JJ I went to the Podium in Dinkytown and LOL (aka the researching buying an acoustic guitar thread)

so the Podim is a long-standing Dinkytown institution, an all acoustic guitar store...walk in and it's pretty much only Martins and Taylors and some other boutique brand I've never heard of (began with a "C" I think)...but anyway I'm usually chicken but fuck it I decided to try a $4500 Martin -- which proved to be a lot nicer than the laminate Aria Pro II my mom bought me in 1990.

but yeah so the dude comes up to me and is like are you looking for a guitar, i said, "Well, to be honest this is way out of my price range, do you have anything at more of the lower end of the spectrum"...he said "Sure, this one is probably the lowest priced guitar we have in right now, it's used but it's a Martin in great shape"....price tag: $1300

jesus christ!!!

anyway saving up money right now but been doing some research - that Bedell brand you told me about on another thread sounds pretty great, hope to come out to yr shop and check them out sometime when i can take a super duper long lunch.....

others that keep popping up are Godin/Seagull/Art&Lutherie and some mid-line Recording Kings....

doesn't seem like you can even touch a used fucking Martin for less than $1000 even on craigslist! crazy talk....

Also read about these "Red Label" Yamahas from specific years in the early 70s that are well regarded I guess...supposed to be a "poor man's Martin", but it's all really complicated you gotta know the specific runs and what factory they were

but yeah if anyone has any ideas about a decently priced acoustic that could last me (hopefully) for the rest of my life that doesn't cost a full mortgage payment let me know!

always interested to hear more about this! but my ideas of what "good" acoustics sounds like must be off, cos i have a $250 alvarez that to me sounds totally awesome, and new acoustics i play off the rack always sound so bright and tinny to me

that's cuz the wood has totally "opened up" maaan! or at least that's what ppl online say

actually DELETE THREAD:

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ram/msd/3047251567.html

^^taylor signed by kenny loggins on mpls craigslist

ha gtfo

the dream is real goole

that might be a good deal actually. it's a 15/16th scale travel model but people seem to really like it.

the signature has added no value

lol maybe the signature brings down the price

"nice guitar, what's this... smudge down there?"

it's really hard to beat a good used Martin, Gibson, or Guild.

assuming you're looking for a dread, you can def find dope Guilds (D-25, sometimes D-35 or D-40) and even Gibsons (Gospel, WM-45) for under or around a grand.

um... if it wasn't built on an indian burial ground i would hit this with great fury: http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/msg/3035148131.html

^^^^^ seriously great price on what is imo the ideal all-round dread and a lifetime guitar ^^^^^

(for posterity when this thread gets bumped, it's a shiny 2004 J45 for $1200)

damn i wish i had the dough, that's a beautiful guitar

huh i also have an old alvarez that i like a lot. it seems a lot louder than most acoustics, i don't know why.

some other boutique brand I've never heard of (began with a "C" I think)

probably collings? supposedly these are fantastic.

friend of mine just got a blueridge dreadnought and he seems to like that quite a bit.

i also hear good things about some of breedlove's mid-priced guitars iirc

In the 500-ish new segment, there are great offerings from blueridge, the loar, epiphone masterbilt, guild's GAD series et al. Also good old Yamaha and Takamine.

But seriously, used guild or gibson. The closer you get to $1000 the less sense anything else makes (imho)

i wish i had $1000 believe me! :)

but yeah maybe i'll just put it off.

i dunno.

arbys; Collings sounds right, he said it was popular with bluegrass dudes

they were really nice.

bah, theres good stuff out there for $300 man, and in my experience waiting = never actually getting in most cases - if your budget isnt $1000, then it just isn't.

yeah i keep looking on craigslist

there's gotta be something better than this POS aria i've got

i got the neck reset a while back and it's already out of wack again :(

i do wanna come down and check out those bedells, they sound nice

Though i will say to craigslist ppl: not really feeling your whole thing of a guitar being 5 years old, slightly scratched and then marked down a whopping $50 from new list price, good luck

oh man this just popped up on craigslist, a gretch "Rancher", kooky looking!

http://images.craigslist.org/5Kc5R55Jc3Ib3M93Hdc65ad59d4868f9d17d4.jpg

Though i will say to craigslist ppl: not really feeling your whole thing of a guitar being 5 years old, slightly scratched and then marked down a whopping $50 from new list price, good luck

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, June 13, 2012 1:18 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

in my limited exp, as a seller you can wait for your sucker if you're not in a hurry.

yeah i guess it must work...sort of rankles though just on principal, i'd rather go out and support a store i like at that point

ha we had one of those ranchers in the store a little while ago for some work. it sounded impressively terrible.

another fyi in your craigslist searches - avoid the Martin DX series stuff like the plague. They have synthetic (ie not wood) back and sides with a low grade soft spruce top, which means that in the minnesota winter, that top will crack and crack hard (wood expands and contracts, back and sides are rigid). I have had at least 50 of them come through here with cracked tops, often with cracks wide enough to slip a quarter through.

haha wow

LOL dinkytown

i kind of want to move to minneapolis but i'm also not sure i could handle it

what would bring you there? where you live now?

i hoped to move back to either mpls or st. paul this summer but decided to continue w/ school another year.

cool thx JJ i've seen those DX around.

i don't even have the money for something shitty right now but i'm really starting hate my guitar.

man i am so bummed I sold my guild GAD a while back. would have sent it to u ;_;

you can find epi masterbilts on ebay for $350 all day. many (though not all) at that price are refurbs but they are great guitars imo. for $2-300 used i really dig the takamine gs330s.

here's one for $175. and it's SIGNED BY TOBY KEITH: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Takamine-GS330S-Acoustic-Guitar-Signed-by-Toby-Keith-/180905880220

hell, i'm tempted.

oh wait - i didn't see there's some scratch'n'dent on the back. there's another up there at $179 tho.

arby's i've visited twice in the last two years and i really really enjoyed the city and the people, but i've lived in california my whole life and i'm not sure i can handle the climate. also i wasn't too crazy about the food, a lot of the expensive food i had was really good but the cheaper stuff was not so good.

sorry 4 derail

update: i was in LA over the weekend with some time to kill and wandered into McCabe's, where I stumbled on these guys. for $375 they are BALLER. obv not yr standard dread but the spruce/maple LO-215 in particular kills it.

http://www.theloar.com/images/LO-215-SN-sm.pnghttp://www.theloar.com/images/LO-216-sm.png

what brand is that? can't make it out

"the loar" is the brand name. Heard good things, and have been considering them for the store actually.

the loar, haha +1 for having a brand name that sounds vaguely like a D&D creature

i went to willie's american guitars cuz i was in the neighborhood and drove by, man that store is pretty fun in a "damn if i won the lottery kinda way" haha, some just jaw-droppingly beautiful guitars in there

huh, lloyd loar nod, I suppose...?

*searched wikipedia*

oh i see!

had decided to put off the decision because of some car shit i gotta get fixed

then ran across this on craigslist today...even w/repaired crack too good to pass up

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/wsh/msg/3126132096.html

seagull entourage, repaired crack, seymour duncan pickup & gig bag - $85

http://images.craigslist.org/5E65Kd5Fe3Ec3Ld3o2c78a67f28ce9a7f136c.jpg

kills me to have a single cutaway acoustic though but hey i can't afford dignity

you can get up high and play those dmb rhythm parts

it is amazing how much funnier comments like that are to me now that I'm trying to learn the guitar

you can get up high and play those dmb rhythm parts

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, July 10, 2012 3:15 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I WAS ONCE LIKE YOU...GO AHEAD AND LAUGH

*joins The Samples*

thought in seriousness, it's a $499 guitar on amazon

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0035E8C44/ref=s9_simh_gw_p267_d0_g267_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1YM1KWZQ2JP7MXHQTYNV&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

huh, this store is closing.

yeah i heard about that. crazy.

I wish I knew exactly how much of the block they're gonna fuck up. As long as Al's stays I'm good.

I am deeply worried abt the worlds most fucked up used bookstore

only popped into that store once. i think i bought a kobo abe book. i don't remember, what was so fucked up about it?

it's probably the most fucked up in the metro but i've seen worse!

hey jjj

do you sell any parlor body guitars? or even 000/auditorium bodys?

lots of them! ive probably got around ten of them in stock, and can always order more. I've been digging the Recording King stuff, the Loar stuff, and the washburn stuff, should have a bunch in the $200-$400 range.

i see these ones online looking around at reviews...these washburns that look pretty cool. like small body REALLY olde tyme looking, like the bridge has these scallops on them and it's got kind of a darker old looking finish, you know what i mean?

Also read about these "Red Label" Yamahas from specific years in the early 70s that are well regarded I guess...supposed to be a "poor man's Martin", but it's all really complicated you gotta know the specific runs and what factory they were

Late to the thread but I've got one of these. It's a red label "Nippon Gakki", made in Japan, from like 1970 according to the serial number. I bought it for $100 at a consignment shop, in great shape. Slightly smaller than full Martin dreadnought size and I wish the neck was a bit wider but for a hundred bucks it seems pretty great.

That said I babysat my cousin's full size Martin one summer a couple years back and there really is no comparison, that was so much nicer in every way. Cost ten times as much but still.

yeah unfortuately i think all the talk of them online seems to be inflating their price now, usually around 250-300 now, which is probably too high

M@tt, I've got one of those old school Washburns in stock right now, if you want to see one in person

cool yeah they look cool...seem to be well regarded...only thing is i think i read they have a "V" neck which i don't believe i've ever played before

Yeah, and it's a pretty severe v. I dig it, but you'll definitely notice it and either love it or hate it.

whats a decent cheapy nylon-string guitar? under 500 for sure, preferably 2-300 range. im p much gear dumb.

i played....i cant even remember tha brand, but it was a $200 deal and i was like, i dont hate the way this sounds, but my ears are shitty

Keep an eye out for a Romanian made brand called Amigo, we sell a ton of them and they're awesome for being cheap. Solid top, and should street for about $160.

nice! thanks!

btw guys the Podium didn't die, it merged with this other place called Guitar Rodeo and is over on Hiawatha now I guess!

http://www.guitarrodeo.com/

btw JJJ - as i said upthread i ended up getting this Seagull with a big crack in it for 85 bucks on craigslist just as something that was better than my shitty Aria that i could play until I get a nice guitar, but man they are pretty nice guitars if you have ever been curious about carrying them, really well made and EASY action for an acoustic

I can't get into this on public board, but don't ever float the idea that the podium didn't die around any of the former employees, it is kind of an ugly scene.

ohhh okay....i was just looking on google for stories abt it and found that site

anyway, dinkytown is a fucked up scene now...you been through lately? yuck