A New Toy

I finally found a replacement for one of the two guitars stolen from my office a couple of months ago. After spending a lot of time in nearly 20 guitar shops in two states, I came upon this Tacoma concert style dreadnought in Limelight Music less than three miles from my office. I played perhaps a hundred guitars with costs up to $3900 as I went from place to place, but the warm sound of this guitar won me over.

I have always eschewed guitars with mahogany sides and backs as inferior to those with rosewood. Rosewood always produced such sweet highs and haunting lows... but this guitar matched the best rosewood backed guitars I could find... and for a tenth of the cost of the high end guitars. I had to check the price a few times before I believed it.

Tacoma doesn't build these anymore. The people at the shop were glad to get rid of it and I was glad to find it. It needed a home. This guitar was made back when all Tacoma guitars were handmade in a shop in the US. Handcrafted and set up by masters, they couldn't compete with cheaper guitars so Fender bought them out. The Tacoma name is still being put on guitars, but they are semi-hollow body guitars and not the same as this old masterpiece.

I brought it home last night and played it until my fingers hurt. It's been a long time since a guitar made me want to do that!

Tomorrow or the next day... a report on the birthday celebrations and a wonderful outreach planned tomorrow in memory of Professor Jack down in Detroit.