000-28 will exhaust your budget. Don't forget the setup.

I would take the 3k
and buy the guitar i have
for sale here on agf.
😉
link here
https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=620371

One
 

I would get one $3000 guitar- either a D-35, an HD-28, or a J--45

Honestly I'd probably buy 3 $1000 or 6 $500 guitars. I have several $500-1000$ guitars that sound amazing and are beautiful! Just look at this $500 Epiphone I recently purchased.

https://i.imgur.com/ZCgUrr9.jpg

I would buy a single $3k guitar. I just bought my 5th acoustic, a HD-28. I wish that is where I would have started.

After 25 years and owning 50 guitars, everything from Seagull to Santa Cruz and Collings, I think there is a huge difference between a $1500 and a $3000 guitar, but not as big a difference between a $3000 guitar and $5000 guitar.
YMMV.

I see Orpheum in your Sig I think they were about 5k list but sold closer to 3k would you consider that a 5 or 3k guitar?

Personally, I would consider an Orpheum a $3K guitar. The street price was in the upper sector of that range when it sold new, and it sits under that now on the used market. (They are highly undervalued and underrated now as they were when new.)

I totally disagree with you, Zissou Intern. I have a E20D-tc that I paid 1700 bucks for, that sounds better than the 3000 plus dollar Martins, that I no longer own. I have no regrets at all in selling them. My Eastman is going nowhere. My Martin DSS-17 also sounds better to me than the 2 Martins I sold. Its going no where either.

For me personally, if it came down to adding to my collection, at this point I would buy one more expensive guitar. However, that's because I have my basses already covered. If I did not already have a large number of guitars, probably two or three good used guitars, fitting two or three different needs. I would have an OM for finger picking and a spruce/mahogany dread for strumming and flat picking.

The IBG Epis are very nice and I am very happy with mine. I own the Hummingbird and the J200 of that series. I also own an Eastman E20OM, which is a very nice guitar. You could get the Epi IBG J45 for $800, the E20OM for $1200, and still have enough for another guitar or other stuff.

I'd get two:

- Godin 5th Avenue Nightclub, new at around $1650
- A beautiful used slim-body Ovation Elite to play through my new (to me) Fishman Loudbox Performer. I'd anticipate a cost of between $1,00-1400 for that.