A New Fiddlestick

I’ve been wanting to get a new guitar for some time. Even more since I’ve been playing along every other Thursday with a gang of guitar players at work. It’s been paying off since I’ve learned more songs than Puff the Magic Dragon and the incorrect way to play All I Want is You by U2. I even know a Green Day song now!

All of my guitars have been used or hand-me-downs. I don’t have much room to complain as many have been great guitars. Most notably my Martin Shenandoah. I think it was a D-2832. Modeled after the Martin D-28. I foolishly sold it for a song in High School and have regretted it ever since. Today, the guitar goes for around $1800 in good “used condition”.

The Yamaha FG-450SA I purchased back in 1996 has been a very good guitar but I’ve had my ear on something a little different. Recently, I was looking at some Seagull Artist Series guitars at the local music store. The Mosaic, which retails around $500-800 was on display. It’s a good sounding, beautiful guitar in it’s own rite with a Mahogany back and sides and a solid satin cedar top. But after visiting Groth Music yesterday I was convinced there were better sounding guitars to be had–some more affordable.

I brought Paul Thomson, a guitar buddy from work. He plays guitar about 10 hours a week and sometimes does live gigs and whatnot. He’s pretty darn good and owns 8 or 10 guitars including a custom Taylor. He and a couple of the other guys at work are more seasoned players. They’ve been teaching some of us novices how to play more than three chords. He was very helpful in helping me understand the differences in quality and what to look for (and not to look for) in name brands.

I decided after seeing the advantages of the cut-away both with my work buddies’ guitars and my mom’s own classical Alvarez, that I would get a lot of enjoyment out of the freedom of the extra space. And though I am not currently able to use the full length of the fret board, the cut-away style can also be more comfortable to play. One of the aspects of the Shenandoah I missed was the addition of a built in pick-up for plugging into an amp. I’ve never had a great desire to play electric guitar but having electronics on an acoustic guitar makes it very versatile.

At first I played the Seagull and handed it off to Paul to play. He made me look like a 5-Year-Old and he generally liked the sound and construction. But then I played the Yamaha that was there (and similar to mine) and it blew the Mosaic out of the water with its deep rich sound. After playing nearly everything in the acoustic guitar room I saw an Ibanez hanging on the wall. It was in a beautiful quilted maple finish with mahogany neck and rosewood fret board. It had a built in tuner and electronic pre-amp setup… and it sounded better than the Seagull without even plugging in. I had Marshall, the sales rep get us a patch chord and an amp to test it on. When we plugged in it was unbelievable. Even me, with my meager skill, was sounding pretty good on that Fender amp. What a thrill.

I ended up wheeling and dealing and for far less than the Seagull I walked out of the store happy with my first brand new guitar:

“Ibanez EW20QMENT” – Natural High Gloss Finish

With a Gator Case, and “Damp It” humidifier.