Incoming Guitar - 2007 16” Blanchard Hybrid Archtop

[iim7V7IM7]

I know that it is internet sport to evaluate guitars with Youtube videos in forums, but I have never found that it does not capture much beyond the player’s skill and the quality of the recording set up particularly in the realm of acoustic guitars. The guitar was badly set up with dead, flatwound strings. It was never designed for plugged in performance. The owner added all that.

Well, indeed, on most of the above recordings it sounds as just another e-guitar (to me at least), and I wasn't really that blown away by the acoustic sound (but that could be the player and/or the recording).
I'm waiting to be blown away by the difference after Mark's intervention

[RJVB]

I think you have a negation too much in what you say you found but you're not wrong.

Still, it's all we've got, and if a recording is a truthful one you do get an idea of what an instrument is capable of.

You have the same kind of problem when picking a guitar in a shop. Either you hear what the player hears, or you hear what someone else can do with the instrument(s), or you get feedback on what someone else hears in your playing on the instrument(s).