Yeah, in your dreams you silly old git.
My son had mentioned to me that the 'guitar room' at home looked like a sea of sunburst, so I thought I'd have a look around and found a few things that weren't sunburst! I found all three at Sound Affects Premier in Ormskirk and fancied them all. One is obviously an ES-335, with a lovely figured top, very pretty. It's got a very playable, not-too-chunky, matt neck which feels great. Actually, it's a great guitar, from the Memphis factory in 2018. The archtop is an Ibanez Pat Metheny PM-35, Chinese built. I didn't really give it much of a glance on the SAP website, and I suppose turned my nose up at it a bit if I'm honest, but when I picked it up, I loved it. The build quality's really good and it's SO smooth to play. I can't play jazz - I can turn a diminished into a demolished and an augmented into an argument, but that's about it.
It does tempt me to go down the 'smooooth' side of the street though, and can knock out a bit of blues/swing stuff. Very impressive, I must say. The third one's an Alvarez MF-1000. It's quite interesting in as much as it's Japanese built (Terada is the suggestion), the spec is impressive, and there were only about 40 of them made. I played it up against a used Martin 000-28, and it felt very similar in terms of quality, with a brighter sound (although the Martin's strings weren't new) and a lovely low action.
At about a third of the price of the used Martin, I couldn't really differentiate much between them, but my ears, although big, aren't very sophisticated. Feels and sounds great though, with a wide fretboard to help my trotters not to get too tangled up. A different set of purchases (apart from the 335 I suppose), but pleasing - and in the case of the Alvarez and Ibanez, pleasantly surprising. Expect to see them all for sale in two weeks.
Call me Dave.
Comments
I've always liked Alvarez / K'Yairi acoustics. The Japanese models are underrated IMO.
The 335 is stunning and the Metheny has just got to punch well above it's weight.
Congrats.