Zaphod B
Raccoons-Be-Gone, Inc.
There's a backstory here.
My younger brother, Mark, has a longtime friend (since childhood) who found himself in financial difficulties and need to borrow some money. Mark gave the friend around $1500 but told him "It's not a loan. I don't loan money to friends. Keep it. I expect no repayment. But if you ever find yourself in a position to return the favor, do so."
The friend accumulated some extra cash recently and offered to buy Mark a good acoustic guitar - and offered payback at the tune of $2500.
Fast forward to this past Friday, when Guitar Centers nationwide had their Black Friday promotion of 20% off any single item between 8AM and 10PM. (To you non-Yanks, Black Friday is the day after the American Thanksgiving holiday and is considered to be the busiest shopping day of the pre-Christmas season.) Mark had asked me to be a his acoustic expert since I can pick 'em. So the three of us - me, Mark, and his friend - headed for the local Guitar Center early on Friday morning.
We got there at 8:30 and there were already at least 30 people lined up for the checkout counter, mostly high-school kids with their parents in tow getting an early Christmas present. We headed back to the acoustic room and it was a zoo, too.
The back wall had all the high-dollar Martins, Taylors, and Gibsons. The Gibsons were all disappointments. Muddy-sounding and flat. (Think John Lennon acoustic sound. It wasn't because of old strings.)
There was one very nice-sounding used Taylor - nice and bright and very playable.
But we were more focused on the Martins. The best of the lot were a Vintage HD-28, a D-35, and a very pretty D-42. The D-35 was set up with very low action - the lowest I've ever played on an acoustic, but with no string buzz, and the action was really fast. The D-42's action was set up more like you'd expect, a bit higher, as was the HD-28. Both were very playable.
The D-35 and D-42 sounded a bit muffled when strummed lightly, but they came alive when played hard - but I had to really hammer on them to make them come to life.
The HD-28, on the other hand, had a simply astounding sound that was bright on the top and full on the bottom and responsive to dynamics - the quintessential Martin tone. It's hard describe but you know it when you are holding the guitar in your arms and feeling the life of the thing through your arms and legs. This guitar is superb and can be held up against anything out there.
We compared it to my 1967 D-28 and agreed that my old dog sounded better than any of the other guitars we had played that day - except his.
So my brother has a "keeper." He now needs to rise to its excellence, and I wish him a pleasant and educational journey.
My younger brother, Mark, has a longtime friend (since childhood) who found himself in financial difficulties and need to borrow some money. Mark gave the friend around $1500 but told him "It's not a loan. I don't loan money to friends. Keep it. I expect no repayment. But if you ever find yourself in a position to return the favor, do so."
The friend accumulated some extra cash recently and offered to buy Mark a good acoustic guitar - and offered payback at the tune of $2500.
Fast forward to this past Friday, when Guitar Centers nationwide had their Black Friday promotion of 20% off any single item between 8AM and 10PM. (To you non-Yanks, Black Friday is the day after the American Thanksgiving holiday and is considered to be the busiest shopping day of the pre-Christmas season.) Mark had asked me to be a his acoustic expert since I can pick 'em. So the three of us - me, Mark, and his friend - headed for the local Guitar Center early on Friday morning.
We got there at 8:30 and there were already at least 30 people lined up for the checkout counter, mostly high-school kids with their parents in tow getting an early Christmas present. We headed back to the acoustic room and it was a zoo, too.
The back wall had all the high-dollar Martins, Taylors, and Gibsons. The Gibsons were all disappointments. Muddy-sounding and flat. (Think John Lennon acoustic sound. It wasn't because of old strings.)
There was one very nice-sounding used Taylor - nice and bright and very playable.
But we were more focused on the Martins. The best of the lot were a Vintage HD-28, a D-35, and a very pretty D-42. The D-35 was set up with very low action - the lowest I've ever played on an acoustic, but with no string buzz, and the action was really fast. The D-42's action was set up more like you'd expect, a bit higher, as was the HD-28. Both were very playable.
The D-35 and D-42 sounded a bit muffled when strummed lightly, but they came alive when played hard - but I had to really hammer on them to make them come to life.
The HD-28, on the other hand, had a simply astounding sound that was bright on the top and full on the bottom and responsive to dynamics - the quintessential Martin tone. It's hard describe but you know it when you are holding the guitar in your arms and feeling the life of the thing through your arms and legs. This guitar is superb and can be held up against anything out there.
We compared it to my 1967 D-28 and agreed that my old dog sounded better than any of the other guitars we had played that day - except his.
So my brother has a "keeper." He now needs to rise to its excellence, and I wish him a pleasant and educational journey.
