A Martin, kinda 'cause of the design they use - which is awesome and I love them, will often need a very costly operation every 15 to 20 years. You gotta take 'em apart, shim and sand, and do a neck reset. If's a couple hundred bucks, or less if tossed in with other work like a fret job and leveling. Other than that, you can do a setup and lower the action by taking down the nut and saddle. They tend to come high from the factory - mostly for marketing reasons. They don't want you to have a fret buzz when you pick one up to try it in the store.
Ah, that makes sense. You know how it is though, no second chance to make a first impression.
But man what a nice sound they have.
I own an absurd number of Martin examples, specifically the D-28. I'm a sucker for an old D-28. I have a couple from the late 1800s, but those aren't worth nearly as much as you probably think they are.
Taylor makes good guitars. You can pay a lot for 'em, or get their lower end stuff. I don't have much experience with the cheaper examples by pure happenstance. I've just never been around them much. There's also Takamine which is a Japanese guitar affiliated with Taylor, though those can get expensive in their own right. They're kinda like Gibson's Epiphone (I think).
Oh yeah, I've heard of Takamine. I always liked Ovations, for some reason all the ones I ever picked up had good action and sounded nice.
Wonder whatever happened to those Carvin guitars you could mail order.
Jimmy Rogers' widow gave my dad a guitar and told him he could keep it if he'd just learn a few chords but he gave up quickly. She and my grandmother were best friends in San Antonio.
Ah, Taylor's is what they have (my kids), nice guitars but I don't know, maybe they're overhyped.
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