Last year I got a hand made acoustic guitar. I had gone to the Woodstock Luthier's Showecase and ordered a custom guitar from one of the more reasonably priced guitar makers. I remember him telling me ''I base my guitars on Martin models but I can make them better because I make them one at a time''. It took nine months and because it was rosewood, I had to drive to Canada to pick it up, twice. The first time it had problems that took him a month to fix. The second time, he met me at the border and I finally got my guitar and it sounded heavenly.
It lasted four days!
The back cracked, the top bellied and the string height made it unplayable. It took a month but the ''luthier'', I use the word loosely, finally returned my money. He was trying to blame it on humidity and wanted me to give him part of the payment. Finally, he did return all the money. I still lost $500; the cost of driving to Canada twice and then finally shipping the damaged guitar back to him.
So like a little kid, who's puppy had died, I went to Guitar Center to see if there was anything that interested me. I found a 5 year old, used but virtually unplayed, Martin Custom Shop OM-18. It was part of the second order of 12 that was originally ordered by Mandolin Bros, the legendary guitar dealer on Staten Island that Joni Mitchell sang about in ''Song for Sharon''.
This thing is a d-18, d-28 killer!
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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law