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@ThorpyFX there’s 2 in Guitar Classics in Battersea. A few other great guitars also with a brook (or two) Atkin, Gibsons, Martins and a Fylde.
Even so, seems about right as has been mentioned - Coda had one earlier this year for similar money. I think they just don’t turn up that often and being a relic already is always gonna be in “as new” condition, so a lot of people are happy to just pocket the few hundred.
Bodes well for resale value on them!
over - like they had the pox They seem to stick around a while so may be tough to sell.
I’ve tried a few Atkins and really didn’t like them - I thought the relicing was awful and the fretwork poor. Lots of folks here like them though. They are everywhere now as well, so I’d expect the prices to soften as supply has increased.
The Brooks I’ve tried have been lovely - wonderful finishes and really nice, easy playing guitars but the necks are thin - so also not for everyone! Fylde...can’t stand the necks and the zero frets, they have a heavy 70s / 80s vibe to me, guitars from another era.
If I had to spend the money I’d look at Collings or Bourgeois, both of which are generally impeccable.
Having said that, I’ve been after a new acoustic for ages and I got the impression that the market was saturated - lots of guitars hanging around for a long time unless heavily discounted. I feel maybe the retailers went all-in on the acoustic boom of the past 5 years and may have overshot the target...so finance packages and the like from the shops may be affecting the used market.
Apparently the tone wood used to make the guitar came from a tree from some fancy estate i cant remember that fell in a huge storm and was originally planted by Queen Victoria. That kind of thing suckers me right in!
I also have a Patrick Eggle Stratford Pro, one of his first attempts at acoustics before PRS bought the name.
Perhaps it was a bad batch, I cant say for sure. I tried 5 or 6 of them and I was honestly underwhelmed. YMMV and all that jazz.
It was good but not outstanding, unlike the Avalon one I now own
Avalon are probably the best value for top-level guitars, especially when buying used
Just to calibrate your statement, what other brands have you tried against Martin and Taylor? I can think of half a dozen brands that are way better
Regarding the Atkin thing - I get that relic jobs are not for everyone. Not for me, but I appreciate there's a market. I've handled a couple and they've both been excellent, about 6 years apart in build age. I imagine his earlier work was not up to the standard of today's stuff. I've also handled some very high end instruments, Collings, santa cruz, 7-15k gems at the north americanorth american guitar and fit and finish wise, at least the Atkin I own is excellent and compares very favourably. It's not as refined as some intricate luthier work nor is it perhaps as polished as a Collings but we're talking about instruments that retail at half of what a good Collings costs and far less on the used market.
Fret-job on mine is excellent. No defects, hidden edges, superbly finished. Perhaps what @Moe_Zambeek referred to was a dud, but I've not handled 15 Atkins so I don't have an established baseline.
I played one very good Martin, out of maybe 5 or 6 Martin's I played and it was a late 80s D28. I owned a more recent D16 which was fine but uninteresting. Furch D22cm did rounds on it.
I digress, not sure how this is of any help at all to OP and his quest for a PJE, but I stand by my advice. Play as much as you can side by side, handle them, look at the binding work, the weight, glue runoff in the construction, neck joint, wood choice etc and find the guitar that speaks to you, irrespective of what's on the headstock. I know this is easier said than done, especially as a member of a GAS fuelled forum where residual values really matter if you are on hopelessly long term quest to find 'the one'. I once had and sold 'the one'. In hindsight it was a lesson as I now have a really good benchmark and have discovered that there are equally excellent guitars to be had just a few lumps of wood down the line.
cheers
However I had an issue with the saddle but was offered a replacement without question but due to high demand it would be a 2-3month wait for another. My local shop suggested I try the Neptune as it has a bit more bass in it and they suggested it had a better sound than the Venus.
Long story shorter, while trying the Neptune I picked up a PJE Legacy Earth and was gobsmacked at how much better the sound was, the torrefied spruce really gave it an aged sound, I walked out the shop with that one and it's been my go to acoustic ever since.
I am going to check out Atkin's now though but just a final thought, if you don't want to lose money on potential resale later, why don't you buy second hand, unless you know you're buying a future collectors item you will always lose a big chunk when buying new?
It’s the J45 type I’m after which led me to the PJE Kanuga and this post. Anyhow, what’re the views on here of those that have tried them. And it’s back to my original budget of 1k for a mint one.
Cheers all