New to the forum, not new to Taylor

[imorroy]

Hi from Arlington, VA...

Great forum. I used to read AGF until they deleted the Taylor discussion area.

I started playing at age 11, on an old, large Mexican nylon string with a 2 inch wide nut, which was probably pretty good exercise for my small hands.  I've owned late 1990s 310 and 312CE, a 2002 NS72E, and I've owned several Tacomas and Breedloves. 

A week and a half ago I bought an early Christmas present: a 2012 814CE, during a Taylor Road Show. Best guitar I've ever owned.  I also have a 2003 214L3 at the house, which belongs to my sister. She never humidified it, so the back cracked and the frets needed dressing. I took it to the guitar shop (Melodee Music in Sterling, VA) where they did a very good job and now I "foster" the instrument. 

My other guitar is an American Series Breedlove D/SRe-H. I like to play around with ukuleles and a vihuela, and tried mandolin which was a disaster. So I leave that to my friend who is excellent at it. We have a band, The Constituents, in which we play for fun at community and political events.

I'm in politics, but I promise I won't discuss it here.    Suffice it to say, that my band's biggest audience was at one of our governors' inaugural years ago.

Thanks for this forum!

Ingrid

[jjrpilot-admin]

Hi Ingrid! Welcome to the UTGF!     thanks for sharing your story, make yourself at home!

[CodeBlueEMT]

 Hi Ingrid. Congrats on the new 814ce. A few of our members have made recent 814ce purchases.  Enjoy the site, you'll fit in just fine.

[gdeleo]

Welcome Ingrid, glad to have you here.  Good luck with your 814ce and may you have many years of enjoyment with it.

[mgap]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on the new 814ce, I have one and love it.

[BigSkyTaylorPlayer]

Hi Ingrid, welcome.

I too am in the DC area - and purchased my K66 from Melodee Music in Sterling.  Did you get to the Taylor Homecoming a few weeks ago?

Congrats on your 814!!

[Cindy]

Hi Ingrid and welcome to the UTGF! Glad to hear you've found us since the previous Taylor forum is no longer available. Many of the same members now come here to focus on Taylor guitars as well as guitars in general. Nice to have you join us!

[imorroy]

TaylorPlayer516: the Taylor Homecoming, is that the same as the Road Show? I do hang out at Melodee Music A LOT, even though it's quite a distance from Arlington.  Usually, I go to GC in Seven Corners, try their high end acoustics, decide what I want to buy and buy it at Melodee Music. Bought most of my guitars there. I'm a strong believer in supporting small, individually owned businesses, as they give you much better service.

I love the 814CE, play it every day after work and in the morning before leaving home. I got to play it out last Friday at Vinson Hall military retirement home in McLean. It sounded sweet. 

Ingrid

[BigSkyTaylorPlayer]

The Homecoming was an event Rob held beginning of Dec - different than the Road Shows.  I have gone to a couple of the GC's here in the area - the one up in Rockville was just redone and really nice.  I don't even try 7 Corners as the traffic is so bad there.

Anyway, I do love Melodee and Rob and Chris give me great service.  I had been going there bugging them about a BTO 12 string and finally bought the K66 they had in stock last month.   

I too play the uke a little bit - do you know/participate with the NoVA Ukulele Group out at Lake Anne?  They have a uke festival every summer - on the hottest day of the year....

[imorroy]

I missed the Taylor Homecoming, then! Yes, Rob in Sterling and Rick in Leesburg are fine business people. GC in Seven Corners is just outside Arlington, easy to get to at lunch time; Arlington is small after all. 

Attended the Nova Uke festival at Lake Anne last year, where I bought a tenor Kala, Marcy Marxer model w/electronics.  My other ukulele is a handmade koa concert size, which I bought from the builder in '05 when I visited Hawai'i.

Jealous at your K66! Do you perform in the area?

[BigSkyTaylorPlayer]

.....Do you perform in the area?

Only in the LR for the cats when they are awake....lol.  Would love to come see your group sometime.

I missed the Uke festival last year and I am jealous of your koa uke!!  I am on the wait list for a koa tenor from Bradford Donaldson.

The Homecoming at MM was like a Road Show on steroids.  Different booths were set up for the various sizes (GS, GA, etc) and Rob and a crew of about 8 (including a few from the Taylor factory) were there changing strings and performing minor maintenance on one Taylor guitar you own.  It was really nice to watch them and speak with the tech when he was working on my 516.

I'm guessing several hundred Taylor owners/lovers were there.  One funny point was when I was sitting in the acoustic room talking with Zach from Taylor and a lady came in wanting to look at Martins......Zach and I looked at each other and laughed.  When she found out it was a Taylor event she was like, well, let me look at the Taylors then....lol!!!!

[Picker 'n Grinner]

Welcome to the forum. Its hard to beat the 814