Scodiddly

I'd second (or maybe it's third) the suggestion to try slightly lighter tension strings. I have a Taylor 314, and have switched to a silk and steel set (LaBella 710-L). The bass notes are smoother, less tubby than the usual Taylor-suggested phosphor bronze lights. Downside is that the unwound strings seem a bit more fussy to pick technique, and of course the guitar is a bit quieter.

I think these guy are what the Ramones would look like if they had blonde hair..........the guy on the left looks like Joey Ramone to me I would have said Led Zepplin...

I really like the "Vend-A-Goat" one, myself.

+1 on the Big Muddy. I've had their little one, the MM-8, for about a year and a half. Fun little firecracker, but I had some intonation issues (new to mando, took me a while to notice). I ended up sending back to the builder, who fixed a couple of things and sent it right back. If you want to support a company that's in the USA and run by somebody who gives a damn...

I'm 40, and I do a variety of work (mostly office & shop) for a high-quality sound company in the Chicago area. I still do have some of my own odd stuff which I can cobble together for a PA: MIXER: A Soundcraft Spirit RacPac, just like Audiopile's. Great little board, though I'd be a lot happier if it had channel mutes. Bought used (and not especially cheap) maybe 8-10 years ago, and I've only had to replace a couple input preamp parts in all that time. Fits nicely into one of the old Samsonite suitcases I use for hauling around stuff. I've also got a big DDA console I got used, which has a few more channels and much better EQ than the RacPac. SPEAKERS: A pair of EV "Force" 1x15 cabinets, originally purchased for playing upright bass. Tall and square, great low end. Not especially good at the power handling, though. Better-sounding than anything else I looked at on the cheap end, though. AMPS: For quiet stuff I've got a 3-channel 100 watt amp I built out of a couple salvaged chassis from a now-defunct power speaker company (Red Acoustics). For loud stuff I've got the classic QSC RMS 850. PROCESSING: A dbx Driverack 260 for system EQ and such - great swiss-army knife box, I can get extra outputs with separate parametric EQ for other feeds, solve various routing problems, etc. A dbx 1066 dual compressor, which I bought used last summer and really haven't used all that much. Also have a FMR "Really Nice Compressor" which is great for vocals, terrible on bass. EFFECTS: A TC Electronics M2000, bought used a year or two ago. Wonderful reverb, plus a bunch of other effects I never use. Completely different from the Yamaha reverbs I'd grown up on. MICS: A real odd lot, since I got more interested in trying out various mics instead of building a working inventory. I've got an SM-57, SM-86, Sennheiser 421 and 441, a pair of the original CAD E-100 mics, three of the CAD C-195 condensor vocal mics, and several Oktava MK-012s. Plus the mics I build myself, several "Alice", "Audrey", and a couple "Earl" mics. All of my own mics are condensors built more for acoustic stuff than loud sources - the Earl is specifically built for doing the live bluegrass "one mic" setup. The CAD E-100 mics are interesting, and I almost always use one for kick drum. DIs: A pair of EWI actives (LDB-101) from Audiopile. They sound great on bass guitar, plenty good enough on everything else I've tried, and have a ground lift switch which actually works. CABLES: Assorted cables, sometimes built as needed. I never really set out to build a show rig, I just accumulated pieces as needed for various odd jobs. Not really interested in making a living from hauling a PA around - mainly I don't like bars, but also because I'm more of an electronics and computer guy. With my current job I work the occasional show, but mostly I'm in the shop dealing with repairs, rentals, and other odd jobs like IT and website management.

I've got one - it's pretty bare-bones, no preamps or anything. And the analog circuitry is on the card that goes into the computer, which is a bit of a sonic compromise to some folks. But it works fine - I've made some very clean acoustic recordings with no complaints at all.