Thanks, everyone! I did go out and do a lot of looking/playing. Apparently, a lot of dealers have received their after-Christmas restock orders! I spent so much time at other shops, I didn't get back to the dealer with the Guild. There are several I did try - here are the ones that at least moved me to take a photo on the phone:
- Epiphone FT-79 Texan
- Epiphone Masterbilt AJ-500RCE/VSS
- Epiphone Masterbilt De Luxe Archtop
- Fender CD140SCE All Mahogany
- Martin GPCX2AE X Series
- Martin DSR-1 Road Series
- Seagull Coastline Spruce CW QIT
- Seagull S6 Original Slim QIT
- Seagull S6 Spruce CW QIT Sunburst
- Takamine GD11 MCE all-mahogany
- Yamaha LL-TA
- Yamaha FG-TA
- Yamaha FS-TA
- Yamaha A3R Sunburst
Wow. A day well-spent! Here are some general impressions:
- The Epi Texan was surprisingly lively, much more so than its brothers, the Masterbilts. Strange, considering that the Masterbilts are supposedly all solid wood while the Texan has laminate sides. The De Luxe had a baseball bat for a neck - certainly the most chunky of all the necks I played today. If I go Epi, it'll be that Texan.
- The deal of the day was the Takamine. Not quite in the same class as some of the others but, for $299, its tone was rich and the guitar was nicely appointed.
- Yamahas are always nice. A while back, I thought my first acoustic would be an FG830 before health and the holidays waylayed my search. I had seen the TransAcoustic LL before but thought the system was more gimmick than a useful tool. I was wrong. The reverb and chorus sounds coming out of these guitars is rich and full. While the LL was super nice, it didn't sound $400 better than the FG/FS models. Wow. The FG/FS-TA are on my "short list."
- Seagulls - ah, I do love Seagulls! Love their sense of being environmentally friendly, love that they are built in Canada, love that they are innovative. Several new ones were available at the the two Seagull dealers. The new, deep red-brown stain on the S6 backs is a big improvement over the previous lighter stain. I tried several and the two that stood out were the Coastline Spruce CW Slim QIT and the S6 Original Cedar Slim QIT. For some reason, Seagull dreadnaughts just seem to be a bit more comfortable than other brands' and they just ring out. While I enjoy the warmth of the cedar top, the spruce model seemed to be a bit more responsive, especially when I really dug in a bit. (I'm finding that, as I gain more confidence in my playing, I do tend to strum hard. Yay me!)
- The Martin DRS-1 was perhaps my favorite of the day, just eking out the Seagull Coastline by a smidge. It was head-and-shoulders above the Martin GPCXAE2 in my estimation. The X Series model's back was all laminate with the appearance bordering on plastic. Some may like that - I do not. Considering that the all-solid wood body of the DRS-1 is only about 60 bucks more, it almost is a no-brainer. I'm sure the differing body shapes had a lot to do with the tone. The neck of the X Series seemed a bit rough and actually looked laminated; understandably, I feared that the neck of the DRS-1 would be similar. My fears were unfounded. The DRS-1 neck was nice and smooth and you'd be hard-pressed (see what I did there?) to tell that it was not wood. I know that I just checked out one sample of each, but if this is representative of the two models then the $60 upcharge for the DRS-1 is well worth it. In short, the DRS-1 was one of the two or three that actually "spoke" to me so yeah, it's on my short list. Unfortunately, I couldn't compare it directly to the Seagulls (different dealers).
Thanks again for all your comments. My wife and I will probably be going out again on Saturday to look at a few more.