I've never been loyal to my guitars, though I really want to be. I've owned at least thirty but if I no longer play them then I recycle them into the community.
I recently traded:
- DR100 £40 (bought 2 years ago £80)
- V300 £70 (bought 2 years ago £100)
- Amalio Burguet £335 (damaged - bought £550 ten years ago)
And now I've just sold my Martin OOO16 £850 (bought 3 1/2 years ago £900)
So not an expensive hobby really. The Burguet played many paid gigs and I probably earned £1000 with it.
I've been really inspired by my new 'J45' and have been experimenting with different grades of thumb pick. It is truly amazing the different tones that can be achieved with them.
There is only one which I wish I had not sold on. My first decent guitar, a Yamaha FG something or other, probably a lammy but still nice.
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The last four years has seen the exit of Tanglewood TW45, Breedlove Pursuit Concert, Gretsch Jim Dandy, Suzuki Classical, Lowden S32, Tanglewood TW Java, Faith Mercury Natural.
I'm just hoping I've finally got two more in the herd that can join the TW73 in a longer term relationship! On the plus side no regrets with selling any of them .... just regrets in buying them in the first place!
I'm not good enough to play and get paid (and have no wish to) so I can't also claim it's not an expensive hobby particularly given the Lowden fiasco ...... but I don't smoke, I run a cheap car, and I hardly drink, so what the hell!
You do get a big range of sounds from thumb picks. Not just the different grades but the materials too. I've found delrin gets closest to the real thumb sound.
In the treatment of the Lowden you ARE what Brad Pit was to the lurvly Jennifer Anniston.
I jest. Sometimes a better woman comes along. Now. I bought my 'J45' having walked into Mansons and not seen one before. Then I came home with it absolutely stunned and thought it couldn't just be me (why had it been in Mansons so long unsold ???) So I googled and got this:
Just go straight to 14.27 and hear what they have to say about it.
A fine young filly crossed my path and I was unable to resist her beguiling charms.
AS Mick Taylor put it the guitar sits on the sweet spot of the cost v value exponentiation curve. Good choice you made Kevin.
Sigma seem to have tapped into the traditional, vintage style of guitars very successfully.
I notice that the prices have gone up about 11% in the last 6 months since the video - that seems about the normal with the wheezing £.
Very good demo at around 20 minutes of how the 12 fret nature of a guitar, even if low budget like the cheaper of the 00 guitars, brings the type of sounds to the party that make for sweet resonance and melodic sustain. I found that more tempting than the bluesy snap of the 14 fret more expensive of the two 00s.
I had the opportunity to swap for a £900 SH Gibson J45 Standard recently. I didn't do it because, though it was a very nice guitar, it wasn't a particularly good J45. The Sigma J45 was way better and I'd say it would be good value even at £900 so did not mind the 11%. The exchange rate made it easier to sell my Martin for a good price, to a Chinese man who did not haggle. (Living in Scotland so had to pay £53 shipping.)