Hello everyone, new member here. Greetings from mostly-sunny Florida. I've followed this forum for a bit and have enjoyed the friendly nature of the community.
After a number of years away from playing, I decided to get back into it and pulled out my old beach guitar, a lawsuit-era Takamine, to try things out. (My nicer guitar from earlier years of playing, a Yamaha FG-470SA, had been stolen during the dry spell.) Soon realizing that the Tak was going to limit me, I started shopping for better-playing acoustics, over a few months, finally settling last winter on a lightly-used Taylor with a friendly action and (to my ears) a nice, modern tone.
With the Taylor in hand, I loaned the Tak to my brother in law, who was interested in learning to play, as was his youngest daughter. On the way to drop it off, I stopped into a GC near the interstate to buy him some picks, and of course to make a ritual visit to the acoustic room to check out any small-bodied guitars that might be good for my niece. Another customer-- a gentleman just a few years my senior-- heard me noodling around and asked me, "So, you wanna hear the nicest guitar in here?" Well, of course. From an upper-wall display full of ~$3000 Taylors and Martins, he pulled down a rather worse-for-wear D-55 and started into some worthy bluegrass flatpicking, then struck a few long-ringing high notes to demonstrate the nice tone. He was right! I tried it out for a few minutes, impressed not only with its sound, but its versatility, responding welll to both sensitive fingerpicking and pretty aggressive strumming-- all with somewhat rusty, light-gauge strings. With my wallet still light from the Taylor purchase, I said, "You guys have a fine evening; I'd better get outa here."
Two days later, I'm still out of town and talking to my wife on the phone, telling her about the D-55 find and that if I'd found it first, I might have saved over $1,000 and come out ahead. A musician herself, without hesitating, she said, "Get it! We'll figure it out." So I did, and I haven't looked back, except to take it into my local guitar repair shop for evaluation-- as luck would have it, a certain shop in Merritt Island that I later learned was pretty familiar to you all in this forum-- where it got its bridge re-glued, some binding and a top chip or two repaired, and a set-up with D'Addario Nickel Bronze lights.
More recently, I picked up a JF-55 in nicer shape from another GC, and had Tom set it up similarly-- fixing a minor bridge crack along the way-- but with a hybrid medium/light set of strings for better dropped tuning tone. (I like fumbling around with David Wilcox tunes, and have also tried a few Martin Simpson arrangements but those are mostly over my head.) The Taylor still has its charms, but the D-55 is my go-to instrument. Life is good! I look forward to chatting with you all in the future.
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1994 Guild D-55
1994 Guild JF-55
2015 Taylor 614ce
2008 Ibanez Classical
mid-'80s Palmer Strat copy -- my first guitar
1986 Takamine G330 -- pawn shop beater, on indefinite loan
1991 Yamaha FG-470SA -- stolen in 2002, hopefully in a good home by now
plus a few random ukes
