guitar junkie
Guitar User.
For a northern American made guitar that can be found made of solid wood under a thousand bucks and often around $600 check out Seagull guitars. I had a C6 burnt umber finished guitar, it was a delight! Guitar Center was running a sale for $419 out the door. Laminated back and sides but a nicer solid spruce top than I have seen on many higher end guitars!
Personally I play Eastman guitars a lot, which are affordable solid wood guitars made in China that are crafted about as good as anything I have ever seen (I've been working the music retail scene for years now and I've seen most every maker anybody has heard of) If you can scrape up about $500 for a used solid wood guitar I think you will be shocked at what you can find! I have seen used Martins in the price range that are great guitars for less than $600, and I've seen Larrivee guitars also in that range used.
Personally I play Eastman guitars a lot, which are affordable solid wood guitars made in China that are crafted about as good as anything I have ever seen (I've been working the music retail scene for years now and I've seen most every maker anybody has heard of) If you can scrape up about $500 for a used solid wood guitar I think you will be shocked at what you can find! I have seen used Martins in the price range that are great guitars for less than $600, and I've seen Larrivee guitars also in that range used.