Conference napalm::guitar

    
    Some good used guitars that are currently undervalued:
    
    Gibson SGs....sound similar to Les Pauls, very light and easy to
    play.  These things are the sleepers of the 80s, real nice guitars.
    
    Fender Mustang, Jaguar, Jazzmaster....not as trendy as Teles and
    Strats, and they have their own sounds, but nice, playable
    guitars,usually available cheap.  Ones in the fancy custom colors
    may be pricey.  
    
    B.C. Rich NJ...maybe I'll get flamed but I think the NJs are almost
    as nice to play as the U.S. made ones.  And I see them in want ads
    in the $300 range all the time. 
                                                                       
    
    
    None of the above will sound like a Strat if that's what you want,
    though.  Fernandes Strats at about $300 new are worth looking into.

    Stay away from the Kramer 300 ST.  They may look nice and they have
    the Floyd Rose, but a couple of friends of mine had terrible luck
    with them.  Both of them had trouble with a warping neck in very
    little time.  
    
    I've also heard that they have a lot of trouble staying in tune
    even though they do have the Floyd Rose system.
    
    Just a word of warning.  I think the advice offered in .1 is excellent
    for a first guitar.
    
    Kurt
    

    Ok, similar question with some additional constraints.  This will be
    the first guitar for my wife and I.  Neither of us knows how to play
    one, though I can find my way around a mandolin, and can play some
    other things.  She has an autoharp.
    
    For sure acoustic.  Probably nylon strings unless you can talk us out
    of it.  She wants to play simple strum chords, and I would kind of like
    to delve into fingerpicking.
    
    Probably not classical, so probably don't want the wide neck.  A guy I
    talked to at a store said you need the wide neck to do some classical
    things.  Any idea what he means by this?

>    For sure acoustic.  Probably nylon strings unless you can talk us out
>    of it.  She wants to play simple strum chords, and I would kind of like
>    to delve into fingerpicking.
>    
>    Probably not classical, so probably don't want the wide neck.  A guy I
>    talked to at a store said you need the wide neck to do some classical
>    things.  Any idea what he means by this?

You're not likely to find nylon strings without the wide neck.  Martin used to 
make a model 00%8-C (probably still do) with nylon strings and a neck width 
between dreadnaught size and classical size.  List price should be well over a 
grand by now, but they don't sound as good as a $300 student classical.  
They're also relatively rare.

The wide neck is to facilitate the intricate fingerings of classical music.
Also helps with ragtime.

A 00- size guitar made for steel strings is a good compromise.  It's good for 
fingerpicking because the neck is a little wider than dreadnaught size and the 
scale length is a little shorter.  That makes stretches easier and reduces 
the string tension, which also helps with intricate fingerings.  The lower 
tension is nice for tender fingers.  Martin makes them for $$$.  One of the 
Japanese mfgrs (Aria or Takamine?) used to copy them in a cheap model.

Bob

P.S.  Several very excellent fingerpickers use classical (or Flamenco) 
guitars.

    That was useful.  The reason for nylon was indeed for the tender-fingers
    problem, so reduced tension should help.  Is 00 size big or small?
    
    My wife's hands are smaller than mine, but not tiny.  I have a real
    problem playing chords on a mandolin as I just can't squeeze my fingers
    into the tiny spaces without accidentally muting adjacent strings.
    So I can probably deal with the bigger size.  We'll have to see if
    Karen can handle the stretch.  Of course, she probably isn't going to
    be doing anything real tricky.

    Standard classsical necks are 2" wide at the nut. A typical steel
    string acoustic is 1-11/16" wide.
    
    Ovation's "Country Artist" is a 1-7/8" nylon string and is a good compromise
    for the non-classical player. So is the Gibson Chet Atkins CE, but it
    is not an acoustic.
    
    Danny W.

Danny,

How does the Country Artist sound?  I always thought Ovation 'classicals'
(with a pickup) sounded great amplified, but pretty thin unamplified.


00 is a small size.  The body is classical shaped with dimensions maybe 90%
of full classical size.


Bob