Post by TonyKgull on Jun 28, 2016 13:21:08 GMT -5
Ok, so I guess I should start off by saying that up until now, I've always considered any sort of maple back and sides guitar a bit on the bright side for my liking.
The key words there being..."until now."
So, today I went to "another" store since it was close to my doctor's appt. and I hadn't checked that store out in years, to try some guitars. Yes, I had time to kill and I've been casually looking for a 3rd, spruce topped guitar, to complete my trio of acoustics and contrast my cedar top ladies.
This store had pretty much all high end stuff, with their only low end stuff being affordable guitars from Godin. So they seem pretty picky about the quality of the guitars they carry.
So, just for fun, I tried a bunch of stuff from the almost 1400 buck Artist Studio Cameo, up to 4000 dollar Taylors. All spruce topped guitars that the sales guy said would be to my liking if I wanted that "bright guitar to cut through the mix." Even spent time A/B testing them all against each other.
Ok, so long story short, a humble 550 dollar ( I think ) Natural Elements Amber Trails MJ blew them all away.....I mean blew them away hands down. I am still kind of in shock. It had brightness better than them all, but nice and sparkly, not tinny or even muted ( some of the Taylors actually sounded kind of muted, and they all had fresh strings. Might be that gloss coating, who knows ).
So....um...ya. There's something magical about this guitar that's really got me GASin' big time for it. Seagull you seductress you! You've done it to me again! aaaagh! Not only did you make me fall in love with yet another of your ladies, you converted me to maple as well. I'm a CONVERT!
"What's that Hon?! Oh nothin'. Just replying to an email!"
*Mission Impossible theme starts to play..........*
The key words there being..."until now."
So, today I went to "another" store since it was close to my doctor's appt. and I hadn't checked that store out in years, to try some guitars. Yes, I had time to kill and I've been casually looking for a 3rd, spruce topped guitar, to complete my trio of acoustics and contrast my cedar top ladies.
This store had pretty much all high end stuff, with their only low end stuff being affordable guitars from Godin. So they seem pretty picky about the quality of the guitars they carry.
So, just for fun, I tried a bunch of stuff from the almost 1400 buck Artist Studio Cameo, up to 4000 dollar Taylors. All spruce topped guitars that the sales guy said would be to my liking if I wanted that "bright guitar to cut through the mix." Even spent time A/B testing them all against each other.
Ok, so long story short, a humble 550 dollar ( I think ) Natural Elements Amber Trails MJ blew them all away.....I mean blew them away hands down. I am still kind of in shock. It had brightness better than them all, but nice and sparkly, not tinny or even muted ( some of the Taylors actually sounded kind of muted, and they all had fresh strings. Might be that gloss coating, who knows ).
So....um...ya. There's something magical about this guitar that's really got me GASin' big time for it. Seagull you seductress you! You've done it to me again! aaaagh! Not only did you make me fall in love with yet another of your ladies, you converted me to maple as well. I'm a CONVERT!
"What's that Hon?! Oh nothin'. Just replying to an email!"
*Mission Impossible theme starts to play..........*
Time will tell as they say. 
Sure wouldn't mind the Artist Cameo, but ouch, that price tag. 
Who knows, the Martin DRS2 or the GPCPA5 might surprise me. 
Is it possible, it occurred to me, that I'm now, at least partially at least, a Taylor convert too?! What is happening to my world??!! 
And to top it off, this thing costs pretty much the same as the Performer and NE. ( give or take about 30 bucks on them). What reality am I in??!! 
) I had them order another 114e ( cuz this one had some wood character that was not appealing going on with the top ) and a Seagull NE MJ amber trails so I can A/B test what seems to be the two finalists in my quest. They said OK, no problem.