I have 2 steel string guitars, the Gibson Hummingbird Pro (a specialty Gibson Songwriter made exclusively for GC) at $2200 and my Epiphone EJ-200 which was (and still is) $399. If I do not play guitar for a week (which is exceedingly rare friends) and go into my guitar room, I usually play the Epi first. Wow, it sounds good - It has a real deep, rich tone, especially with the EXP strings on her. I sit for 1/2 hour playing it and thinking "I don't need that darn Gibson - listen to how good this Indonesian thing sounds!" Yes, it's really quite good - deep basses, crisp highs, solid build, excellent action and playability.

But then I pull the Gibson out of the case, and with the first fingerpick and strum, the poor old Epi sinks back, humbly, into the corner of my mind. No matter how the Epi impresses me, the Gibson is soooooo superior -- resonant, deep lows, devastating mids, such a meal of sound.

I do that probably once every three months - play the Epi, let it impress me, and then switch to the Hummingbird and get blown to pieces by the quality of the sound. I fall for that all the time. I'm fortunate that I pick up the Gibson before I wander over to the computer and post on AGF: "WOW - The Epi EJ-200 is as good as the Gibson!!!" or some other such idiocy lol . . .

And let's not even talk about the Yairi - that one is on a completely different planet