@vanian No worries at all and above all have fun while choosing, it shouldnāt be an unhappily stressful decision!
I hear you with feeling awkward if youāre testing in an open space but how else are you meant to know? The store staff will have seen and heard everything, donāt forget that!! One piece of advice I took from a YouTube channel I subscribe to is to have a written list of things youāre comfortable playing while youāre testing an instrument, do a mix of songs, scales, riffs, licks, chord change exercises etc. It really helps when youāre the proverbial rabbit in the headlights in store and your mind goes blank. I think I used 3 or 4 relatively basic songs, some barre chord changes to see how they felt, couple of runs of scales and the obligatory Wish You Were Here intro (No Stairway obviously, not that Iāve learned it anyway!). A decent guitar store will not mind if youāre there for ages, they will want you to be happy with you purchase too.
Definitely look forward to hearing your experience, do share how you get on
Yes @Notter , itās a nice problem to have in a way. And it gives me an excuse to read up on lots of different guitar goodness, and an excuse to watch lots of guitar based YouTubes
Iām a bit of an introvert at the best of times, so sampling in the shop is always a bit awkward but must be done, and Iām sure many of us feel that way Iāll go prepared next time, try a couple of thingsā¦and hopefully the acoustic room will be empty At least itās not an electric where everyone in the whole store hearsā¦
If I do get one I will, Iāll let you know which and how it is Whatās the betting I come back with something completely different, or not at all?
I saw some of your songs here, youāre doing great and I saw your Faith Bloodmoon in action too. All the best!
@vanian sound like you have most of the bases covered with you collection
Had to run into Calgary today so I stopped by my favorite music store to try out the D10e unfortunately they didnāt have one in stock. They did have a D12e and to played nice and sounded good. Donāt know how it compares the the D10e. They donāt carry Faith guitars so still canāt help there.
Then I played a D18, D28 and an OO18 the OO18 was the winner out of the 3 but Iām not a dred fan so donāt take my word for it.
Then I when over to the Gibson side of the acoustic room and played a J45, Hummingbird, J185, L00 standard. L00 studio and a G00 natural. The J45 and Hummingbird were killer. But they are about the same size as Dreds and my shoulder canāt play big guitar anymore so I spent most of the time playing the L00 studio. It keeps saying ātake me home with you.ā but sadly i put it back on the wall.
Hope you have as much fun finding your new guitar as I did trying to find you a new guitar.
@stitch oo, some nice ones there. Is the āOOā range a bit smaller than a dread? I think they might have a D10e in my office city but itās a bit far and I only go once a week, maybe Iāll see next week. I think Faith are harder to get over there and in the US, but not sure.
I heard the J45 is a great one but im pretty sure itās on the expensive side. I quite fancied the G45 which is I assume a budget version of it, but alas no electronics on it. I think it has a sound hole at the top, which i thought was interesting too. And I love the hummingbirdās look but again out of my price range, so I havenāt tried it I was excited to try the Epiphone copy of the hummingbird but was disappointed with itās sound a bit. I wonder how the main Gibson one is, sounds like you liked it. They look great. Letās face it, weād get them all if we could.
Going into a guitar shop is like a kid going into a candy store sometimes. Some nice instruments you got your hands on there!!
The G series do have a sound hole on the top I really did notice any difference in volume between the G00 and the L00 studio which is also Walnut back and sides.
The one I played has a $5000 CND price tag on it. Little out of my price range.
I planned to just pop in and see if they had a D10e there and was there for over an hour.
The OO body style is almost as big ad a Dred but the waist is a lot smaller so it sits lower when playing it sitting down. I think thatās why it doesnāt hurt my shoulder.
Hereās a size chart that shows most of the body shapes and sizes.
@stitch So there was a difference with the top sound hole on the G45? If so, i wonder why itās not more common, it seems a great idea. Though it does look a bit odd
Woah, that Hummingbird is expensive! Definitely out of my price range. For that price it had better be a whole lot better than the Epiphone version I tried
Thatās very nice of you to go to check for a D10E, thanks a lot. But Iām glad it wasnāt a wasted trip and you had fun with the other guitars. I wonder why the D10E doesnāt seem so popular or available as much. I didnāt see too many reviews and itās not in my local (big) shop.
The OO is probably a nice shape. I donāt know if im right but as far as I can see, that kind of shape would give the depth of a dreadnaught with a punchier tone on the trebles, at least thatās the impression i get. So thatās probably a good shape.
So, tonight i had a bit of good/bad news. Before guitar started to be my main hobby, I was quite a big PC gamer. Now I donāt know if youāve heard of Google Stadia, itās like an online game store like Netflix. Apparently it wasnāt very popular, and mocked, but I really liked it - i was their niche customer - and had invested in quite a lot of games over past few years, and the games were usually leaning on the expensive side to purchase since they were hosted on Google. However, I just found out theyāre totally shutting down the service in Januaryā¦ At first i was rather annoyed to say the least, as I say Iād bought rather a lot of games on there. Not to mention the time spent and loss of progress etc.
But the big upside is, reading through their announcement they are going to refund everything anyone ever purchased on it. So I will get all my money back in full. Which is going to be a rather nice windfall and effectively will cover the full cost of the guitar. So I think that means i will definitely be buying one, and come January will get it paid back Thatās a nice stroke of luck for a change, and I prefer playing guitar than games these days so it suits me
ā¦but that Hummingbird you saw would still definitely be way out of my budget
Indeed. I think I must have been the only person who was sure they wouldnāt dump it. I thought if they close it they would at least keep it open for the existing content, I would have thought they could have just kept the servers running. They did say before that if it shut they would refund but I didnāt really believe it. But looks certain they will. I probably wouldnāt have played those games, so in a way itās a good thing and I can get a fancier guitar instead, nothing lost.
Just darn, lost all that progress in Assassinās Creed
And ā¦lesson learned, donāt invest in Google again. And control my game purchasingā¦in future, but that came at just the right time for me at least didnāt it
Right!
I now kinda feel compelled to do some sort of time-share of it with you all - the postage would be killer though
It wonāt be my guitar, itāll be ours, okay? Maybe Iāll let you name it or something.
Any excuse to go play new guitars for and hour is fine by me.
Itās always a good thing when unexpected money knocks on your door.
I think on my next trip into the city Iāll try an find a Faith guitar Dealer. Iāve read a lot of good things about them but have never had the opportunity to play one. My mother always said you have to have Faith now I understand what she meant I could tell my wife Iām just doing what my mother told me.
Hereās a pic of the L00 Studio. It has Walnut back and sides so had a really nice sound.
They didnāt have a G45 in stock the one I played was a G00 a lot smaller body guitar. If you look at the picture I posted the J45 is on the Top right and the J185 is on the top left. the G00 is bottom right and the L00 Rosewood bottom left
Thatās a handsome instrument too, and Iām rather partial to sunbursts, my Yamaha has it.
Even if i couldnāt play a guitar Iād still want one, I like looking at them
Youāll have to let us know if you find a dealer and try them, I wonder what youād think of them.
Is Rosewood nice for back and sides also?
See, your mother knew what she was talking about. Even her advice was to push us to the check out the Faith rangeā¦
This is what separates Martin people from Gibson people. Most Martinās are Rosewood Back and sides. Most Gibsonās are Mahogany back and sides. Rosewood has lots of over tones and is louder. Mahogany is softer, more focused and when you dig in has that Gibson growl.
Singers with strong sing voices like Johnny Cash, Hank Williams and Neil Young like Martinās. Singers like James Taylor, Jackson Brown and Emmylou Harris like Gibson because they complement their voice not over power them. For my style of playing I prefer Gibson all thou I do have a buddy who has a Mahogany Top, back and sides Martin that I really like and play it every time we jam together.
Another thing for personal taste I guess
I think I donāt mind so much, if itās acoustic Iāll probably like it
When it comes to learning or playing, I try things i wouldnāt normally listen to, just because itās fun to try it, most of it sounds good to me.
Strangely they didnāt seem to have much in the Gibson range at my store, more Taylors it seemed from the big brands.
Whatās your tastes to play or hear?
At least itās not an electric where everyone in the whole store hearsā¦
I could tell my wife Iām just doing what my mother told me.