry a couple of carbon fiber McPhersons that might qualify as ''obscure'' enough.

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Of the big companies, I'd most love to bag a Guild D-55. And there's a small British company that has me tremulating these days: Auden.

 

Then there are the countless small-shop handmade guitars. For hipster mojo, I'd dig a Danny Ferrington. But every time I open Fretboard Journal, there are three more shops I'd love to buy something from.

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DE, very simply, CITES is an ITERNATIONAL treaty (kinda sorta like the Paris Accords). If a country signs on to it (and both the US and Canada have) then they agree to abide by import/export restrictions on certain materials. How they implement that within each country is up to that country.

 

Brazilian rosewood has been appendix I from the beginning - you can not import or export any raw boards of Braz to or from any country which has adopted CITES. Pernambuco (used in violin bows and as it happens, Ken Parker uses it for his headstocks) is also Appendix I, along with ivory, tortoise shell, rhinoceros horn, yadda yadda. There are provisions for transporting finished products with Appendix I materials however.

 

Most of the other rosewoods have recently been added to Appendix II (along with ebony and mahogany) which means that raw materials (boards) are restricted at borders but finished products are not.

 

My point was that if Joshua really wants to buy a high end guitar, it will probably have some of these materials and it would certainly be easier to buy from someone who knows Canadian law. He will be provided the documentation to take his new guitar back to Texas when he wants to.

 

So, bottom line, Canada, like the US has restrictions on Brazilian (and other) rosewoods

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Yup, have the book. My favorite picture in it is the Cooder axe with the neck that's two-thirds standard and one-third baritone. Whew!

 

I actually got an article in FJ a year or so ago - a proud moment. It was about a Celtic instrument-maker here in Maine, Nic Apollonio.

 

Last article I read about Ferrington, he was obsessed with gourd bodies.

 

What I like best about him is his attitude: Guitar-building was perfected years ago. So the point isn't to build a great guitar. It's to build a guitar the owner will love.

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I'm not the one who suggested Canada had no CITES restrictions on rosewood, that was kwakatak. Since I'm not a builder, nor in the market for a high end guitar, I frankly have no reason to know. I do know Canada subscribes to CITES but how/whether they enforce all the particulars is something I don't know. I'll bow to your greater expertise.

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Del, just want to thank you for reminding me of Ferrington and that book. I hadn't read it for years, took it off the shelf last night and dusted it off. Denny was definitely a builder who marched to a different drummer - totally fun stuff.

 

I remember seeing the FBJ article about him also but what I remembered was the gourd guitars and that he wasn't doing the beautifully wacky things like the 90's. Anyway, it was a fun walk back on memory lane.

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