Brian:
The best thing you can do is to play as many instruments as you can so you can see what you prefer in tone and playability. I wish we east coasters (US) at least could find the time and or location to have a bowl tasting. I am a good 4 hours or so from Bob A but we have not yet met in person. Of course, it would be amazing if we could have a classical board tasting with the all the instruments of everyone but that would have to be in the middle of the Atlantic to be geographically central.
In any case, I don't have some of the true Italian treasures that Bob A has but I have a few good playable instruments, both American and Italian.
BTW I still think that the bigger name vintage American instruments are reasonably priced and readily available in the US. Most of the the Italian ones seem to be in the UK or Germany.
Much of it depends on how much you want to spend. As others have noted, a decent
Calace is under $1000. I played Victor's and it is a nice one and certainly worth the money. Dan Larson's and Pandini's are considerably more, in the $3000s. I thinbk most of the other quality makers are in that range.
A good simply ornamented Vega, Washburn or Martin in playable condition can usually be bought reasonably, even from reputable dealers. I am currently in the process of figuring out which ones of mine I want to part with, so PM me if you want to discuss.
Jim
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