Out With The Old, In With The New: Acoustic Guitar Edition

One of my favorite sayings is “the only thing constant in life is change.” In keeping with that I’m running a series of posts dedicated to the change we see happening around us. I’m going to try to highlight both the big things and the little things. Fortunately, I tend to have a lot of both going on.

So how should I start this series? You might think the obvious choice would be something like what’s going on in Iran. However, since the idea for this series is to highlight what’s changing in my life right now, as well as change in general, and since I’m feeling rather frivolous today, I’m going to touch on a light, fun topic.

So I realized recently that I’ve been playing guitar for 8 years or so now, which is kind of hard to believe when I think about it. I started on a whim after a Youth Group Mission Trip (yes, I used to be Christian, don’t die of shock or anything) in high school where everyone and their brother seemed to have one. Initially I started messing around with my father’s guitar, but eventually I stuck with it long enough that my parents bought me my own acoustic. At the time I knew this really awesome guitarist who loved to play Ovations. I was hesitant, as I didn’t like the live sound of their thinner models much, but when I was browsing the selection at Mars Music (a now defunct music chain akin to Guitar Center) they had some models with a deeper body depth. I played a dozen or so different guitars in the price range we were looking at, and the Ovation just felt and sounded the best. That guitar, which is named Rebecca for a reason I don’t recall, has served me faithfully and been a lot of fun to play since I got it.

Ovation Celebrity - "Rebecca"

However, as the years have gone on, there are some things I’ve come to nitpick about it. It sounds good unplugged, but not great. It sounds great plugged in, but I rarely play that way. The action is a little higher than I would like on it too, so it just doesn’t feel as comfortable to play as I would like. It eventually got to the point where, though it’s great to play in its own way and, I’m sentimentally attached to it, I felt the need to upgrade. I wanted to first and foremost get a true acoustic that didn’t have the plastic rounded back, and I figured, while I was doing it, I might as well do it right.

I went over to guitar center and played around for a while, and noticed that Taylor had put out some more, shall we say, modestly priced instruments recently. I picked one up, and, as with every other Taylor I’ve ever played, fell in love instantly.

Taylor 214ce

This guitar is a Taylor 214ce and I love everything about it. I have yet to name it, but when I do, I’ll let you know.

Ciao,

-B