Holy crap it's been an intense period of buying and selling and buying and not getting and buying guitars! It all started when I sold my Beneteau 000-12c locally. This led me to buy a Baranik JX (Carpathian over E.I Rosewood) off the forum. The seller didn't want to ship to Switzerland though, so after an intense couple days stressing out about missing such a cool guitar I decided to fly to Canada to visit family and have the guitar shipped to the border near my parents house and drive over to get it.
Once that was decided I figured I might was well see if I can get a trade for my Goodall TROM, which was awesome, but I wanted something a bit more responsive to bare fingers. After a week or two of negotiation on multiple fronts, I ended up selling the guitar to a buyer in the states, with the agreement that I would ship it when I picked up the Baranik in the states.
With that money I decided to buy the koa Claxton EMc that is now back for sale on the forum. Why is it back for sale you ask - becase USPS took over 2 weeks to deliver the guitar (paid for 2-3 day express) and I had to leave the country before it ever arrived. Eventually the guitar made it's way back to the original owner and I got my cash refunded. I went home with an amazing Baranik JX, but was a bit sad to have missed out on the Claxton (and having sold my Goodall to get it).
Once I got my money refunded I placed another wanted ad here and got a great offer for a Froggy K Ltd in Adi over Fiddleback mahogany. I had never even seen a Froggy in the wild, but figured if I were ever to buy on reputation alone, Froggy would be one of the safer bets - especially at the price I was offered. Buying this Frog turned out to be a bit more of a hassle then expected though, due to online banking difficulties and letters from the bank getting lost in the mail. It took a few weeks, but the Froggy is now safe in it's new pond. Very, very happy.
If you made it this far (or just scrolled past looking for pics), I'll try not to disappoint.
First the Baranik JX:
https://reverb.com/item/28348267-bar...ndian-rosewood
This is a fantastic fingerstyle guitar. Nice wide specs, great clarity, with a bit of overtones - actually surprisingly clear considering that it's a 16" Rosewood guitar. Works great with bare fingers, especially with this extra clarity! I've been enjoying playing a lot of James Taylor on it, and have recently starting playing with his "little wheel" lesson on youtube, and finding variations on it. Very cool guitar, and probably the most comfortable guitar for me that I've ever had. The string spacing and neck and very ideal for me.
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And the Frog:
https://thenorthamericanguitar.com/p...duran-mahogany
I was nervous, because this one has the standard 1 3/4" and 2 3/16" spacing that most frogs come with. After bonding so well with the wider spaced Baranik I wasn't sure if I should pull the trigger on this one. On the other hand, how many used frogs with wide spacing show up on the used market - especially in Europe? I decided to buy it anyway and do my best to make it work. It was absolutely the right decision! This guitar has been an epiphany for me - so good for bare fingers, but so good for strumming too - such a full sound, but so clear. What an amazing guitar. The only thing left to do is to find one in a wide spacing configuration and wish financial troubles on the owner (kidding).
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