One Guitar To Rule Them All

[sdelsolray]

A Huss and Dalton CM fits your description perfectly. It will outperform any OM or 000 I've played fingerstyle or flatpicked and has more dynamic range and headroom than most dreads. If you ordered one with a natural finish you should meet your budget requirement. 

The H&D CM is not discussed much.  It is a wonderful guitar, certainly as described, and more.  Ditto on its recommendation.

[davidmacneill]

Here's a quick and dirty photo album:

http://homepage.mac.com/davidmacneill/PhotoAlbum36.html

[UK Mike]

Looks great.

I think that's possibly the most glossiest gloss I have ever seen!

Congrats.

Mike

[davidmacneill]

And here's my Impossible Dream Guitar, a Ryan Mission Grand Concert:

http://homepage.mac.com/davidmacneill/PhotoAlbum37.html

I came pretty darn close, eh? I'm as happy as a little girl!

[Randy_R]

Goodalls are fantastic.

[mazareth]

I'm as happy as a little girl!

David,

That puts me in mind of a certain Robyn Hitchcock song... Glad you're quest was successful! Please let us know when your project is finished!

[tim farney]

I had exactly the same requirements, not because I needed to sell my other guitars, but because I'm a hybrid picker who needs to be able to go from double dropped D fingerpicking to acoustic rock strumming to lead picking with a pretty heavy pick. I went through quite a few guitars looking for it and finally found my bliss here:



It's a Thompson T1c. You won't find one new with a cutaway for $2800, but with a little digging, you should be able to pick one up used a lot less than that. I think there are a couple of tricks that make this guitar work the way it does. It's very lightly built, and even though it is the shape of a Larrivee L, it is the depth of an OM, giving it a very quick response. What gives it the headroom, I'm not sure, but it's got it. I worked a little song circle jam a couple of weeks ago and a large, hard room, competing with two dreds, a jumbo and a banjo, and when I took a solo, it cut right through.

Tim

[davidmacneill]

Yep, that would do the trick! Gorgeous looking instrument.

[tim farney]

Thanks. They aren't easy to find. Ted Thompson only makes about 50 a year. To get mine, I took a great leap of faith and ordered it, ever so slightly used, from a shop in Canada, sight unseen. There is nothing disappointing about it. the bass notes are almost as big and clear as a maple jumbo. The mids are huge. The trebles are round and bell-like, and it has a very broad dynamic range. The maples are pretty uncommon. Rosewood and mahogany are a lot easier to find.

About the only problem I can think of is that the string/note separation is so acute that it can really show off my sloppy technique. I have to me careful and precise.

Here's a T1 in mahogany and Engleman at the Guitar Gallery. Just barely in your range. I'd give them a call and ask them about that Engleman top though. It may not have the headroom you need.



Tim

[davidmacneill]

I'm supremely satisfied with my "new" 2002 Goodall RGCC. Its Englemann soundboard has all the headroom I require. Both Englemann guitars I've owned left nothing to be desired in this regard, so either I got lucky with my woods or my pick attack is controlled enough to make the question moot. I like to think it's the latter, of course. 8-)

[Sordello]

By the way David, with the lovely, lovely acquisitions you are making lately,  should the word "recovering" still be in your profile?  :POL>

[davidmacneill]

By the way David, with the lovely, lovely acquisitions you are making lately,  should the word "recovering" still be in your profile?  :POL>

LOL! Well actually, I'm recovering from my former life as an 80's rocker. As far as the guitar addiction, well, that's another story!

[mazareth]

Sweet looking guitars! The L style body seems made for the Florentine cutaway.

David,

So is that the big hair, pointy headstock guitar type of 80s rocker you're recovering from?  :rolleyes: