Sound

Great for fingerstyle or flatpicking. Perfect, balanced sound from bass to treble

Sound Rating

10

Appearance

Rosewood back/sides, solid spruce top, abalone inlay around soundhole, simple dot inlays on fretboard.

Appearance Rating

10

Customer Service

Dealing with Sweetwater or Wechter is easy, they have great customer service. Anytime I've had a question, either Wechter or Sweetwater respond quickly. I even once got a response directly from Abe Wechter himself.

Customer Service

not rated

Overall Comments

I'd buy a second one for alternate tunings if I could

Overall Rating

10

Sound

This guitar is a great buy. Its tone keeps getting better, I have about 2 hrs total on it. Its sustain is amazing. Its tone is bright and tight and I am sure a couple hundred hrs playing time will really sweeten and mature the sound. From Haggard tunes to foggy moutain breakdown it sounds great. I have played many expensive guitars and this thing stands the test.

Sound Rating

9

Appearance

Onlt thing I dont like about the way it looks is the black pickguard. This I will change to a tortoise shell to match the binding. Finish otherwise is verry nice. No glue blobs or sloppy indications. Nice gloss, no runs or sags,

Appearance Rating

9

Customer Service

unknown

Customer Service

not rated

Overall Comments

Should we call Greg Rich a hero, or an adversary to the big old U.S. companies? I dont know, but I will say this, all the american companies better pay attention, because these are damned great guitars and Rich has done a hell of a job putting this thing together. If they start building nice light tele type axes I would be surprised if US manufacturers survive as we know them.

Overall Rating

10

Sound

I play a lot of Country and bluegrass flatpicking and country licks along with chording. I played it through a PA system and a Fender Acoustasonic Junior. Not to much in the way of special effects. I try to keep the sound as natural as possible, maybe a little to the bass side to keep a full tone on the E and the B strings. As far as amplified, I am a real believer in Takamine electronics but Fishman and Bagg are both OK . This one has a Fishman classic 4T. It serves its purpose.

Acoustically the sound was IMO amazing. A lot of spring in the high end and fairly good low end. The low end didn't boom so the guitar did not sound mushy at all. I ended up selling it to my friend who has a Martin D-28 and claims it sounds every bit as good.

Sound Rating

8

Appearance

The guitar looks great with natural high-gloss finish solid sitka spruce top and laminated Brazilian rosewood back and sides. I am not a fan of the high gloss finish on the neck as it tends to slow my hand down when I start to sweat, so if I settle on a guitar, I will lightly sand the neck in order to remove the Finish.
The finish is fine. Over all it is a great looking guitar. I am not ah struck by the beauty of guitars. I want is a guitar that sounds good and plays well. I don't care about the rest.If it looks too good. I'm afraid I might ding or scratch it. But if you like decor, the BR60 has pearl inlay s on the Fret board, nice emblem on the headstock , I look at my guitar hanging on teh wall or on its stand or in its case and I think about all the melodies and notes that have come out of it. That's what makes it look beautiful to me.

Appearance Rating

10

Customer Service

I emailed Saga a couple of times re questions about the guitar, but they never respond. I'm not feeling them. In comparison, I have emailed both Martin and Takamine and they have always responded to me. So I am not feeling great about Saga's their customer service.

Customer Service

3

Overall Comments

The BR60 ce is a great guitar. Looks good sounds great plays fine. The only issue I had with it was that the neck was too think. The thin neck was great for chording and strumming, but I do a lot of picking and my preference is for a wider neck,but that's strictly a personal choice thing. It really is a great guitar for the price. I rate it a 9 in comparison to other guitars of similar value.

Overall Rating

9

Sound

I was suspicious of this guitar at first, motly because it was only sold at Guitar Center. I played the whole Martin guitar series and really liked this guitar for the money. I liked the solid wood construction and the ebony fretboard. The sound, while not as boomy as the D-28 or HD-28, still had good bass response and provided great upper and midrange for lead playing. The intonation was clear thru the entire fretboard and the thinner neck was comfortable much like my Deering banjo neck. The neck shape helped make chord intonation excellent.

Sound Rating

9

Appearance

The workmanship, fit and finish is falawless, much better than a couple of D-16 rgts that I considered.

Appearance Rating

10

Customer Service

I have not dealt with Martin, but my local Gutair Center store has been top notch. I have a choice of several reknown local stores ( one is the largest Martin dealer) but they could not carry this model. The service that I have had from the GC store has been just as good as the more notable stores.

Customer Service

10

Overall Comments

I understand that this model is made only for Guitar Center stores. Don't under estimate this model especailly at this very reasonable price piont. If you look around, there are some very good deals on this model.

Overall Rating

9

Sound

The sounds is incredible. Don't let aanyone ever talk you out of this guitar. Some say there is a lack of bass or bottom end in the guitar. But that os so not the case. this this rings clear like a bell.

Sound Rating

10

Appearance

Its a very simple looking guitar. nothing to glamorous, but looks by o means make a guitar sound good. it has a natural finish, the standard taylor red swirled looking pick gaurd, dot marker inlays very nice looing taylor style head.

Appearance Rating

8

Customer Service

i haven't dealt with them yet other than registering it. but from the looks of their website they are more than will ing to help if anything ever goes wrong. check em out.

Customer Service

10

Overall Comments

This is an incredible guitar for the money. crisp as a bell very well balanced. i love and if you are thinking about buying one go out and do it.

Overall Rating

10

Sound

It is a D28 copy, no Herringbone but It suites me fine. I always wanted a Martin HD-28, but no longer. I play with some good 'ol boys with Martin HD28's, they all like my guitar, not enough to trade, one actually wanted to buy one from me for a backup. He's bought a new HD-28 3 mos. ago

Sound Rating

10

Appearance

It is a great looking guitar, I love herringbone, this guitar does not have it, but I'll get over it. It does have a very tight grain spruce top with lots of bearclaw. A 76 yr old bluegrass luthier friend of mine thought it may be adirondack spruce. The sides and back are solid rosewood all finished with nitrocellulose laquer.

Appearance Rating

10

Customer Service

No warranty, It was a close out,

Customer Service

not rated

Overall Comments

It was a close out, These guitars were built for the Eastman Strings company as a lower end guitar or price point. Somehow the DLX models ( all solid woods) turned out better than expected and they killed this project and sold off all inventory on E-Bay. I bought 2 of the D-28' and 1 of the D18's Magnificent guitars. The day I received them I listed my Eastman AC420 on E-Bay and sold it.

Overall Rating

10

Sound

It is the nicest, balanced 12 string guitar I have ever owned

Sound Rating

10

Appearance

It was used , in a pawn shop, previous owner put a decal on the top of the guitar "KISS" it was a tape on logo that left some marks, It is starting to fade now. One of my favorite things about this guitar is that it is made from cedar and some other aeromatic woods and whenever I take it out of the case I take a big whiff at the sound hole.

Appearance Rating

9

Customer Service

I have no idea.

Customer Service

not rated

Overall Comments

Great Guitar, I like it better than the Guild 12 Alvarez 12, two different Takamine 12's and some other lesser 12's I did try out a Taylor Jumbo 12 that was very nice.

Overall Rating

9

Overall Comments

Overall Rating

2

Sound

Accoustic

Sound Rating

not rated

Appearance

Appearance Rating

not rated

Customer Service

I used a Lujithier near my home, authorized Taylor guitar repair man.

Customer Service

not rated

Overall Comments

I played most all the Mini guitars on the market and they all seem to have this buzz problem.

Overall Rating

6

Sound

Sound is great but I have an E and B string buzz. This guitar have the best sound of all the baby, mini types out there.

Sound Rating

not rated

Appearance

Nicely made, It has a new type neck. Attaches to the body of the guitar with two screws on top near the end of the neck. I hope it works and lasts.

Appearance Rating

not rated

Customer Service

They were very helpfull

Customer Service

not rated

Overall Comments

Overall Rating

6

Sound

I really like the sound of this guitar.

Sound Rating

8

Appearance

Plain round dots, no binding and no gloss. Beautiful natural spruce top and mahogany back and sides

Appearance Rating

8

Customer Service

Never had to take it in, but the folks at the Guitar House are very capable and helpful if needed.

Customer Service

9

Overall Comments

Great guitar, slightly smaller than standard size with a nice padded gig bag, great for camping and bluegrass festivals.

Overall Rating

8

Sound

This 14-fret instrument has the best overall sound of any acoustic guitar I have ever played. The tonal quality is lush, with exceptional warmth. The string-to-string balance leans towards a clear, powerfully resonant bass ... with a rich, harmonically active mid-range, sweet bell-like trebles, and good note separation. There is a wide field of projection that makes the guitar deceptively loud, even off to the sides. Tremendous sustain. The neck profile and nut width allow plenty of room for easy fingering. The guitar is incredibly versatile; it handles both fingerstyle and flatpicking beautifully, and can maintain a fine, deep tone even when capoed on a high fret. I have it set up with a low action, using nickel round wound strings that allows for exceptional flexibility in both hands. Bends, hammer-ons, and pull-offs are a breeze. The top is lightly-braced, and responds quickly to even the most minute of dynamic changes, yet has an unusual amount of clean headroom if pushed.

Sound Rating

10

Appearance

It is an attractive guitar ... well designed and tasteful. The aged, amber-colored Sitka top has a surfeit of medullary rays (silk), perfectly straight-grained, with almost no runout. There are over 50 grain lines per inch. The nitrocellulose finish is very thin, and goes over the pickguard. The top binding and rosette are absolutely gorgeous pieces of abalone. The ebony fretboard is bound with grained ivoroid. The headstock plate is Brazilian Rosewood, and the tuners are gold Schallers that operate smoothly, with no binding, and the surface metal coating has not pitted or flaked at all. The abalone and mother-of-pearl inlays on the fretboard and headstock are custom-designed Bell Flowers designed by Mr. Gallagher. The back and sides are wild East Indian Rosewood, and beautifully book-matched.

Appearance Rating

9

Customer Service

I've never dealt with the company, but from what I have heard, the Gallagher family is very friendly and wonderfully accommodating to all their customers. The guitar was not under warranty, being used.

Customer Service

10

Overall Comments

Simply put; it is a superior guitar. Great craftsmanship. Fantastic tone. Suitable for fingerpicking a nuanced ballad with a capo, flatpicking fiddle tunes, or for accompanying a vocalist without irritating frequency conflicts. The sound, resonance, and dynamic response are above and beyond. The playability with nickel strings is reminiscent of a good electric, but without a loose feel or sloppiness, and there is no buzz, even with an aggressive technique. Overall, as fine an instrument as any guitar player could hope to have. I got really lucky the day this one fell into my lap. I would have gladly paid twice the asking price for this guitar, and still thought I had gotten a bargain. And a prize.

Overall Rating

10

Sound

Excellent sound. RIch and bassy. Really Boomy!

Sound Rating

10

Appearance

The best looking of the standard line up!!

Appearance Rating

not rated

Customer Service

Customer Service

not rated

Overall Comments

The best blugrass guitar on the market. You won't go wrong with it.

Overall Rating

10

Sound

It is true to the original 1937 Martin D18 specs including a thick neck I love that contributes to its tone and power. It may not be for small hands, so play one before buying. The D18A's that I've
played are consistently fantastic in tone and "cut" for flat picking.

Sound Rating

10

Appearance

Fit and finish is excellent. The "1937" sunburst turns some folks off,
but it is well done and is unique.

Appearance Rating

9

Customer Service

Martin, Inc. and My Favorite Guitars are both first class outfits.

Customer Service

10

Overall Comments

The D18A displaced several Collings D1A models as my primary flat picking guitars. I prefer the Martin D18A tone and the genuine
features of the originals including the tee bar non-adjustable neck and
hide glue construction. The lack of a varnish option is of no importance
to me for the D18A would no longer be true to the original specs. It is
among the top two guitars I've ever owned in fifty years of picking.

Overall Rating

10

Sound

I play bluegrass and i bought this as a "festival" guitar and iv been quite impressed with it.Its solid rosewood back and sides sitka top and micarta bridge and fretboard.With the stock micarta saddle it sounded decent..a bit bright for rosewood but after a switch to john pearse phosphor bronze mediums and a properly fitted bone saddle and ebony pins this thing came to life..good on the highs wich are seeming to still be sweeting up nicely but the lows really became more promenent as well as more complex overtones.now with the saddle this thing became a true cannon and on leads it cuts very nicely through the mix of a full band and has thar nice martin boom in the low end when playing rythm after some slight modifications this thing stands up very well to my HD not quite the same but this guitar hasnt any age on it or has yet to be played in.

Sound Rating

9

Appearance

The gloss top is beautiful and the satin back and sides have really grown on me its kind of a simply elegant looking guitar..mine has a very nice looking piece of spruce for the top lots of "silking" in the grain. and the heringbone rosette is a nice touch

Appearance Rating

10

Customer Service

out of 15 years owning martins ive never had a problem so i cant say anything here.

Customer Service

not rated

Overall Comments

I was skeptical about this guitar but after $35 of easy DIY upgrases this has become a very toneful instrument and i can say im quite happy with it.

Overall Rating

9

Overall Comments

I'd heard plenty of good things about the PLP series and was very familiar with Steve K through the web, through a few tracks on CDs over the years, and the pages of FGM magazine. When I saw this volume come up in the UK at a very reasonable price I thought I'd take the plunge.

What you get is a big old book - nice and clear text and tab for us short-sighted old-timers, and six CDs. Yep, six. The book pretty much just gives the tab for the tunes, and the CDs cover full speed performance of each track along with broken down and slowed down versions, with Steve talking through the pieces with particular emphasis on the problem and unusual areas. It's a real great way of covering the material - you can work through at your own pace using just the book and listen to Steve K as and when you need to understand a particular intricacy. For each song there are three versions - simple, intermediate, and advanced, along with some suggested endings. The simple versions are... simple. But they also sound great. I'd have no hesitation in playing these versions of the tunes as my break in these songs in jam sessions. The intermediate versions are a little more interesting and dfficult, as you'd expect. And the advanced versions take it all a step forward. But the great thing is, you can learn the basic version and then just a phrase or two from the intermediate (or advanced version) and thus slowly build up your own unique arrangement (maybe even add in some phrases from other sources), or work up to the advanced one a step at a time.

Steve K has a whole host of these books out covering scores of songs - I think there's a swing version, too. Volume 1 was the set I wanted on account of several songs that I've been working on are in here, as are several more that I want to learn. The 'setlist' is:

Ragtime Annie
Bill Cheatham
Goldrush
Flop Eared Mule
Forked Deer
Old Joe Clark
Soldier's Joy
Nothin To It
Red Haired Boy
Big Sandy River
Billy In The Low Ground
Under The Double Eagle
Fisher's Hornpipe
Blackberry Blossom
Turkey In The Straw
St Annes Reel
Arkansas Traveller
Sweet Georgia Brown
Whiskey Before Breakfast

Phew! The performance versions are wonderful. There's this moment of frission you get when listening to them when Steve plays something particularly great - you think "I've got the tab for that! I 'm in with a shout...." But of course it ain't that easy. Hearing it played, being giving the notes and instruction, is the easy bit. Learning it is the hard bit. If you're like me you're going to have to start off slow, and take it very steady!

There's no actual guitar instruction here. It's not about teaching you crosspicking (though there's plenty of it in the arrangements) or hammer-ons or how to keep a relaxed right hand or any other technical information - it's purely about learning these songs. Also there's no hints or information around why Steve chose (in the intermediate and advanced versions) the notes he chose. I'm a geek when it comes to understanding why someone chooses the notes they do - and that's why there's one star missing in the score. I'd love to understand how someone like Steve K would approach this stuff, not just when composing these different versions, but maybe in improvising upon them too. But that's not the intent to it's probably a little tight of me to knock off a point.

My other issue is nothing to do with the book and everything to do with memory. There's a lot of stuff in this set. I've already learned and forgotten several arrangements of several tunes. I'm not sure I'll ever keep it all my head at the same time.

Great stuff. Highly recommended for players of all levels.

Overall Rating

9

Sound

Great sound for flat picked bluegrass rhythm and lead and also fun to finger pick. This guitar loves a dropped D tuning.

Sound Rating

9

Appearance

Looks good not real fancy just a standard Hoboken manufactured Guild D-40. Mahogany back and sides, spruce top, rosewood fingerboard, great Guild headstock. Top has darkened up to that nice honey antique look after all these years.

Appearance Rating

9

Customer Service

Haven't had the need to contact the company but now that Guild is owned by Fender and manufacturing has moved about 30 minutes away from me in New Hartford, CT I may take it over there for a look see.

Customer Service

not rated

Overall Comments

I could never replace this guitar because of its sound, reliability, memories (old ticket stubs in the case from 60's Newport Folk Festivals, Woodstock etc.) and needless to say my son would disown me if I were to sell it.

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

Like most guitar players I've bought an awful lot of instruction material over the years and probably 95% of it lies gathering dust in a drawer or on a shelf somewhere. But every now and then one stumbles across a gem that becomes a truly well-worn and deserving friend.

Michael Horowitz's Gypsy Picking is one such book. I've long loved the gypsy jazz style, not just Django, but Stochelo Rosenberg, Romane, Gary Potter, Jimmy Rosenberg, Birili, etc etc My early attempts to play in this style floundered (and also foundered) terribly.

Then I heard mention of this book.

It's a slimish book (with a CD of all the patterns and exercises) - just 60 or so pages - and on a first glance it appears to be quite simple. When I saw that a whole section - some 15 pages or so - was devoted to playing patterns on open strings (i.e. the right hand only) I thought what's going on?!

But there's the rub. I'm a massive believer that the right hand (or should I say the picking hand) is *the* most important hand in this art of ours. As I read what Michael had to say, and as I applied myself to this style of picking, as I set a metronome going nice and slowly and started to really try and nail these patterns I suddenly started to get a bit of that Django sound. It felt good. It felt great. Sometimes going back to basics is just what we need.

Then... when I moved onto the next section and started to add the left hand patterns onto what my right hand was already doing the scales really did fall from my eyes and appear beneath my fingers. There was the sound and - unbelievably - I found very quickly that I could play some of these patterns far faster than I'd be able to using my normal picking style. It suddenly became clear why the Manouche players play this way.

There are limitations. This style of picking originated because of the need to project an unamplified guitar above the raucous crowds of Parisian nightclubs back in the day. It's not necessarily so required now. Playing runs up the neck works far more efficiently than coming down the neck. But it's all part of the style.

So having learned some basic patterns you then get to apply some cracking licks and scales and arpeggios to these patterns and have a whole lot of fun in the process.

There's a five chorus Django solo to learn and examine and break down. It's covered at a nice easy pace, and although Michael doesn't overtly mention this (maybe for copyright reasons) it is an actual Django solo from his Minor Blues recording. Django's version is far faster than Michael's version - something to aspire to!

There are recommendations of other recordings and artists to listen to and masses of other information and advice tucked away throughout the book.

I'm still a million miles from being able to improvise efficiently over songs like Minor Swing and Dark Eyes - but it's not because of the picking style and it's not because of any deficiences in this book - it's simply a very demanding style that requires constant attention.

Bottom line is that this is one of the few books I've read and applied and learned from cover to cover, I use the styles and techniques and licks in all my playing from time to time, and as a primer before moving on to other books and material in the style there is none better.

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

I bought Arlen Roth's Nashville Guitar book way back in 1977. Over the last 30+ years it's probably been my most used tuition book - and is part of an elite club of books that I've read and learned from cover to cover.

It's quite a comprehensive book - almost 150 pages - and came with a flexi-disc. I no longer have a turntable, but a very kind soul on another forum sent me a CD of the material on the flexidisc and it's been a joy to hear the examples again after all these years.

The book covers a lot of material:

Rhythm playing
Carter style playing
Travis Picking
Basic country lead guitar
Bluegrass
Rockabilly
Double note runs
Nashville String Bending techniques

I'm not 100% sure, but I've been told that the final chapter on Nashville String Bending helped revolutionise country guitar picking. Certainly the sounds Arlen coaxes out of a Telecaster with no help from a B-Bender is amazing.

I recall being blown away by the Sam McGee and Merle Travis fingerpicking sections back when I first got this book. How one person could coax such sounds out of a single guitar amazed and delighted me. Still does.

The country licks and scales informed my playing for years. Still do.

The bluegrass section is full of great licks in the G,C and D positions, and the exercise solos that Arlen has written usually contain one or two amazing and useful little twists and turns. I learned all of this stuff several times over (I have a terrible memory) and still go back to it weekly.

There's a beautiful arrangement of Wildwood Flower in the Maybelle Carter style and there's a whole bunch of Clarence White solos transcribed. It's only recently - since I've got hold of more of Clarence's material - that I've been able to match these transcriptions to the originals. But they are - despite it not actually saying so - very close transcriptions of sections of Listen To The Mockingbird, I Am A Pilgrim, and John Henry.

There are Doc Watson and Alton Delmore solos transcribed, too.

Much of the material in the book isn't on the CD/flexidisc. Back then space was at a premium - and there's one particularly hot solo that is on the recording but not in the book. Nevertheless, by the time you've worked through this material you'll be able to pick up such stuff anyway.

The rockabilly section is a bit lightweight and very basic (although the classic Workingman's Blues lick is included and that's always welcome!) but that aside, it's simply a gold mine.

I've seen other, more modern country guitar books, but none have touched me or inspired me the way this one has. I believe it's still available, certainly there are used copies out there. You have to work a little harder with older books like this than maybe you do with modern DVDs and books that have every sound file on the CD, but it's well worth it.

A classic of guitar tuition literature.

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

I love this guitar. This is only my 3rd acoustic. But for the price you can get these it is perfect in every way. Plus the Tric case is unbeleivable.

Overall Rating

10