Vintage Fingerstyle Guitar Options - Suggest Me Something With A Dark, Dark Tone

[J.K.]

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Hey all, this might be a longshot, but I figure it's worth asking anyway. I've been on the lookout for an old M-20 for fingerstyle stuff for a good while now, but I'm starting to wonder if there are any other vintage parlor/concert sized mahogany topped guitars with a short scale neck I should be on the lookout for? Ideally, I'd like something with a more subdued treble response, especially with the high b and e strings.

I have a Martin 00-15M that's serviceable, but for some reason, it's a 25.4" scale and it has a zingy twang to it that I could really do without (the lows are a bit weak, too, but buying some single aluminum bronze strings with a heavier gauge for the low E seems to work well enough). I've given up on newer model guitars because I feel like they all have a level of articulation to them that would take a couple decades to mellow out. Plus I'm setting a soft $2k limit, give or take, and the few modern production acoustics I've really fallen for seem to be more than twice what I'd like to spend, even at a bargain price. I feel like older 60s and earlier model mahogany guitars seem to hit the balance I'm looking for more anyway, but I don't know much about anything other than "the big three" of acoustic manufacturers from that era.

Anyway, I've been looking for something with x-bracing (while I do like the Gibson LG-0 and even some old Harmony guitars for their own thing, they're more in the blues box territory than a folk machine like what I'm looking for), and I'm not seeing much besides old Martin 15s and 17s. It would be neat to get a nice old Martin like that, but the prices are a bit excessive, and the ones I've played vary wildly by era. The more subdued the trebles, the better. When I say "dark," I mean something that still has a nice degree of fullness, especially in the mids, until it hits those brilliant highs and then starts to sound like Joe Pass playing an electric with the highs rolled back a bit beyond the 5KHz range or so. You know, something to make those nylon string players confused.

Anyone here know of any older li'l non-laminate hidden gems out there that have a nice, mellow sound for recording?

Cheers!
 
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