A Great Day in Nashville

[Treenewt]

My wife and I just got home from a quick trip to Nashville. We flew in to meet some dear friends from NC, and to take in Andrew Peterson’s Christmas show at the Ryman. Man, that did NOT disappoint! Such an amazing night!

The next two days we simply hung out together, ate great food, enjoyed good drink, and enjoyed catching up. But you know, as a member of this forum, I’d have been sorely remiss to NOT visit the local guitar emporiums! Alas, Artisan in Franklin was closed on Monday, but on Tuesday we visited the most famous of them all: Gruhn and Carter Vintage. My first time to visit either of them, FWIW.

Gruhn first...what can I say but “wowza!!!l” We were met at the door by an extremely welcoming salesman who told us to play anything we wanted, and just let him know if we had any questions. I turned around and stared at the biggest room of Acoustics I’ve ever laid eyes on. I didn’t know where to start, so my buddy grabbed a custom 0000-18 sunburst and handed it to me. Jeeeez....that one was sweet! Reminded me of my old D18 with slightly better clarity in the mids. So nice!

We moved on through the room, sampling all we could, while our wives kindly sat and smiled at us two “kids in a candy store.” I lost track of how many I played, but the takeaways were:

- I have come to greatly prefer the OM over any other body style. The comfort matched with the tone just suits me. I played some great dreads, but the OMs won out.
- Out of a room full of crazy good guitars, a Collings OM2HG and Martin OM-28 Modern Deluxe were the run away standouts. Both cost more than I’ll ever spend on a guitar, but holy crap, they were stellar in every way. I actually think I preferred the Modern Deluxe to the Collings a bit, prob due to the increased bass.
-I didn’t care for the Kenneth Pattengale 00 customs. Just didn’t sound like Id hoped they would. I’d take a standard 00-15 over one. YMMV. Great look and vibe, but didn’t care for them.
-Collings are simply amazing instruments. D1aT I played was one of the best dreads I’ve had in my hands, followed by a D2HA. Wowza.
-tried a Lowden Pierre Bensusan that was a KILLER fingerstyle instrument! So good!
-Gruhn’s custom run of 21 series 000, OM and D are pretty great instruments. A D21 with Guatemalan Rosewood was my favorite there.
-I still swear the OM-21 and the OM-28 are more different internally than they claim, bc out of several of each, the 28’s all sounded better, more open, and more lush that the 21. The OM-28 standard might end up being my dream guitar when the kids are grown. It is so dang good.
-the Larrivee 000-40r is a killer guitar. Next to the Collings and the Martin deluxe, it was my favorite of the day. And for a smidgen of the price. How do they do it?

We had to head out, but we made a stop by Carter Vintage before going to the airport. Everyone was super nice, but I vastly preferred the vibe and guitars at Gruhn. I did play a birth year 1974 D18, which was extremely disappointing. A 50s J45 and a 2015 D18 standard were my faves here. Freaking loads of electrics, so if that’s your thing, that’s the place to go!

All in all, the only thing that would have made it better was for one of those beauties at Gruhn to follow me home! A great trip, great guitars, and great memories!

[foxo]

Sounds great! It’s a little dream of mine to go to Nashville and play the open mics, also maybe come away with a great guitar. I like to think my music might be a little bit different being Scottish but hopefully would go down well.

[Ncbandit]

That sounds like a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing.

[Pura Vida]

Nice report, Treenewt. I may need to travel to the Nashville area in late February, and if so, Gruhn's will be at the top of my list to visit.

[llew]

I'm jealous Matt...last time I was there I spent several hours in Gruhn and George was more than willing to show me the whole show. It's a great shop and for me a Mecca of sorts. next time I'll go back to Gruhn and try Carter as well. Glad you caught a show at The Ryman...amazing place. Merry Christmas my friend!

[tomcstokes59]

Sounds like an incredible trip. Live music at the Ryman and then Gruhn's and Carters. I did the same February of this year absent the Ryman concert. Everything you wrote about Gruhn's is spot on. I thought Carter's had a very cool mojo with some great used guitars.

[TBman]

What a great time that must have been.

[kcnbys]

Awesome post, Treenewt! Did the same thing a couple summers ago when we were in Nashville for a few days - Carter then Gruhn - what a blast! Much love to my wife for humoring me for a couple hours. My favs that day were a Collings CJ35 Sunburst (unbelievable), and a Martin OM28 - ha! I love a guitar shop that just let's you play whatever they've got w/o all the hovering. Both shops were just a ton of fun!

[Birchtop]

Sure sounds like you had a blast! That's awesome! 😎

[billyg]

Great post. I think you caught the flavor of Gruhn's quite well.
Next time, I hope you spend more time at Carter's so you can appreciate what they have created there.
And now, Artisan has moved from Franklin into the Nashville neighborhood and Cotten (which was already great) is The North American Guitar. Too much greatness within a few miles.
It is not a safe area for any of us on this forum to roam.
Nice post.

[Treenewt]

I should clarify on my thoughts Re: Carter’s. It was a great store, and if vintage is your thing, you’d absolutely love it. Buried in my post above is a realization that my tastes and style are changing, and my ears are leaning towards different tones than they used to gravitate towards. Carter had amazing vintage gear, and while I can fully appreciate the wonder of that, it’s not where my head is at right now.

And I remembered another killer guitar from Gurhn: the Collings C-100. That was a SWEET box!!

[Kerbie]

Sounds like a fantastic trip! It's such a fun town. Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the great report.

[Treenewt]

Originally Posted by billyg

Great post. I think you caught the flavor of Gruhn's quite well.
Next time, I hope you spend more time at Carter's so you can appreciate what they have created there.
And now, Artisan has moved from Franklin into the Nashville neighborhood and Cotten (which was already great) is The North American Guitar. Too much greatness within a few miles.
It is not a safe area for any of us on this forum to roam.
Nice post.

I don’t think I could endure living there! Rather, I don’t think my wallet could! Haha!

And TNAG is on the list for next time!

[UncleJesse]

Originally Posted by Treenewt

My wife and I just got home from a quick trip to Nashville. We flew in to meet some dear friends from NC, and to take in Andrew Peterson’s Christmas show at the Ryman. Man, that did NOT disappoint! Such an amazing night!

The next two days we simply hung out together, ate great food, enjoyed good drink, and enjoyed catching up. But you know, as a member of this forum, I’d have been sorely remiss to NOT visit the local guitar emporiums! Alas, Artisan in Franklin was closed on Monday, but on Tuesday we visited the most famous of them all: Gruhn and Carter Vintage. My first time to visit either of them, FWIW.

Gruhn first...what can I say but “wowza!!!l” We were met at the door by an extremely welcoming salesman who told us to play anything we wanted, and just let him know if we had any questions. I turned around and stared at the biggest room of Acoustics I’ve ever laid eyes on. I didn’t know where to start, so my buddy grabbed a custom 0000-18 sunburst and handed it to me. Jeeeez....that one was sweet! Reminded me of my old D18 with slightly better clarity in the mids. So nice!

We moved on through the room, sampling all we could, while our wives kindly sat and smiled at us two “kids in a candy store.” I lost track of how many I played, but the takeaways were:

- I have come to greatly prefer the OM over any other body style. The comfort matched with the tone just suits me. I played some great dreads, but the OMs won out.
- Out of a room full of crazy good guitars, a Collings OM2HG and Martin OM-28 Modern Deluxe were the run away standouts. Both cost more than I’ll ever spend on a guitar, but holy crap, they were stellar in every way. I actually think I preferred the Modern Deluxe to the Collings a bit, prob due to the increased bass.
-I didn’t care for the Kenneth Pattengale 00 customs. Just didn’t sound like Id hoped they would. I’d take a standard 00-15 over one. YMMV. Great look and vibe, but didn’t care for them.
-Collings are simply amazing instruments. D1aT I played was one of the best dreads I’ve had in my hands, followed by a D2HA. Wowza.
-tried a Lowden Pierre Bensusan that was a KILLER fingerstyle instrument! So good!
-Gruhn’s custom run of 21 series 000, OM and D are pretty great instruments. A D21 with Guatemalan Rosewood was my favorite there.
-I still swear the OM-21 and the OM-28 are more different internally than they claim, bc out of several of each, the 28’s all sounded better, more open, and more lush that the 21. The OM-28 standard might end up being my dream guitar when the kids are grown. It is so dang good.
-the Larrivee 000-40r is a killer guitar. Next to the Collings and the Martin deluxe, it was my favorite of the day. And for a smidgen of the price. How do they do it?

We had to head out, but we made a stop by Carter Vintage before going to the airport. Everyone was super nice, but I vastly preferred the vibe and guitars at Gruhn. I did play a birth year 1974 D18, which was extremely disappointing. A 50s J45 and a 2015 D18 standard were my faves here. Freaking loads of electrics, so if that’s your thing, that’s the place to go!

All in all, the only thing that would have made it better was for one of those beauties at Gruhn to follow me home! A great trip, great guitars, and great memories!

Sounds awesome! I've never been but plan on going early next year to do exactly what you did. I want to find the perfect OM or 0000 and need a place where I can try them out.

[Treenewt]

Originally Posted by UncleJesse

Sounds awesome! I've never been but plan on going early next year to do exactly what you did. I want to find the perfect OM or 0000 and need a place where I can try them out.

Gruhn should def be on your list! He had quite a few custom run 18 and 21 0000 that were fantastic instruments! Take your wallet!

And Artisan as well. Three years ago, I stopped by Artisan and had a blast playing loads of Collings and Huss and Dalton OMs.