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So last week I was in Las Vegas and I visited the showroom of Ed Roman Guitars. What a cool store - they claim to be the biggest guitar store in the world, and I am not about to argue. My best guess is that the showroom is two or three times the size of a Guitar Center, and it is nothing but guitars. Well, they might have some mandolins and Ukes…

but there aren’t any drums or keyboards like at Guitar Center,Guitar Center. And it felt completely different than Guitar Center - which has always felt chaotic and overly crowded (and certainly it’s always been incredibly LOUD!)

In any case, my visit to Ed Roman Guitars was really pleasant. It can be a bit crazy getting around in Vegas, but the store was really close to the Vegas strip. The cab ride from the Venetian was less than $10. And it was close enough to the strip that we were able to get a return cab ride pretty easily as well.

We got a lot of patient help, and every time I wanted to try a guitar, the person helping us (Scott) pulled it down for us and made sure it was tuned before I started playing. That is a pleasant switch from pretty much any other guitar store I have been in.

Well my Stratocaster arrived yesterday via UPS. As I wrote in my “New Stratocaster” post, this was a bit of a spur of the moment purchase. I mean, I have been thinking about getting a guitar, and I have beenb leaning towards getting a Strat, but I wasn’t exactly planning on buying a guitar when I walked into the store…

At first it sounded like I was going to want to get an American Deluxe Stratocaster, since it had a humbucker pickup to go with the two single coil pickups. But I just liked the sound of the single coils better, so I started to lean more towards the American Standard Strat.

Then I tried out the Stevie Ray Vaughn Strat (with the “SRV") on the pick guard. I really liked the sound of that guitar, but the action was really high… and I am not much of a fan of high action on my guitars. I guess that Stevie Ray liked his action set up pretty high, so this guitar was true to the namesake, but that ain’t for me.

I suppose I could have had the action lowered, but I also really didn’t like that fancy pickguard… a little too fancy for someone like me who struggles to do ANYTHING on a guitar.

In any case, I ended up with the American Standard Strat, and it just showed up at my door - I didn’t want to carry it on the plane ride home, so I had them ship it for me. My Strat came all boxed up and bubble wrapped - and it was in its Fender hardshell case… everything was in perfect order when it showe up.

Stratocaster guitar,
electric guitar

Well I have a new Stratocaster! I am not normally one to make impulse purchases, but I sure enjoyed making this purchase… a new American Standard Strat. You see, I have been thinking of buying an electric guitar for a long time. Almost since I bought my first guitar a year ago. But I never really got serious about it until…

I visited the largest guitar shop in the world (they claim to have 400 Fenders in stock… I didn’t count them, but there sure were a lot of Stratocasters up on those walls.) Let me back up a bit - last week I was in Las Vegas, hooking up with a bunch of buddies. It was actually something of a working trip - we did a lot of brainstorming about our businesses, and we also went out and had a crazy time each night. In any case, Las Vegas just happens to be the home of Ed Roman Guitars… and they have a rather wild web site that I first came across months ago.

So the short story is that I took a cab over there, walked in, and bought a Fender American Standard Stratocaster. The longer story is that the store is really cool - it is just huge, about twice the size of Guitar Center… and nothing but guitars (as opposed to Guitar Center, which also has drums and keyboards). The walls were lined with hundreds and hundreds of guitars.

I ended up hooking up with the manager their - Scott - who was very helpful. At first I thought I might want a Strat with humbucker pickups… so I was looking at the American Deluxe Strat with two single coils and one humbucker. But just like when I bought my acoustic, I went with what I thought sounded best, and I liked the sound of the single coils… so I went with the American Standard Strat.

The toughest part was picking out a color. The one I was playing was the Sunbust Strat. But I tend to be a pretty understated guy, so I thought I would like black or white better. So I picked black… of course, the next day I changed my mind and called up Scott and told him to send me the Sunburst.

File Under: electric guitar,
guitar
Stratocaster

I am away on vacation, and I am missing my guitar. I just figured it would be hard to bring a full size acoustic dreadnought guitar on a plane, so I left it home. I haven’t ever tried flying with a guitar, and I am sure it is possible… but it seemed like it would be a hassle. So I left my guitar at home, and now I am missing it.

I have been away from my guitar for over a week now. I did stop in a Guitar Center a few days ago, so I spent a little bit of time playing. That was my first time ever in a Guitar Center, and wow… that was really something. Talk about a huge quantity of guitars!! They had one huge room with nothing buy electric guitars and amps. Then another big room with nothing but acoustic guitars. Then a third room with drums and a fourth room with keyboards. Obviously, I didn’t spend my time in the third and fourth rooms… but I had fun with the acoustic guitars and the electric guitars.

The first thing I did was go in the acoustic room. I started off with the Taylor 314ce. That was sweet, and I am really liking the Grand Auditorium guitar shape. Then I just went up the Taylor line… all the way to the 814ce. NICE stuff.

I was also eyeing the Ibanez Day Tripper… which looks like it would make a fine travel guitar.

Guitar Center,
guitar

OK, I am getting obsessed with my guitar and guitars in general. A couple of days ago I got a chance to play guitar with some friends - and I got a chance to play a nice old Martin guitar. These just happened to be the same friends that inspired me to starting playing guitar about six months ago. I had so much fun watching them play guitar (and mandolin) around the campfire, I decided that I just had to get a guitar and learn how to play it.

In any case, that was last October… and for Christmas I bought myself a guitar. And I have been playing it almost every day ever since (except when I am traveling… it is hard to bring my guitar along on business trips).

In any case, I got a chance to get together with some of these folks this last weekend, and I brought along my guitar. This was really the first time I ventured out and tried to play my guitar with anyone. And these folks brought along their guitars and mandolins. One of them was a 12 string guitar, and one was a really nice old Martin guitar.

The 12 string was fun… really heavy, but that was a fun guitar and those 12 strings sure put out a lot of sound. And that Martin guitar sure was nice… but I like playing my Walden guitar better. Maybe (probably) it is just a matter of being familar… but I couldn’t wait to get my guitar back. I played the Martin for just long enough to not be rude.

guitar, Martin guitar, learn guitar

The Walden D570 acoustic guitar is the guitar I almost bought. It was a toss up betweent the Walden d570 and the Walden D610… and the Taylor 110.

It was a very tough decision, but in the end I decided not to go with the Walden D570…

It was sorta funny, I spent so much time in Canyon Music on Second Avenue… just playing these guitars. And you have to remember that I couldn’t really play. I could play a C chord, and I could sorta play a G chord (after the Ian, the guy working at Canyon Music, confirmed that I was making the chords right). Oh yeah, I could also strum the open strings. So I sat there with the Walden D570, as well as the Taylor 110… and the guitar I eventually decided to get - the Walden D610.

I went back to the store three times, and could not come up with a front runner. Then one time I went back and the Walden D570 was not there - it had been sold. In fact, it had been sold to a woman who came in and took a quick look at it one time when I was actually in there playing around with it.

Hmmm… all of a sudden the Walden d570 was no longer in the picture - after all, I was getting the guitar for Christmas… and it was not only a week away. So I decided to get the D610. And I couldn’t be happier. Still, I really did like that d570.

Wow, my post about Esteban guitars sure drew quite a response. Lots of people have some pretty strong feelings about Esteban guitars - one way or the other. Predictably, most of the feedback was pretty negative…

So here is the bottom line on Esteban guitars - at least what I am hearing and reading from lots of folks who seem to know a lot about acoustic guitars: the quality and playability of these guitars is very poor. And they don’t sound very good either.

Specifically, the action on the Esteban guitars is quite high (I wrote about this when I was writing about the First Act guitars available at Walmart and other discounters). When the action is high, that means it is very difficult to form chords that sound good… and it is also very painful to play.

The other real problem with the Esteban guitars is that they are very overpriced. In fact, since I mentioned the First Act guitars above, it is about three times the cost of the First Act guitars - about $260 versus $90. But what you should be really comparing the Esteban guitars to is something like the cheaper Washburn guitars, or Ibanez guitars, or Yamaha guitars. They all have guitars for similar prices to the Esteban guitars, and the difference in quality and playability is HUGE.

The “First Act” guitars are really cheap, so I am sure a whole bunch of them are sold every day in Walmart and other similar places. So I thought I would research them just a little bit.

The most popular seems to be the “First Act Discovery". And first off, I want to say that I have NOT played this guitar. I have only inspected it at Walmart and researched it on some of the more reputable guitar sites online. What I learned is NOT encouraging…

Basically, the First Act guitars are more toys than musical instruments. You can get them for less than $100… but you would be better served saving up a little longer until you have $200. Then you can get any number of good guitars - some of them with solid tops.

Now I know that we are talking about spending twice as much money - really more than twice as much (you can get that First Act guitar for about $90)… but if you think you are going to play the guitar at all, well you should spend the extra $110.

For that extra money you will get a guitar that will sound a lot better and that will stay in tune. But most importantly, you will get a guitar that is much easier to play. The “action” will be a lot lower - so it will be easier to finger the strings cleanly, and it will hurt your fingers a lot less.

My advice: avoid the First Act guitars, and go get an inexpensive guitar from Same Day Music.

Well, I just saw the the esteban guitar infomercial on late night TV. Actually, make that early morning TV… I couldn’t sleep last night, so I got up and started flipping channels. I had heard about the Esteban guitar from the online guitar forums - it isn’t hard to find opinions about it.

Every guitar forum out there seems to be full of people asking what guitar to get for their first guitar. And there are also quite a few threads out there with people asking about this Esteban guitar they bought off the Home Shopping Network. And the reviews are not kind. From the sounds of it, the Esteban guitars are really poor quality - and even worse, you end up paying more than $260. There are some pretty darn nice guitars out there for $250. One that a lot of people seem to like is the Washburn D10s, which only costs $200 at SameDayMusic.com.

Now I haven’t seen an actual Esteban guitar, much less played one… but from the sounds of it, you want to stay away from it. And for the same kind of money, or possibly quite a bit less… you can get a nice first guitar. In fact, that Washburn guitar is a solid top guitar - which is really the first hurdle to getting a quality guitar.

If you still like the looks of that Esteban guitar informercial… take a look at some of the forum discussions like this one.