- Joined
- Jun 14, 2007
- Messages
- 1,863
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- 767
At some point in the late 1990s, I spent an idle afternoon in the guitar shops on West 48th Street. I'd been playing my D25 for a number of years by then, and I dearly loved it, so I gravitated toward the Guilds (and at that point they were still relatively easy to find). Some I liked, some didn't grab me, but there was one guitar in particular that stood out. It was an F40 Valencia, it had the best balanced sound of any guitar I'd ever played, it was immediately comfortable, and if I could have afforded it at the time it would have followed me home. But I had recently established a new residence, and I wasn't playing in public at the time, and I loved my D25, and it just didn't make sense. So I left it behind. But I never forgot it.
Fast forward roughly 15 years. I've long since left behind the notion of "makes sense" when it comes to guitars (because, really, I could still get by with my trusty D25). And so, when an F40 popped up on eBay at what looked like a very good price* from Street Sounds, at a time when I had funds available, I bit.
(*Little did I know that, if I'd waited, and the guitar had still been there four days later, I could have saved 15 percent. So it goes.)
The guitar showed up today. It's from the Tacoma era, and although it was sold as used, it looks to be new old stock--I don't see a mark on it, and the plastic is still on the pickguard. I took it out, tuned it up, put it away for a few hours, took it out again, strummed a couple of chords, and, boom, there they were, the sweetness, volume, and balance that I remembered. Seriously, this guitar is loud. The action is a bit high, and it does need new strings--these are sticky, grabby, and squeaky--but the first impression is very positive.
Fast forward roughly 15 years. I've long since left behind the notion of "makes sense" when it comes to guitars (because, really, I could still get by with my trusty D25). And so, when an F40 popped up on eBay at what looked like a very good price* from Street Sounds, at a time when I had funds available, I bit.
(*Little did I know that, if I'd waited, and the guitar had still been there four days later, I could have saved 15 percent. So it goes.)
The guitar showed up today. It's from the Tacoma era, and although it was sold as used, it looks to be new old stock--I don't see a mark on it, and the plastic is still on the pickguard. I took it out, tuned it up, put it away for a few hours, took it out again, strummed a couple of chords, and, boom, there they were, the sweetness, volume, and balance that I remembered. Seriously, this guitar is loud. The action is a bit high, and it does need new strings--these are sticky, grabby, and squeaky--but the first impression is very positive.
