You just got a large sum of money and are buying a guitar

[2bornot2bop]

I would buy a Heritage Super Eagle and a Taylor 612ce Nylon, or if I could find one a Gibson Super 400ces in Natural finish.

you'd be very happy, trust me...especially if you had one made w/a single pickup at 3.25" depth like this one

[HeyNow]

Depends on the playing situation. If you need feedback resistance e.g. organ in the band, I'd go with a thin plate laminate like Borys or Trenier's new Jazz Special (or a D'Aquisto if the sum of $ is very large). But if you go Borys, definitely try before you buy.

If you can get by with a fully acoustic floater, I'd talk to Jim Triggs. My Triggs is probably the most impressive acoustic I've laid my hands on - tonewise and build quality. And a new one will cost you about the same as a used L5.

Since you're between Philly and NYC, you should stop by Guitars n Jazz.

[Hammertone]

If it hadn't been so difficult getting guitars across the border from US (need of certificates for origin af woods etc.), i could have been tempted by this. Some (for example Barry Galbraith) liked the 17" Strombergs better than the big Master 300/400 because they felt they projected better. Listen to "Always" on Hank Garland's "Jazz Winds" to hear how a 17" Stromberg sounds.

Well, this guitar sounds way better than any of the Master 400 models I've played, so maybe Barry Galbraith was onto something.
The woods used to make this guitar are spruce, maple and ebony. The bridge is Indian Rosewood. None of these present any problems in terms of shipping from Canada to Scandinavia, AFAIK. As well, aren't instruments older than a certain age grandfathered and exempted from this particular documentation? Inquiring minds want to konw!

[oldane]

The report of hassles are casuistic and not necessarily the general tendency. But they are not only from US. There was a report of a famous Asian violinist who had a 200 years old violin confiscated at a German airport because she couldn't present documents from the manufacturer proving the species and origin of the woods in the violin. She eventually got the violin back but only after some months and the assistance by a hired high class German lawyer.

I agree that an old instrument ought not present a problem, but the problems are 1) prove that the instrument is old and not just roadworn and 2) prove that the woods used are not of the no-go species. Ordinary customs authorities don't know enough about musical instruments to be able to determine that by seeing the instrument.

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[Ol' Fret]

The report of hassles are casuistic and not necessarily the general tendency. But they are not only from US. There was a report of a famous Asian violinist who had a 200 years old violin confiscated at a German airport because she couldn't present documents from the manufacturer proving the species and origin of the woods in the violin. She eventually got the violin back but only after some months and the assistance by a hired high class German lawyer.

I agree that an old instrument ought not present a problem, but the problems are 1) prove that the instrument is old and not just roadworn and 2) prove that the woods used are not of the no-go species. Ordinary customs authorities don't know enough about musical instruments to be able to determine that by seeing the instrument.

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Shame on such German / EU / global bureaucrats! It seems that more and more of them are turning into ho-hum, state-nourished lowbrows or simply stirrup holders of their superior apparatchiks, for own benefit.
They have little competence and 'real-world' experience outside their 'apparat', and follow the basic strategy of catching the small fry and letting the big fish go free.






If Goethe had to add lard to soups,
Salt dumplings,
Schiller rinse out pans,
Heine darn what he tore,
Scrub rooms, murder bugs,
Alas! all these gentlemen
Would have been no great poets.
- Emerenz Meier -
(born 1874 in the Bavarian Forest, died 1928 in Chicago)