Hi, After trying about 200 OOO/OM guitars, 50% Martins the rest L'Arivve, Guild, Gibson, KYaira, Yamaha and lots of other including 3 Collings (the sound of which I really disliked, finding them thin and piercing) i only found 2 I really liked. A Martin OOO18GE which I thought sounded beautiful but unfortunately the thick V neck was a dealbreaker, and a Martin OM42 which was nice sounding but had a 'sticky' varnish on the neck which didn't make sliding up the fretboard easy. The rest, iconic guitars I'd heard so much about were a disappointment and sounded, to my ears worse than the '79 Guild D25 I took in to compare them to. I forgot about the whole thing.
Then I tried a Taylor 522e 14 fret, it felt lovely to play, like a much more refined version of the Yamaha APX I played for yeras as a pub country and western singer. Soundwise the taylor stood up equally to a 2013 model Martin OM21, a different sound but I probably preferred the Taylor, I preferred the sounds of the OOO18GE and the OM42 but they were much more expensive and had for me playability issues.
My question is do you think a Taylor 522 12 fret, with the possibly fuller sound, would be a good choice or should I hold out for the 'perfect' guitar and try out models such as Santa Cruz OM or OM/PW or OOO which I've heard so many good things about or boutique makes which seem hard to find/compare and difficult to resell if, Heaven forbid, you realise you've made a mistake.
I'm from England and there's only 1 shop in the country that sells Santa Cruz and they have very few in stock and to get there its a 500 mile round rail trip and walk the streets of central London, in other words quite a trouble.
I do want the 'guitar of a lifetime' thats easy to play and sounds good for my plectrum style of light strum whilst singing with added bass runs and playing a single note melody on the trebles whilst keeping strum going on the instrumental parts. The Guild D25 does this perfectly but its just too big! I'd love a great sounding guitar that feels like a comfortable extension of myself that I can play almost automatically leaving me to concentrate purely on the emotion in the song I'm singing, is the 522 12 fret the one?
I can tell theres a lot of real and unbiassed knowledge and experience on this forum it would be great to hear any advice people can offer
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