Decided that it might be fun to try something a little different and pick up an acoustic guitar.
Of course, me being me it has to be an acoustic electric so I have the option to plug in.
Previous attempts to learn to play guitar never worked out, but this time I put my main electric guitar into Drop D and discovered it made my life way easier, so after a few days of mucking around on that I certainly wasn’t yet ready to hit the coffeehouses but I was confident enough to go ahead and go shopping.
Of course, wanting a black guitar narrowed down my options, as did not wanting to spend a whole lot on anything that isn’t a synth. I went in on Sunday to Tom Lee to have a look and try out a couple Fenders, then decided to mull it over a couple days.
In the meantime, I was tipped off about Art & Lutherie so when I went in today I was thinking I’d try one for comparison. They were a fair bit more than the two Fenders I was looking at, but I was willing to give them a shot.
Now, here’s where aesthetics come into play a bit more. I was not a fan of the matte finish on the A&Ls, but even more of a deal breaker turned out to be the decorated plastic ring in lieu of a rosette (it was not apparent from website photos that it was a plastic ring instead of actual wood).
Kinda a dumb thing to draw the line over, but there ya have it. Before today, I never would have thought of it or cared about a rosette, but as I stood in the guitar room looking at it, I just couldn’t stand that one detail.
However, hanging right next to the A&Ls was a red sunburst Yamaha acoustic-electric (CPX500ii). Whose price was between the Fenders and the A&Ls, and whose sound hole was decorated with a simple and traditional abalone circle and some painted black pinstripe circles.
I gave it a try and liked the sound, plus the action was good and everything else checked out, so I bought it.
So far so good, and, after retuning it to drop D, I’m already working on chording for “Au Revoir, Goodbye Little Whore,” “Tell Me” and “Sapphire.”
