Thanks to the generously of one AGF member (Larry Martz) who used to live 15 mins from me, I was invited to play some of his Goodalls after reaching out to him for advice on the brand. I ended up purchasing a Fort Bragg made TRD in Adi/EIR and a Kona HI made TROM in Adi/BRW. I also got to play a few others including a few CJs, two 000 12-frets, and a custom TRD in all mahogany which was cool.
It became clear early in the demos that I was leaning toward the Traditional line (TR) over the regular and heavily overtoned non-TRs. My musical focus is largely bluegrass flatpicking, and the TRD and TROM sounded closest to the Martin voicing which I prefer.
In time, both guitars were sold. The TRD neck was a bit too small (James and Luke slimmed down their traditional medium/fat C neck upon return to Ford Bragg in 2009), and the weight of the TRD also bugged me at close to 5 lbs. The TROM was sold after I took delivery of a Martin 000-18 Authentic, but in retrospect I never played it all that much either. I guess I just realized that the Martin vintage voicing and the Authentics and Santa Cruz sound were better suited for how I play and for the music I enjoy.
Pauls (Haasome) comments on having too heavy of a hand masking some of their nuances may have some merit. I would note that neither my TRD or TROM were ideal played fingerstyle and seemed to sound better (to me) when used with a flatpick. The non-TRs that I played at Larrys were the opposite.
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