Hi All,
I’m an advanced guitarist, fingerstyle and picking. I have 4 very good handmade guitars: Goodall (cedar/big leaf maple), Lowden (redwood/Tasmanian Blackwood), Santa Cruz(cedar/mahogany) and Huss and Dalton (redwood/walnut). I use this as a preface only to, hopefully, help me. My ear is for instruments good. I Have a $60 tonal ice-pick of a Rogue that in 2 weeks was sufficient for me to see if I like mando and if I want to continue. I think I can make the mando a second instrument. I know any solid top and sided instrument should sound better, but I’d like to shoot for a solid instrument. (I’m old enough to not be gigging with it.)
As you can see, I have no spruce topped instruments. They haven’t been right for my “fingerstyle” instrumentals. I like the sound of the Fs. I know they’ll cut through. I like the resonance of oval holes but think them likely better suited for small ensembles. I get together weekly with a group of 10-30 people for a play along. Music style is old time Appalachian. Lots of fiddles, banjos and some guitars. Rarely a mando.
I’ve been looking at Webers around $3k. It’s rare to find cedar and a wide nut (if that’s an advantage for me and know cedar well enough to understand the tonal differences in woods).
Look, I know this is a shotgun approach to this topic and I may be rambling. I know Collings are very good. I hear one in our nano and liked it though I be found all Collings’ guitars to be stiff sounding. In terms of Weber, though what should I look for? I’ll have to buy in on line because I live in the boonies and the great guitar shop in Atlanta, Maple Street Guitars, only has new instruments, though they do have Weber.
I saw a thread with a lot of experience on the newer and older Webers. How discerning do I need be? Can a guitar shop with an exceptional luthier set up a mando well or is it a really different beast?
Where is my thinking right and where am I wrong?
Thanks so much for any direction each of you may give.
Cheers,
David
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