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#1
08-25-2023, 05:14 PM
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The guitar you just had to have
Have you ever walked into a guitar store just to have a look around, without a definite intention of buying something, grabbed a guitar from the wall to try it out and could not leave the store without it?
It happened to me a few years ago with an Eastman E6D. Not even the Elixirs it was strung with could hide the fact this was a special instrument. I have Monels on it now and it sounds unreal: a deep full sound that rings forever, one of the best necks I have seen on a guitar at any price and spot-on intonation up and down the neck. Sounds like a cannon when you dig in. What was your find? 
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#2
08-25-2023, 05:27 PM
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I've had a few guitars 'speak' to me. One was also an Eastman. An E1OM. Another spoke to my wife and me both. It was a Yamaha AC3M Deluxe.
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As my username suggests, huge fan of Yamaha products. Own many acoustic-electric models from 2009-present and a couple electric. Lots of PA too.
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#4
08-25-2023, 06:17 PM
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The guitar you just had to have
Saw this online, wanted one for 55 years - a 2013 Gretsch G6136DC "1962 Tribute" White Falcon (a short-lived regular-production model produced in the early-2010's) bought as NOS in 2018:
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"Mistaking silence for weakness and contempt for fear is the final, fatal error of a fool" - Sicilian proverb (paraphrased)
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#5
08-25-2023, 06:28 PM
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This Waterloo WL-12MH. Back in January of 2021 I made an appointment to look at guitars at Gryphon Strings in Palo Alto. At that time, they were only allowing one customer in at a time by appointment. I played a wide variety of guitars that day, but this was the one that really spoke to me and there was no way I was leaving without it.
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#6
08-25-2023, 06:34 PM
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Quote:
It has never, ever happened to me with new guitars in new guitar shops! But I have had huge success with a few acoustics at a pawn shop/secondhand shop..........all needed lots of work by my luthier but spoke very loudly at the shop.... As a fingerpicker, acoustics that suit that style are a bit hard to find, so I have picked up some dreads and an archtop that some people will pay heaps for when they get sold!  But 2 items of joy found covered in muck a few years apart - my 1993 Lowden S35 which I traded some guitars I wanted to move for, and my 2006 Martin 000-28EC which I paid for without haggling......yep, hard to believe someone pawned these guitars! They were very hard to play at the shop, needed work but some notes cried out and people looked around! True and scary! A clean and polish with Virtuoso and a trip to the luthier - result: WOW!  BluesKing777.
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#8
08-25-2023, 07:14 PM
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#9
08-25-2023, 07:16 PM
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For the past 20 years I played Tacoma dreads. (The prior 20 years, Yamaha's) A couple of years ago I visited a couple of big box guitar stores and played all the Taylor's and Martin's they had hanging on the walls. Initially I was just interested in the "hype", as I'd played a few informally at jams, but mostly just to tell the owner how nice they were. Now I got to really "play" them, compare them, feel them and be in a position to purchase one. The Martin D-18 really spoke to me, but I already had a Tacoma, spruce / mahogony dread that I felt was the equal of the D-18. I also played a few Taylors, and an AD17e really caught my attention. It felt good, sounded great and had an awesome fretboard feel. Within the week, I found a new home for my mahogany Tacoma and added the Taylor. I'm not a collector, all my guitars are "working" guitars. I still couldn't get the D-18 out of my mind. Fast forward a couple of years - My spruce / rosewood Tacoma, is / was needing some work (repair or replace?) So, another trip to the big box stores and played some D-18's and D-28's. The D-28 exceeded its reputaion, of being the acoustic guitar that "all the others" are compared to. No deals from the big box stores. Went right home and ordered a D-28 from Sweetwater. These two guitars check all the boxes for me. I finger pick the Taylor and pound the Martin. I 'spect these two guitars will see me past my twilight years - and I'm getting close LOL
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1979 Yamaha FS-412SB 2000 Tacoma DM-912 2001 Tacoma DR-12 2020 Taylor AD-17e 2020 Dean BW-6 2021 Gretsch Resonator 2023 Martin D-28
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#10
08-25-2023, 07:20 PM
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Quote:
Last edited by Charlie Bernstein; 08-26-2023 at 10:13 AM.
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#11
08-25-2023, 07:32 PM
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I've never been lucky enough to find one by accident and not be able to leave without purchasing it. Come close a few times though.
Quote:
I stopped bothering with pawn shops several years ago. No luck for this ole fella.By the way, you have an insane collection, BK. And they are represented very well by the photos you take. 
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#12
08-25-2023, 07:45 PM
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Yes this happened to me with my 57 Gretsch NYer. I played it before I saw the headstock logo so I thought it was a Gibson L-48 and that it’d be pricey. I couldn’t put it down and the lower price was the cherry on the cake. Out came ole VISA.
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Martin GPC-15ME, Model America 1 1968 00-18 1957 Gretsch New Yorker Recording King RO-T16 and RO-06 K. Yairi spruce/walnut parlor
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#13
08-25-2023, 07:50 PM
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I am very distrustful of those kinds of impulses. If I randomly come across a guitar that I just "have to to have," I'll sleep on it and see how I feel in a day or two.
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#14
08-25-2023, 08:18 PM
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Every guitar I have ever bought was a "I have to have it" guitar
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Barry Avalon Ard Ri L2-320C, Martin D-16GT, McIlroy A20, Pellerin SJ CW Cordoba C12, C5, and Fusion 12 YouTube Celtic playlist YouTube nylon playlist
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