[Jim Tozier]

Originally Posted by stuartb

I know you're a Hamblin fan and I look forward to hearing his Guitars at Healdsburg.

Healdsburg is definitely a guitarist's dream. Have fun!

You might even be playing them for him, I can't recall.

Kent invited me to play, but I can't make it out there this year. Doug Young played teh Hamblin mini-concert last time, and did a fantastic job. I hope Doug is able to do it again.

My conclusion was, in case your curious, that I need to hear one live.

A wise conclusion.

By the way, none of the recordings on my website were done with Hamblins. My first CD, Castlerea, was recorded with a handful of cedar-topped Taylors, and the other two CDs were recorded with an Avalon A101. It wasn't until just after recording those CDs that I decided to have Kent build a couple of guitars for me.

The first recording I did with a Hamblin was "Begin the Beguine," my contribution to the DeLovely Guitar tribute to Cole Porter. I used the cedar/mahogany one for that.

I find you can eliminate guitars via recordings, but you can't really pick.

Playing one live is definitely best. The Hamblin that is now in RickS's possession is the one that convinced me to give Kent a call. There's no substitute for playing a builder's guitar for yourself.

To that end, if you're ever in the Atlanta area, you're most welcome to drop by for a visit and a Hamblin trial.

Your music sounds great though, I'll say that.

Thanks! Maybe I'll just send you a free CD instead of paying you to say that.

It's a CA guitar. Don't even know what that stands for yet. But it sounds really nice.

CA = Composite Acoustics. I've heard nothing but good things about CA guitars, and most folks tend to think they have a bit more of a "Martinesque" sound to them than Rainsongs.

For my purposes, I wanted to stay in the lower price range of the Rainsong advanced series. If I were looking at the original Rainsongs, I'd definitely want to compare them to CA Guitars, which I think are similarly priced.