Heather’s getting a Martin. I think it’ll be the first one in the ilyAIMY family. I’ve never owned one, Heather’s never owned one. Sharif and Rowan have always been steadfastly Martinless and Kristen’s never owned a guitar, to my knowledge. Heather’s returning her Taylor and replacing it with a Martin.
I must admit to being somewhat relieved.
Not that Taylor doesn’t build a fine guitar. Their necks are impeccable and they often sound pretty good plugged in. I’ve heard a number of great musicians on Taylors – but was having trouble getting over my associations with the brand. Even though Martin is a little overblown as THE American guitar company, and their quality control is frankly shit, and the playability and sound of their new instruments is absolutely all over the map – there’s a kind of nobility to the brand. I don’t know if she’s getting something built in Mexico or if it’s actually from Nazareth – but my associations with Taylor are really negative.
Taylors, until recently at least, are overly expensive guitars that are okay. People think you’re better BECAUSE you’re playing a Taylor. But you’re not. A Taylor is the expensive guitar that the cute blonde can’t really play that well and didn’t work too hard for. It’s the guitar owned by the girl who keeps looking at her hands to find the G chord that was bought by her Dad because he heard it was the best one and it was easy to play. It’s an artificial veneer of professionalism with a proprietary electronics system that doesn’t sound good enough for a thousand-plus dollar instrument, and despite having a couple of nice features doesn’t have a few very basic, practical ones… and though the circuit breaker inside might save my Life, I still wouldn’t be caught dead playing one.
So, I’m glad that Heather’s getting a Martin. I shouldn’t be THAT opinionated. My own buying history is checkered to say the least. My first and second Takamines certainly served me well, my first basses were great, but as soon as I was in the “folk” community and people were offering stronger opinions on what guitars were “good” and what guitar would be “right” for me…. Getting opinionated about solid tops and nicer electronics – well – my Seagull was great but it collapsed under me on its first tour… and the Alvarez was fantastic and I put enough damage into the body that it wouldn’t stay in tune. My CA was purchased BECAUSE the company was going out of business and I swiftly had enough issue with it that I should’ve sent it back, but certainly didn’t have the option. I’m ALMOST happy with it now but I can see the rest of my Life stretching out ahead of me, eternally tweaking the instrument…. With almost no-one out there that I can turn to for advice, too. The LR Baggs Anthem that I’ve installed inside has been replaced due to a manufacturers’ discount and I think I’ll be tweaking THAT for the rest of my Life too….
I fall in Love with a brand of strings only to have them eliminated by the manufacturer. I buy power supplies that fail, laptops that overheat, phones that never get current OSes… sigh. Where is the source of my folly? I should just listen more to Rowan, mayhaps.
Oh – and just in case you’re wondering – I Love my laptop, enjoy my guitar, and frankly kind of enjoy solving these problems. I just feel… dumb. I think there IS a Hinkal family tech-curse that I carry an interesting version of, slowly touching things and making them break. It’s kind of crazy that I first noticed this in my Dad – the NASA engineer. But just for the record – he was on the team that FIXED the Hubble!
