Hi Hippo,
After some reading about your background, I have to chime in here because I myself just also got back to "Guitar" after about 20 year hiatus. And I'm fairy new here too.
And as I know of, I'm the oldest member here. I also crazy about JD, S$G,JT, BD....etc, and also still try to learn "Fingerstyle" at this old age.
So I'm sure I'm qualified to offer my opinions here.
First off about guitar, too bad I'm not residing in BKK otherwise you can have one of my guitars at the the price that you mention. So that's out of question.
But not long ago, may be a month or 2 at the most, I've seen at the "buy & sell" Thread about a Yamaha that I also have right here hanging up on my wall right now that I recalled much less than what you willing to pay.
As I said, I have it as a "Beater", that means I'm not worrying about take it out to who knows where? The model of that one is "DW-5S"
it has solid spruce top, laminated back/side, gold tuners, Dreadnaught size, very well made, binding neck.
I'm 5 ft. 7 inch tall and slim at 135 Lb, and feel comfortable with this DW-5S neck, I don't know about your body structure and especially your fingers shape/size. I just put it here for the sake of comparison.
I'm not quite sure how is your definition of "Fingerstyle"? (Michael Hedges, Tommy Emmanuel, Chet Atkins, Doyle Dikes, Merle Travis, Paul Simon, James Taylors and so many more)
Some may say for true "Fingerstyle" you have to choose some particular brands and specs. For example; Taylors, Martins...etc...Cedar top, 1 and 3/4 inch neck...etc. or even Custom made guitars.
From my limited observation and experience, I've seen they play them all, like Hedges played Martin D-28, Emmanuel plays Maton, Atkins played Gretch, Taylors plays Olson....and on and on.
So, I'd venture to say that it doesn't really matter much about what you play, it's much more matter of "HOW YOU PLAY". Good and experience players will most likely make a good music out of what they put their hands on, ask "Hattaya" about this!
And on the other hand, the "not so good" and "no-experience" players will most likely not making good music even if they try to play on the better guitars.
Please do not believe all of what I said, they are strictly my opinions that could be very wrong. But I think it's better to hear these opinions and have an open-mind and most of all "think for yourself"
Hippo, I've searched and here it is (was)
(26-05-2009 11:47)MR.PAT Wrote:
YAMAHA DW-5S (กีต้าร์ตัวนี้น้องสาวผมฝากขาย)
ราคา 8,500 บาท ครับ
ท่านใดสนใจติดต่อ 089-1363992 พัฒครับ
ปล.เนื่องจากผมอยู่ตจว.แต่มีประชุมที่กรุงเทพฯ ช่วงวันที่ 28-29 นี้ครับ
เผื่อว่าท่านใดสนใจ โทรนัดได้นะครับ (จะได้เอากีต้าร์ติดรถไป)
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เพิ่มรูปครับ
Hi MR. PAT,
I obviously don't know you, but let me chime in for this guitar. I also happened to have one of this ser.#80218148 and I bought it only few years ago (BTW; I live in Los Angeles, California, USA) at $350 used but looked like new condition.
For 8,500 baht, I think it is a very reasonable price for this very well made guitar. The one I have has a feel of Martin Dred but of course not the sound that Yamaha has its own unique tone. Built to last for a long long time, solid top, nice details.(Tonewise is not as projected or loud like Martins and you shouldn't expect that because this Yamaha doesn't have solid body like most Martins, just solid top and much cheaper)
Someone better grab this one, if you want a good dreadnought guitar at a very reasonable price then this is it.
But again for any acoustic guitar YOU have to play/test it first and see if it rocks your boat or not
And again, I don't have any associate with MR. PAT in anyway.
P.S. I think I also used this Yamaha in some of my uploads at YouTube channel, my username is "napman99", check it out ("Piano man" and "If") if you want to have an idea of how does it sound?