Have you sold your wood guitars yet?

[steelvibe]

Originally Posted by Captain Jim

Brings to mind that "never say never" phrase. When I got the X20, I thought to myself: "Self, I'll never need another guitar." I made it almost 2 years... glad I didn't say it out loud.

I'm certainly guilty of saying "never". Crow isn't very tasty though.

[mountainmaster]

I probably should have sold my wood guitars when they were still playable, but they have been in high humidity conditions for too long now. No one wants to buy a guitar with a bulging top.
As you can imagine I am very glad that there is such a thing as carbon fiber.

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by mountainmaster

I probably should have sold my wood guitars when they were still playable...

Yet another reason. The planets are aligning.

[ac]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

The battle rages on daily between the Martin and the Emerald for who will stay and who will go. Early on it really seemed that the Martin would (ha - wood!) win. It's still my go-to guitar that I grab when I don't plug in and I'm just playing around the house. But now that I'm back to practicing hard for upcoming gigs the X20 has become the go-to again even though I'm still playing unplugged. I still grab the Martin first but after a few songs quickly change over to the X20.

The reason is twofold: First, the narrower string spacing on the X20 makes for better all-around playing of songs, especially the strummers. But second and more importantly, I'm finding I prefer the tone on the X20 as well. Initially I thought the Martin had the edge on tone because it is more lightly built and therefore more resonant and louder. But what I'm finding these days is the Martin is (surprisingly) easily over-driven when I really dig in. And that's with the Adirondack top which is supposed to have more headroom than regular or other types of spruce tops. But not so with the X20. The harder you dig in, the better it sounds.

Combine that with all the other benefits of carbon fiber and it's now the X20 which is opening up a lead over the Martin. My initial thought process was that the X7 and X20 might be redundant and it would be nice to have the variety of wood and carbon fiber but now with the X20 stepping up its game and the added lure never having to worry about neck resets, bridge lifting, dings, dents, finish checks, cracks, fret wear, humidity, too-dry, too-hot, too-cold... well, you get the idea!

All that said, I will admit that still like the idea of having at least one wood guitar and this Martin definitely is something special. I've been eyeing spots on the wall where a third guitar could hang. I've recently sold off my OF660 and a whole bunch of pedals that I had laying around doing nothing so now I've got the 'ransom payment' all set in PayPal for when I get the email from Emerald some 11 weeks or so down the road.

One thing is for sure - this battle is not over. It will rage on until the X7 arrives and don't think that I haven't thought that the X7 might be the one to disappoint and go on the block but I somehow doubt that based on what I'm seeing and hearing from those getting the new X7s! Stay tuned. I should start its own blog thread for this battle!!

I stumbled across an older article I had stashed away that focuses only on the search for the best sounding materials for making a guitar. Of course, it only discusses wood, but I thought immediately how applicable it was to our sub-forum as well.

I encourage you to read, but read through with your "carbon fiber" glasses on. I think there are some applicable insights for our current CF/wood conversations.

Ah, the link still exists:

https://dolcecano.blogspot.com/2009_...92624341608859

[K20C]

Not likely to sell. I love my two Emeralds, but....

[jdinco]

Whoa ! That Koa is AMAZING !! Thanks for posting that, even if it's not a CF guitar.

[Earl49]

Yup. Koa - especially like that - is what will keep at least one of my feet in the wooden world.

[byudzai]

I will admit that I'm in the same boat. I don't plan to sell this piece of guitar artwork.

[Methos1979]

Reviving a two-week-old thread to make a bold statement: The battle is over and the Martin lost. It had an early lead but the more I played them the more the X20 just widened the gap. I've considered everything single aspect of the two, played them in every situation and environment and the X20 wins.

All is not lost though, I'm still going to wait until the X7 gets here. I was tempted to sell off the Martin before the winter months because I don't relish shipping a wood guitar in the winter up here in north but I figure that would give me license to keep it around until spring and really A/B/C it with the X7 and X20.

The Martin is very special and quite exceptional which only goes to show you just how GREAT the X20 is!

[Earl49]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

........The Martin is very special and quite exceptional which only goes to show you just how GREAT the X20 is!

I'm not really surprised. I sold off four Martin guitars a few years ago one by one, in favor of the playing feel of Taylor necks. But none of them would stand a chance against my X20. When we travel to Phoenix later this month, several nice wood guitars will be making a one-way trip south for consignment sale down there. That avoids the whole "Craigslist crazies" issue and shipping risks.

[jdinco]

Sold a great 000-28 and a Rainsong when the X-20 arrived, today (this month anyway) the battle isn't between my wood and CF guitars for play time, it's between the Tele and the Emeralds. I've been playing the electric in the house and the Emerald outside, so it works pretty well. There is an adjustment going between the nut widths though that takes a few minutes to get used to. Love both.

[ceciltguitar]

Methos, If you like them all that much, keep them all.

[Captain Jim]

Originally Posted by jdinco

Sold a great 000-28 and a Rainsong when the X-20 arrived, today (this month anyway) the battle isn't between my wood and CF guitars for play time, it's between the Tele and the Emeralds. I've been playing the electric in the house and the Emerald outside, so it works pretty well. There is an adjustment going between the nut widths though that takes a few minutes to get used to. Love both.

An X10 would take care of that nut width adjustment period, and you can get it with a humbucking pickup as the level 2. In the words of the philosopher Kramster: "Just saying."

Originally Posted by ceciltguitar

Methos, If you like them all that much, keep them all.

Where's the angst fun in that?

[raysachs]

When I posted to this thread early last month, it was purely speculative. I had a Martin 000-15M and a new Yamaha parlor (CSF3M) and I liked them both but was really NOT looking forward to dealing with them this winter when the indoor humidity starts dive-bombing.

Well, since then I have an X20 and it took about a day and a half to decide I liked it enough to sell the Martin. I don't like it more, but I like it as much in a somewhat different way, and that's all I was looking for. And, frankly, it's continued growing on me a LOT since then. I always like to have a smaller parlor sized guitar around as well, but I returned the Yamaha to help pay for the X20 and then tried a couple of really cheap ones. And was sort of OK with one of them.

But then I was thinking about an X7 as sort of a long term plan to replace the parlor. And in looking into them, it struck me that I'm sure I'd like the newer X7 more if it was gonna be a primary guitar, but that as a second guitar / compliment to the X20, I kind of preferred the smaller size of the previous generation X7. And even if it doesn't sound as big and deep, that's OK - that's not what a parlor is for to me. It's for a funkier, thinner tone than a full size guitar. And from what I can gather, the older X7 sounds considerably bigger than most of the parlors I've played in the past. And from reading a couple of reviews here and corresponding with a couple of folks who'd owned both, the consensus seems to be that the newer X7 sounds bigger and richer than the old one, but the old one sounds about like a parlor guitar should, but louder, and most folks seem to prefer the comfort of the size of the older one, which is kind of big for me in this type of a guitar. I gotta be able to sit back on a couch with one of these guitars - not necessarily in a "proper" playing position.

And, well, they're not making the old X7 anymore, and I had a line on a barely used one from an online friend I keep running into (here, on the Tele forum, on various photography forums) and I decided I'd better pull the trigger. Because I don't see a lot of those showing up used. And the price was something I could handle now and is much less of a stretch for what would be a "second" guitar for me than a new X7 would be, now or in the future. So, bottom line, that should be arriving next week to keep my X20 company. I'm really excited to add it to the stable, and, yeah, it will be the end of wooden acoustic guitars for me.

My electrics are all wood, a strat, a tele (sort of - dual P90s), and an Ibanez Scofield semi-hollow) but they don't require much attention at all in low humidity. And I'm a carbon fiber guy going forward for acoustics. And one or two acoustics is all I've ever had or wanted. One full size guitar (used to be a dread, lately an 000) and one little parlor sized guy. So I doubt I'll be buying any more acoustics anytime in the foreseeable future assuming I like the X7 near as much as I expect to.

If I win a huge lottery someday and can suddenly afford a "guitar room" and a "guitar guy" to take care of them, I'll buy a bunch of high end wooden guitars again, because I do really dig them. But since that's never gonna happen (I don't even play the lottery), it's looking like carbon fiber going forward.

-Ray

[kramster]

Originally Posted by Captain J

In the words of the philosopher Kramster: "Just saying

Well said I be sayin'.