"My" Guitar

Being fortunate enough to live in the hometown of Eldery Instruments, I've been paying regular visits to the store. I've fallen in love with a particular guitar and I now call it "my" guitar, even though there's not the slightest chance of me ever owning this particular gem.

It's a little parlor guitar made by two luthiers who are based in Vermont. Their company -- Froggy Bottom -- makes acoustic guitars that have won awards and are consistently heralded with much acclaim. This one's no exception.

What I really love about this guitar is how responsive it is in the bass and mid ranges for a small guitar. Playing a bigger body Taylor after trying out this guitar makes the Taylor sound thin and stiff in the lower range (and this was a decent 814). It's got an amazing resonance of bass for something of its size. I'm guessing it has to do with the fact that the guitar has a walnut body. Plus there are some cool (some people might think them cheesy) ornamental details on the instrument.

I've played this guitar about 4-5 times, and every time I go to Elderly to try out more guitars, this is the first and last one that I play. I even felt a little jealous yesterday when someone else had clearly played the guitar recently (tuned it to dropped D ... might be the same guy whose been playing all the Collings guitars which were all tuned to dropped D ... ) If there's one thing that is a 'shortcoming' on this particular guitar is that the neck meets the body at the 12th fret, which makes playing up the neck a little difficult.

This particular guy is on consignment at Elderly and I'll keep playing him until someone decides to take him home. I'll never have the moolah to buy him, even though at 5 000 bucks, it's about 2 000 dollars cheaper than placing an order with the Froggy Bottom guys.

Left: Cool biplane painting design on the heel cap. Froggy Bottom gets an artist to do individualized designs for each of their guitars.

Right: And the neat Froggy Bottom logo!