Croce: "Do you believe the Festival marked a comeback in your own career?" Hurt: "I certainly don't think it hurt," he answered laughing. "Of course my career has seen more comebacks than a Friday night fish fry. I've been around a long time, you know. My first record was for Okeh in 1928" - December 1963, young Villanova student Jim Croce asks a question about the recent Newport Folk Festival in an interview of Mississippi John Hurt for radio station WWVU, from I Got A Name - the Jim Croce Story by Ingrid Croce and Jimmy Rock (Da Capo 2012)
I bought my Guild GAD-30E just for this reason and love it. Wide board, big neck, all solid, mahogany B and S, decent Fishman pickup and just beautiful. My only complaint is the scale (long scale). It is really more versatile than a Martin because it is so great for slide as well as fingerstyle. I tried a bunch of BRs but the little skinny necks didn't do it for me however that would have definitely been my second choice.
I haven't found the Guilds sound quality to be quite as good as the BR's but that could just be the several that I've played. I also find that they are very stiff feeling. It was hard to get them moving, and I play hard. But its really an embarrassment of riches. Nothing of this quality was available at comparable, time adjusted prices back in the sixties. A cheap guitar back then was usually a plywood monstrosity with an action more suitable for slicing hard boiled eggs than playing music.
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My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music. Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)
The Recording King has a 1 3/4 nut. It has a feel very similar to a vintage parlor.
The Blueridge Parlor has a 1 7/8 nut.
Don't take my word for it....just try one out if you can find one. I've never regretted purchasing either of them. Matter of fact, I've been considering selling my OS Stella to fund a Blueridge 361.
I believe I did just play one of these last Saturday. Prices was about $650 as I recall. Don't know if that included a case, or what the case was like. I didn't like it that much, but I am very spoiled by fine rosewood guitars that I own. I wouldn't have guessed from looking that the guitar was mahogany, and in the link you posted, I would have guessed the pictured guitar was rosewood. What I played I thought was some indeterminate Chinese wood. The neck was a nice width, feel was a bit clubby. String spacing was good for finger picking. Feel was a bit stiff. If I were seriously looking in this price range, I would have played it longer than < 5 minutes that I put into it. Still, a great price for a good finger picker, well set up.
I've not been too impressed with either of the recent Chinese made 12 fret guitars I've played IE the Blueridge, and the very ornate Washburn reproduction. The Blueridge sounded nowhere near as good as their 000 models, though it was just as nicely made. Then again I'm not a huge fan of 12 fret guitars in general (John Miller special excluded of course). On the rare occasions I've found a good one though, it has been a little slice o' heaven. Those have all been guitars from the late 19th century into the teens of the next century but not often extending into the twenties. They tend to have smaller bodies than most guitars produced in the twenties.
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My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music. Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)