The only guitar I've had for any length of time is my handbuilt 000 built by British luthier John Hullah. I bought this brand new in 1988 and although I bought it from a store I did take it to John for a set up a year or so later. For the first few years I had it, I thought it was a good guitar. In the mid nineties, I found myself really getting into learning fingerstyle ragtime and my playing became more frequent and more focused. It was then that the guitar began sounding not just good, but really great. As you suggest, there must have been a subjective element in all this, but... I still suspect that it hadn't sounded quite like that when I first bought it. Without definitive before and after recordings it's impossible to say for sure, but I feel that the truth as to whether it was the guitar or I that accounted for the improvement may lie somewhere halfway between the two.
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