Last Saturday I was mooching around my local, Aire Valley Guitars.
They had a load of new Japanese Fender electrics in but I was looking at the acoustics, for a change.
My recent, cheapie acquisition had rekindled my interest.
Rather surprisingly, they had a used K'Yairi G1F.
Though never having owned one, I have always had a bit of a thing for K'Yairi guitars.
This model had a lovely, light build quality and although it has laminate B&S, it is very responsive and feels/sounds better that many all solids, I have played.
I'd forgotten my plectrum and so played in fingerstyle, though my nails are very short.
It was a pleasure to play, with low action but a very vibrant, responsive feel.
A fairly narrow neck but that's fine with me.
Later on I tried it with a plectrum and it was OK but not as good, as it had been, fingerstyle.
The other guitar I tried was Martin DRS1.
Martin's cheapest, all-solid guitar.
All sapele, that is.
I was surprised a how good a quality it felt.
Very nicely built, with good finishing.
But in may ways, it was the opposite of the K'Yairi.
A heavy(ish) guitar, with quite a thick sound, even for a dreadnought.
It's responsiveness felt/sounded positively sluggish, comapared to the G1F.
Not really my thing but I was surprised, when I plugged it in.
Going through an Acus combo, which are easily the best acoustic amps I have played through, the sound was far more natural than I had expected.
I thought, being fairly low priced, Martin would have put in a cheap, quacky piezo pickup.
But that thick acoustic tone came through very well indeed.
2 very different guitars indded.
Put in canine terms. one was a whippet, the other bull dog.