£1000 Gems

guitargeek62

enjo said:

Eastman (although ironically for this thread I just sold mine to buy a Martin).
I paid £500 for a new E1-OM, just sold it for £375 - that is stonking value for money IMO, all solid woods, played really well and sounded fantastic. 

+1 - I grabbed my E10SS (J45 type) a couple of years back for £1040 in a sale, it's probably the most-played guitar I've ever owned! Given that you can get these models for <£1,000 secondhand if you're patient, I think they belong in this thread for sure

TimmyO

bertie said:

CoolCat said:

Tanglewood

aiye - picked up my all solid parlor for less than £275(including fees) at auction

Gassage said:

£500 and get a Tak GC93. 

Incredible value.

never played a Tak that hasnt needed to be strummed like popye with a pick like a paving slab to get any response out of it  - that was quite a while ago mind you  

oddly my strong recollections are the opposite- really responsive - but I think the couple I've played were Cedar topped to be fair 

Tannin

Well, there is now a Larivee in the family.

Not mine, my other brother (not the usual brother I mention now and then, the other one) has owned a very nice CBS 12-string for almost 50 years. Weird branding, this was when CBS owned Fender but sold this guitar (for some unknown reason) under the CBS brand. It is in fact a Tokai, made in Japan during the MIJ golden era.

But after all these years he has finally got the yen for a 6-string. His budget, $1000 to $2500 AUD (About £600 to £1500). He likes dreadnoughts, refuses to buy anything with dodgy timber provenance (i.e., nothing from China or Indonesia), doesn't like cutaways, nor if possible electronics. He always uses Thomastic flatwounds and plays with bare fingers, so I said he'd be wise to go for something in a brighter timber (e.g., rosewood, Blackwood, Rock Maple) rather than a warm or middley timber (mahogany, walnut, Queensland Maple). A spruce or spruce-like top is a given.

He doesn't want to have to drive into the centre of bloody Melbourne where most of the good shops are. In the end, after considerable thought, I told him to drive in anyway, and go to the Acoustic Centre in South Melbourne, probably Australia's best acoustic guitar ship. (I believe there is also a pretty good one somewhere in Sydney.)  They have a good range, all good stuff no crap, and the staff are laid-back and helpful. Really decent people to deal with. (I bought my WA May there recently.)

I also provided him with a short list of guitars they had in stock that I though might be worth his time to look at.

* Maton S60, $1229 (£721). Sitka Spruce and Queensland Maple. FOR: The cheapest Maton made, all solid, no shortcuts. Against: not the ideal back and sides timber. 
* Yamaha LL-16 $1599 (£938) Spruce and rosewood. Made in China but it's Yamaha so we can probably accept that. Would prefer not to have the Transacoustic gimmicks. Would need to be compelling sound quality to make up for the bloody sunburst. But worth trying.
* Maton SRS-60C $1749 (£1026). Lovely guitars, but Queensland Maple back not really ideal for Other Brother's style. Plus it has a cutaway. And what would we really gain as compared with the much cheaper but very similar S60? Play it and find out.
* Taylor GTe Urban Ash $2000 (£1173) Sitka Spruce and ash. Excellent environmental credentials, remarkably reasonable price for an American guitar, and unless I miss my guess, Brother Other would like the Taylor sound. An odd shape something like an oversized 808 or a rounded-off small dreadnought, but not unattractive. Certainly worth a look.
* Maton SRS-70C $2099 (£1231) Sitka Spruce and Blackwood. Exactly the same as an SRS-60 but in Blackwood. Would be close to the top of my list.
* Taylor American Dream $2299 (£348) Sitka Spruce and Ovankol. Are Taylor dreadnoughts a bit less cloying-sweet than their concert-shaped guitars? I've never tried one, but should. Anyway, I told Brother Other to look at this one too.
* Larivee D-40R (used, 2019) $2499 (£1467) Sitka Spruce and Indian Rosewood dreadnought. The only used guitar on my short list, and also the most expensive one, right at the top of Brother Other's budget range. But all things considered, and subject of course to playing all 7, this would be the one I'd lean toward. 

Anyway, I told Brother Other all this over the phone (he lives nearly 300 kilometres from here, and you have to go right through bloody Melbourne - yuk!) and suggested he devote a day to going and and trying them out. 

Knock me down with a feather - he's been dithering around for months thinking about a new guitar, and this morning he rang them up and - bang! - ordered the Larivee over the phone.

Good for you Brother Other! I will look forward to visiting some time soon and trying the Larry out.

TheMadMick

I know I keep pushing it but I've a Yamaha AC3R at well under £1k although the street price seems more like £1k new. If you can get to Merseyside, it must be worth a strum or two.

DavidR

Melbourne to Liverpool is 10,578 miles MadMick. 

Love the idea though. Is there anything a guitarrista will not do!!

:-)    :-)    :-)

On thread, has to be Martin doesn't it in current market. Problem is, for it to hold its price, you have to buy it to begin with. But yes, if I was going to buy a second hand acoustic for £1K it would be a Martin. £1K on a new guitar would defo not be a Martin.

Tannin

DavidR said:

Melbourne to Liverpool is 10,578 miles MadMick. 

Love the idea though. Is there anything a guitarrista will not do!!

: ) Add another 800 kilometres 'coz I live that far south of Melbourne. (But staying in Ballarat this week, 120k west of Melbourne. Home on Sunday, assuming the ferry doesn't sink.) 

I've been known to drive to Sydney (1500k) for a camera, and would do the same for a guitar. Brisbane or Adelaide, no worries. Perth (4200k from home) .... maybe not.  As for getting to Mersyside, well I'll be there first thing Sunday morning when the ferry docks, and home five hours after that.  :Meet you there  @TheMadMick? ;

https://goo.gl/maps/GBg8TNRtaV8Pa8Nk8

TheMadMick

^^^  Never knew there was a Devonport in Tasmania (if I read the map correctly). Nothing to go with Acoustics but interesting none the less).

Tannin

Australia is full of borrowed place names, @TheMadMick Devonport, at least two different Perths, Liverpool is a suburb of Sydney,  there are mountain ranges called Grampians, Alps, Pyrenees; rivers called Mersey, Derwent, two different Nives. 

As for the plants and wildlife,  idiot Europeans (mostly English) in the 18th and 19th century lumbered us with insanities like Mountain Ash (a huge gum tree), Queensland Maple (a Flindersia, vaguely related to lemons), and Silky Oak (a Grevilia, about as closely related to the oaks as you are to a bandicoot). Not to mention "Tasmanian oak" (any of about 5 different eucalypts)  and she-oak (a casuarina, distantly related to the birch, beech nothofagus, and walnut families). Don't get me started on the birds. 

GoFish

I hear that this al started when James Kirk landed in Botany Bay in winter and thought it was summer, just like good ol' Blighty, but that  sounds too good to be true.

bertie

no idea,  but Ive got a £273  one.................all solid, maple binding - sounds fucking ace. 


and FWIW  - I used to go to the nuc submarine base in Devonport, not to mention the Devonport end at Home Park   

woody

Avalon guitars turn up at great money every now and again.