Christmas Comes Early?


I had the pleasure of playing at a friend's wedding in October.

 His uncle, having passed away this year and no children of his own, left him a prized 1960 Gibson J45.  It was in rough shape pretty rough shape, and needed new frets and some structural work, but a visit to the 12th Fret in Toronto saw it go from an amazing piece filled with sentimental (and tangible) value to a guitar that played like a dream, sounded amazing, and retained all the personal value attached to a guitar passed from one generation to another.

 It sounded great that day, and I only made a bazillion mistakes, one of which my wife noticed. Oh well.

 If you've never experienced it, go find a good old acoustic and give it strum.  The difference is night and day compared to new guitars. Compared to the Yamaha acoustic I have, which sits ignored in the corner, it's chalk and day.

Christmas Shopping

I was out over the weekend Christmas shopping, which meant spending more time in malls and toy stores than I would ever want.  Happily, the local Long and McQuade was on the way home, and that was all the excuse I needed to stop in.

I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but just past the counter at the front sat a used Martin D16GT on a floor stand.  I couldn't resist picking it up.

Big mistake.

I was immediately taken back to my friends Gibson - THIS is what an acoustic is supposed to sound like.  It really shouldn't come as such a surprise: We expect a $2K Strat to be much better than a sub-$500 one, and the differences with acoustic guitar should be all the more pronounced.

This left me with an inescapable conclusion: I need a really nice acoustic. Probably a Martin.

Maybe Santa is feeling super generous this year.

Martin D16 RGT - $1600

Hey look, a slightly nicer version of the guitar I played (binding, herringbone rosette) for less money!

 This is awfully tempting, the rosette, the binding, the pickguard, and the top all combine to form a paragon of the dreadnaught acoustic guitar.

 The price isn't fantastic compared to new ($2K), but I'll admit that I'm a bit green when it comes to having a spidey-sense regarding used acoustic pricing.

 This one is bound to be on my mind for quite awhile.

Edwards Les Paul Custom - $950

Make no mistake: Awareness of high end Japanese guitars like Edwards and Burny is only going to go up in the wake of less than desirable news from the big G. 

Need proof? Look no further than the aggressive introduction of FGN guitars in the YouTube world. Gibson crumbling reputation is leaving a pretty massive hole in the market that brands like FGN are smart to try and fill.

Unlike FGN, Edwards has been around for quite awhile, being an ESP Guitars brand that focuses on high quality copies.

This is a pretty outstanding price for a Les Paul Custom copy which comes with Seymour Duncan pickups and likely has build quality which exceeds Gibson's Standard range (which runs you $3K these days).

I would definitely buy this at this price.

Dr. Z Galaxie - $1000

In case anyone missed the memo, I'm a huge fan of Dr. Z amps, and while I realize that this may be because my only experience with boutique level amps has been with this brand, there's nothing wrong with sticking with what works if you're happy, right?

 My opinions on this have been further cemented by the purchase of my Fender '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb. Make no mistake, it is a great amp, and overall I'm thrilled with it. The reverb is a bit "washy", but aside from that it's great.

 The Z is better though.

 Not 100% better mind you (the approximate price difference), but it's worth it.

 That's what makes the Galaxie so interesting. Billed as a tweed style amp with a drive control, this 40 watt 1x12 combo is going to be super loud and would probably make an excellent pedal platform.  Unfortunately, there are two versions, the later of which replaced the presence control with a master volume for the drive channel.

 Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: Two channels.

 The absence of the master on this makes the "drive" channel somewhat superfluous, given that you'll have to be reaching ear splitting levels before really getting any kerrang out of the thing, but a grand for a Z is a pretty killer deal, and I bet the clean channel alone is worth it.

 Check out more info on this amp here.














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