Acoustic Guitars, et. al.

I grew up in Martin country, where everyone who was anyone had a Martin, but for some reason I never got one. Then a few years back I heard a folk duo accompanied by a small-bodied Martin clone. I loved how this guitar had a confident single-string voice and still had great chord cohesion. I downloaded the song and continued to marvel over the sound of that guitar. Somehow I hadn't tried out a Martin when looking into GA- and GC-sized instruments. Over time I was exposed repeatedly to this sound and it grew on me. Finally, I identified the guitar that provided that sound, the Martin OM. Then on a vacation trip, my wife and I stopped by a huge Martin dealer and I tried out their OMs. Both my wife and I were enamored by the sound and the classic looks of this particular guitar. It indeed supported fingerstyle and strummed very nicely. The guitar was built extremely lightly. The rosewood sides and back were resonant and responded just like the guitars in the videos. So right there on the spot my wife decided to buy it for me as a commemoration of my fortieth year in the recording industry. This is a 2021 Martin OM-28 Standard Reimagined finished in a lovely, dark 1935 sunburst. My review is HERE. More pictures are HERE.

Everyone needs a dread. This is my second example of this model, a Taylor 710ce dreadnought. Starting in 2001 and running for a few years, this model had an Engelmann spruce top and East Indian rosewood sides and back. That unique combination gave it a great, full, bottom end, the usual clear Taylor sound, great single-string definition, wonderful sustain, and excellent response to a light touch. With this combination of woods it loves lowered tunings as well. The rosewood binding, koa rosette, and white pinstripe purfling, are attractive, understated details. I spent a half-year lusting after my original one in the shop, a 2001 model, before I put it on layaway. Over the years I used it in the studio and benefitted from its strong sound. Fifteen years after I acquired it, I rather impulsively traded it off to get another guitar. By the time I got home I already missed it. That same day my lovely wife innocently mentioned that the 710ce had been her favorite guitar. Oops! That really settled my mind: Right away I started saving money and looking for a replacement. The search was complicated by the fact that in the interim, Engelmann spruce has become quite rare. Basically, the only reasonable way to get your hands on it in a factory instrument is to buy an older instrument from that era. Six months later I found this one, a 2004 model. Mysteriously, though it was fifteen years old when I found it, this guitar and its case looked virtually new. This one is also quite a bit lighter than my original one but sounds just as nice, if a little more refined. Did I mention this guitar is LOUD? There are more and larger pics, HERE.

Well, I resisted it for years, but I've finally acquired a classic Martin Dreadnought, a 2022 HD-28 from the Standard Reimagined Series featuring a sitka spruce top and East Indian rosewood back and sides. What does this guitar have that I don't already have? BOOM!!! A quickly-responding bass and a full sound. With the scalloped, forward-shifted bracing added to the HD model, this guitar returns to the pre-war spec that gave it its huge voice. The high strings also have a robust, full sound and pinch harmonics ring out easily. Compared to the guitar above, this one feels "wilder." The "H" actually refers to "herringbone," the fine herringbone inlay around the body margin. Aged top toner, a multi-stripe zig-zag center back inlay, a tortoise pickguard, and the abalone "Diamonds and Squares Short Pattern" fretboard inlay round out the visual aesthetic. Somewhere in the one year between the OM above and this guitar, Martin stopped staining their ebony. The figuring on the fingerboard and bridge attest to that fact. My review is HERE.

Here's a new 2011 Taylor 354ce. The shapely grand auditorium body is made with dark brown sapele that looks like mahogany and the top is sitka spruce with gentle silking. It has a very nice, smooth sound to it and handles strumming extremely well. The action is remarkably low and comfortable. In the '90s, Leo Kottke experienced hand issues and had to give up playing 12 string guitar. Then he discovered the Taylor 12 string guitars with their low action and was able to start playing 12 string again. He now has his own signature model. In the 2011 Expression System version 1.3, Taylor has finally come through with a natural, clear pickup sound. This guitar arrived with Elixer nanoweb strings and I think I'll stay with them. My wife and I first encountered one of these at a local guitar store. After trying several over a year, I finally snagged one for myself. Go HERE for a review and more pictures.

In Fall of 2000, Taylor came up with an extensive line of limited edition guitars they dubbed, "Legends of the Fall." In each of the offerings there were upgrades, from body and top woods to inlays, that added value to guitars from some of their existing lines, all at a very reasonable upgrade price. This 2001 314kce is one of those offerings. The "k" suffix in the model number refers to the fact that Hawaiian koa was substituted for the standard sapele as the body and side wood. The inlay on the back was also included, with non-cutaway models receiving an intertwined dual mirror image version and cutaway models receiving this treatment. On forums this inlay was jokingly referred to as "The Luthier Formerly Known as Bob Taylor." With its Fishman Prefix, this guitar has turned out to be an excellent guitar for combo stage work because of its strong resistance to feedback. Because I knew I'd be playing it out often, I upgraded its case to a Taylor Deluxe "Pink Poodle" model. This guitar lives at the studio as my "maid of all tasks."

Taylor has been experimenting with design changes lately and one of their changes has been to create a "twelve fret" guitar. In this case that comes in the form of a grand concert 12 fret, a small guitar with a neck that joins the body at the twelfth fret and features a 25.78" scale. This particular one is a Taylor 312e 12 Fret, a grand concert with a sitka spruce top and dark sapele back and sides. One result of shifting the neck down is that the bridge is necessarily shifted down towards the center of the lower bout as well. Between that and this model's scalloped bracing, the tonal result is a deeper bass sound. On top of that, the shorter scale offers a sweeter high-end than longer scale guitars offer. The shorter scale with its lower tension also offers the ability to build the guitar lighter, which makes it responsive to a light touch. The aim of this design is to create a smaller, comfortable lap guitar that supports fingerstyle playing well. To a guy who considers Gibson scale his home scale, this little guitar is a God-send, offering a softer left-hand feel for greater articulation. The new Taylor pink poodle case is great, too. All-in-all it is a very comfortable, intimate guitar to play and a great companion on the couch. More, HERE.

One day my wife asked me to go out with her to get the vacuum cleaner repaired and I ended up with a BIG, surprise. This is a Cordoba 55R classical guitar with rosewood sides and back, a sitka spruce top, and a Spanish cedar neck with ebony fingerboard and reinforcement strip. The hand-inlaid rosette and binding block are nice touches on a very mellow, classic instrument. I would never have considered a spruce top for a classical guitar but we discovered this one in a guitar store and it really sang with authority and balance. After my wife fell in love with it, she set up a surprise trip to the guitar store under the disguise of a trip to the vacuum cleaner repair store and then even negotiated the deal with the manager. Viva la surprise! Click HERE for more pics.

Lately there's been a revival of Blues-based music so I tracked down and added resonator guitar to use on recording sessions. That prospect is considerably harder than it might seem because there are so many kinds of resonators that yield such different sounds. With the help from friends I had to zero in on a sound and style and then find one that fit the bill. That guitar was the Gretsch G9202 "Honey Dipper Special," a resonator with a handsome, bell brass-body, a round neck, a biscuit bridge, and a very rootsy, bluesy sound. You can find out more HERE.