Post by Martin on May 4, 2015 18:39:44 GMT
Well, there we were, spending a relaxing and uneventful bank holiday strolling around Glasgow when a guitar leapt into my hands, and that was that!
At first, we were merely heading in for some lunch. As a departure from the norm, the girls wanted to try a vegan cafe/restaurant they'd heard about, so we ventured towards the city's west-end to the 78 cafe/bar.
Situated near the Glasgow Art Gallery & Museum and Glasgow University, it's a fine spot, but predictably quite student orientated. After a large lunch consisting of hummus, olives, salad, pitta, veggie burgers and chips, we continued the west-end excursion by driving down Great Western Road and grabbing a coffee.
During a further wander, the ladies popped into Authentics on Otago Street to check out the antiques, so I naturally nipped across the road to CC Music
I've been a reasonably frequent visitor to this store, and have in fact bought a few instruments from them, but I didn't require anything on this visit, so decided to make it purely a reconnaissance mission.
After browsing the electrics, banjos and mandos for a few minutes, I made my way into the acoustic room, where after two minutes I was completely alone - bliss
The range of guitars isn't quite as fine as it used to be, with only two or three Taylors and four or five Martins - a sign of the times it seems. They did have quite a range of Sigma, LAG and Aria, but nothing to grab the attention.
The nicest guitars for me were a used Larrivee L-09 and a used Martin HD-28VS, both of which were comfortably out of my price range (thankfully!). They did have a few nice Guilds, including a gorgeous D-55, which I didn't even try as it was a. very expensive and b. very shiny
What did catch my eye immediately was a Seagull Walnut dreadnought guitar. I loved the stripped back look, the satin finish, the pale neck and lovely walnut laminate back. The spruce soundboard was also unusual in that it had a lot of colour in it. I discounted it immediately as I knew The Bursar would hate it, not being a fan of some wood figuring, so I left it.
Ten minutes later the girls walked in having not spent anything in the antique shop
Within a minute, my good lady had found the Seagull and remarked that it was a beauty.
Once I recovered from the shock, she then hit me with another, asking me to play it. It sounded better than it looked, and had a huge, open, airy tone, with stacks of bottom end.
Since I sold my last Seagull to stringdriventhing, I had missed its pure strummability, the boomy, bassy chunks of music that are sometimes required for a song.
I also missed the fact that I no longer have a guitar that I could take out in public without fearing any damage.
The satin neck has the slimmer profile, relatively new to the Seagull range, and the whole instrument is impressively lightweight.
When I was then told to 'just get it', I needed no further encouragement.
As it was a slow-ish Monday, I managed to get a very nice deal on a POD style case too, so walked out of the shop very happy indeed
Here are some pics of the new guitar in lieu of anything sound-related :
At first, we were merely heading in for some lunch. As a departure from the norm, the girls wanted to try a vegan cafe/restaurant they'd heard about, so we ventured towards the city's west-end to the 78 cafe/bar.
Situated near the Glasgow Art Gallery & Museum and Glasgow University, it's a fine spot, but predictably quite student orientated. After a large lunch consisting of hummus, olives, salad, pitta, veggie burgers and chips, we continued the west-end excursion by driving down Great Western Road and grabbing a coffee.
During a further wander, the ladies popped into Authentics on Otago Street to check out the antiques, so I naturally nipped across the road to CC Music
I've been a reasonably frequent visitor to this store, and have in fact bought a few instruments from them, but I didn't require anything on this visit, so decided to make it purely a reconnaissance mission.
After browsing the electrics, banjos and mandos for a few minutes, I made my way into the acoustic room, where after two minutes I was completely alone - bliss
The range of guitars isn't quite as fine as it used to be, with only two or three Taylors and four or five Martins - a sign of the times it seems. They did have quite a range of Sigma, LAG and Aria, but nothing to grab the attention.
The nicest guitars for me were a used Larrivee L-09 and a used Martin HD-28VS, both of which were comfortably out of my price range (thankfully!). They did have a few nice Guilds, including a gorgeous D-55, which I didn't even try as it was a. very expensive and b. very shiny
What did catch my eye immediately was a Seagull Walnut dreadnought guitar. I loved the stripped back look, the satin finish, the pale neck and lovely walnut laminate back. The spruce soundboard was also unusual in that it had a lot of colour in it. I discounted it immediately as I knew The Bursar would hate it, not being a fan of some wood figuring, so I left it.
Ten minutes later the girls walked in having not spent anything in the antique shop
Within a minute, my good lady had found the Seagull and remarked that it was a beauty.
Once I recovered from the shock, she then hit me with another, asking me to play it. It sounded better than it looked, and had a huge, open, airy tone, with stacks of bottom end.
Since I sold my last Seagull to stringdriventhing, I had missed its pure strummability, the boomy, bassy chunks of music that are sometimes required for a song.
I also missed the fact that I no longer have a guitar that I could take out in public without fearing any damage.
The satin neck has the slimmer profile, relatively new to the Seagull range, and the whole instrument is impressively lightweight.
When I was then told to 'just get it', I needed no further encouragement.
As it was a slow-ish Monday, I managed to get a very nice deal on a POD style case too, so walked out of the shop very happy indeed
Here are some pics of the new guitar in lieu of anything sound-related :