This week I ordered my first made-to-order instrument. It wil be at leat a year, more likely two before I have it, but the process is now underway.
How did I get to this point? Well, we have a small house and in the interest of domestic peace (and taking into account what is fair and reasonable) there is room for one more guitar and probably not two more, at least not for the time being. Longer-term we will build another room or two on. Meanwhile, only one more guitar unless I sell one, and I'm not going to do that.
So I've been having a real struggle making up my mind which one to get. I've nearly, nearly bought about ten.
First it was a Maton Vera May - 808 body, Lutz Spruce on Blackwood, limited edition to celebrate Vera May's 100th birthday. (Vera is the wife of Bill May, the "May" in "May-Tone", later "Maton". Vera and Bill built the business together and she is now 101 and still going strong.) I noticed that a Melbourne shop I've dealt with happily before had a Vera May at the pre-pandemic price. Luckily (?) they sold it one day before I arrived in Melbourne to try it out.
Along the way I tried a Maton Artist in Launceston - another 808 in spruce and Blackwood. It was a bit of an eye-opener; Played it side by side with my Messiah 808 (Maton's top-of-the-range spruce and rosewood model) it measured up very well indeed. A different, dryer, more woody sound, but in no way outclassed. They would make an excellent matched pair. Very tempted.
Then on to Melbourne and a long drive to Mornington (of all places) where the local music shop has a range of guitars in very interesting local timbers made by a chap called Eborall.
https://nepeanmusic.com.au/collections/acoustic-guitars I particularly liked the look of the Huon Pine jumbo but in the event, I didn't especially care for that one. (It wasn't a patch on my little Huon Pine Cole Clark Angel.) I played all the others too and several were very nice, but none really rang my bell. He likes a Gibson sound and (very unusually) fits extra-light .11 strings as standard, so close but no cigar.
After that, three beauties in South Melbourne: the one I particularly went to look at was Huss and Dalton maple-back jumbo, three years old and in perfect condition: $5000 where a new one is about $7300. I actually decided to buy that one, but changed my mind at the last moment. I was also very taken with a pair of Martin 000s, a 000-18, and a CEO-7 (which is essentially the same thing with a Red Spruce top and a horrible Gibson-style sunburst).
And then there is the prospect of Maton's 75th Anniversary model: Sitka Spruce and Blackwood on a new body style for them. They have for many years made three bodies, the concert-size 808, a jumbo, and a dreadnought. The new body style, which they have trialled with a series of custom shop models these last couple of years, is similar to the 808 but a little larger and deeper, say about Martin OM size. Being new, they have named it the "Traditional" body. (Duh!) But the guitars will be lovely, no doubt about that. Probably the only thing that stopped me ordering one is the finish: a subtle sunburst. Subtle or not, I dislike sunbursts. Silly reason, but there you go.
And then I walked into the second-hand shop here in Hobart where I bought the Thunderhawk baritone six months ago. They remembered me. Did I want to sell the Thunderhawk? No. They have a buyer in the States offering top dollar. Nope. Not for sale. OK.
So they showed me a truly wonderful old Guild, a GF-60 spruce and rosewood mini-jumbo from the late 1980s, one of only about 300 ever made. The "G" stands for the designer, George Gruhn (as in the Gruhn Guitars), and it is unique in my experience in that it seems to combine the depth and bass punch of a good jumbo (say that lovely Huss and Dalton) with the delicacy and clear, fine trebles of a good orchestra model (like my Messiah). That is an incredibly rare combination. I really, really liked that one - but it was only a quick look and I didn't have one of my own guitars there with me to provide a known standard as a baseline. (Several times now my habit of bringing one of my own guitars into a shop has saved me from buying something.) To make things worse, they also had a 2009 Martin HD-28. I've played D-28s and a new HD-28 before and quite liked them (I had a new D-28 on my shortlist before I bought the Messiah this time last year) but this one was on another level. It just took me by the scruff of the neck and said "Play bluegrass on me! Now!" Other stuff too, but especially country-folk and bluegrass and fast blues-rock. A specialist guitar - and if you have five or six instruments already, that's exactly what you want, something different.
In short, I've been wandering around the guitar shops of southern Australia eyeing off beauties like a drunken sailor at a nurses' ball.