Thanks Doug,
Indeed, Fender mediums work just fine for me.

James Taylor, how he does his nails

I watch this every now and then. He's got a way of tuning, chording, he just has his way dialed in.  Gett'n it done. 

The Guitar Centers around here don't have them in the store, according to grandson. I never could use mine and don't know when or where I got it...I tried it a time or two and found it just awkward. I was never good with ANY type flat pick, but especially bad with that kind. I don't flatpick really, just use them for strumming along when I'm in that sort of situation.

Peggy, their website shows them in stock in Cincinnati and Florence as well as here in Johnson City. They're also available at Amazon and other places online.

Well I don't know...grandson said he looked for them in FLorence and couldn't find them.  I have never looked for them myself...I gave the one I had to him.  Now he's got a blister on his thumb from going without a pick...lol...I guess we all find what we want at some point or points along the way.

I remember my first day having a guitar...my fingers got so blistered up and bruised and swollen...lol...it was part of my journey and it didn't bother me at all.

The wife and I currently string up our mountain of steel string folk guitars with D'Addario Light Gauge 80/20 Bronzes. Beautiful rounded bronze tone. It takes a full month of maniacal playing before they begin to sound dull & flat. Easy on the fingers, too.

I think I wanna buy myself another new guitar. Somebody with good sense, please talk me out of it before Monday, at which time I will be passing by a music store...and feeling like I won't be able to just keep on going.

Why? I mean why do you want another one, and why should we talk you out of it?
Me, I'm still playing the same Martin D-28 I bought new in high school (1964), (plus a couple others I guess). "Like a Chesterfield it satisfies." I've played better sounding guitars, but we''ve had a lot of adventures together.

I've had bad luck with instruments. For one thing, decades of poverty kinda mess up what you can have, so I've had cheapo stuff to deal with. But since being rich up here, you know, with yachts and so many beach houses and stuff (right...lol), I have bought a better class of cheap instruments as we got our lives together and could afford them. Anyway, I finally got a D-18, ordered through the mail...never a good idea. So I played it for about a month I guess, and then looked down one day playing it to see a big crack, one that looked like it would spread, just below my chin...like on the curved part in the middle of the top piece and back piece. I freaked out, called Martin...this was before internet I think...they were like..."Well you didn't take care of it." I'm like...Me???? I just got the doggone thing and treat it with kid gloves and won't let anybody touch it or go near it. So they're like..."Take it to a luthier and get it fixed...not our problem." So I sold it and swore I would never trust Martin again. Back to kinda cheap, not extremely cheap anymore but middle ground on the cheap side. Oh yeah...I did spend the money on that Takamine with the pre-amp because I thought I'd be playing with the band and I really prefer fingerpicking to flatpicking so I thought that would plug in so I could do that...blew out on me...at least that one took a couple of years or so. That's sitting idle with a big hole in it...I guess I expect more when I pay more.

That's all beside the point. Now I'm retired...I'm busy mainly as a caregiver in a tough situation, see nobody but family next door, no humans...only chihuahuas and grandson and his parents here and there...guitars, whatever bartered crap they were...lol...they were always my friends along life's way. Now I have the little Taylor...I guess I just want another one. You can't buy any other kind of instruments around here much...I know, Doug'll look online and see something that appears to be otherwise, but I live here and the few music stores around me have mainly guitars and drums...maybe pianos too...some really crappy and outrageusly expensive banjos....student violins and saxophones...etc. Mainly electric guitars and amps. So...we'll be going by one of those stores today. I'm very tempted to seek out a new "friend " there...lol...but we shouldn't spend money on that...that's it. I don't have any time to play anyway...I think a new guitar would just bump up my happy levels slightly.  I'd probably end up having more time to just look at it than actually play it.

If I hadn't inherited it, I wouldn't have it, but I'm glad I have now. It's that Recording King, Dirty 30's model. I've got Yamaha's young, old, good, and bad. I've got an old epiphone acoustic. A couple herringbone Martin's. My worst guitar is better than I am a player. That said, the RK, and an HD28, are sitting on stands an arms reach away. The rest are cased up. I recon if you played an RK it could follow you home. Good Luck!

Lol. Sounds like you gotta house full of friends, there.

I did learn a new song, new to me, with my Taylor GS mini, my new guitar...about a week ago I stumbled across somebody playing this on YouTube. Of course any slow bluesy thing in E sounds "familiar" to me, lol, as this did, but I can't say I know it really or ever played it. I didn't quite get the words so I made them up on the fly trying to stick as close as I could recall some of the words that I'd heard. I wanted to work out something...sorta did that on the fly in this video too. But, not knowing it, not having good callouses to press down hard enough to get a nice clean chord...I just had a minute and felt like trying to put up a YouTube before YouTube kicks me off for not doing anything...lol.

By the way, grandson was telling me of other options besides YouTube out there now...I gotta look into those someday maybe, because who knows where the YouTube beast will go? Anyway, the other day I had a minute to myself and grabbed up the Taylor...accidentally knocked my phone upside down just as I was frantically trying to get through a song and record it...and came out with this. I'd like to work it up better...this is just kinda ordinary E bluesy stuff I've played for other things. Really, when I learned Deep River Blues...I didn't play the diminished chords people play...I just scooted up the B7 shape to get to E, and kind of in that time of my life discovered from that point all the groovy stuff you can do with that chord shape...how you don't have to know nothin' to play a buncha chords...so I kinda did the same thing with this. Anyway...here's one of the few times I've actually sat down with my new little tiny guitar. youtu.be/rxjh8_sVM6Y?si=8kIqNaFSmrajdwi5

and I decided it's gonna make more sense and be a lot cheaper if I just get myself some knitting needles today...don't know where all mine have gone, but I don't have a good assortment...but I can do stuff like that more easily than music...it's quiet and I can still be present in the same room. So...we'll be passing the knitting store too. besides...daughter found about 200 dollars worth of yarn on clearance a while back and got it for me for 27 bucks...cool...gotta do something with all that yarn anyhow. It's in the way.

quote:

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Originally posted by DougD

Why? I mean why do you want another one, and why should we talk you out of it?
Me, I'm still playing the same Martin D-28 I bought new in high school (1964), (plus a couple others I guess). "Like a Chesterfield it satisfies." I've played better sounding guitars, but we''ve had a lot of adventures together.

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A 1964 era D-28? To my ears maybe the best steel string acoustic guitar ever made. It's a guitar that sings loud and true. I had one for years. It's too bad the neck was just a tiny bit twisted.

Well if anybody's keeping track of my insanity, turns out I did buy a guitar, a Gretsch, and also went to buy the knitting needles, but they didn't have the kind I wanted, so there...I saved 15.00...lol.

Peggy,
That little Taylor has some fine tone. One of these days I'm gonna have to learn how to play guitar. Right now, I'm trying to gig with a bass and fiddle. Make a bass loop, and play along. I would also have a friend on an acoustic guitar and harmonica. (Bestest harp player I ever heard) (it actually his gig)
But one of these days. . . . .

Peggy, why don't you just have the electronics in your Takamine repaired or replaced? No reason to just have the guitar "sitting idle with a big hole in it."

PS - That little Taylor really does sound good. I think if I were, looking for "folk" type instruments in your area I'd head up to Millville (or Hamilton) and see Vernon McIntyre at the Famous Old Time Music Company:
fotmc.com/store/

The Takamine would cost quite a bit to repair. I just needed something new and different in my life...things have been very difficult and a new guitar, new kind of guitar, has cheered me up before. Of course I bought it yesterday and still haven't had any time at all to touch it today...busy just keeping up with stuff around here...but...when I get the time...gonna mess with it some.

Also, Don't know if Lee's paw paws are ripe yet (still waiting for ours), or if he's tried the paw paw Ale 8...I ran across the Ale 8 yesterday and bought enough for us to take a taste...just three...because I'm predicting the stuff will be pretty awful...lol.

Update...I had 3 Ale 8 paw paw flavored drinks...we joked that the one who is most recently versed in CPR shall be last to take a taste...but surprisingly, the stuff tastes exactly like paw paws...we've had banana flavored stuff before, popsicles, etc., which are brutally off...lol. Well paw paw is similar, has been compared to banana...similar but with an astringent after taste sorta sour like a mango...anyway, to our surprise the stuff was just great! So...next trip to the store, MORE Ale 8...the bottles say limited edition so in case it's just a temporary flavor, we'll buy more.

As to the fancy guitar...I had a few minutes to plug the thing into the little Squire amp grandson let me have...after he went through all the buttons and stuff...lol...which is foggy in my mind. Anyway, I got it going and realized what it was I loved in this one...it is pleasant to play and more and more, I want a quiet contemplativeness to my music...and with this I can really get that feel...I ran through maybe 20 songs or so and just had to stop because I was needed for other stuff.

Anyway, there's my updates. Happy with my two new guitars...can't buy nothin' else for a good long while...except paw paw Ale 8...great stuff if you like paw paws. There's my perspective on the world as it stands today.

Thanks for the review of the Ale8 - I'd forgotten about that. Sounds good - we'll have to look out for some.

Let us know what you think if you can get them, Doug.

Where's Lee? I wanna know if he got a hold of this weird flavor of pop and what he thinks, being a paw paw person...lol.

Ale8 report: No luck at Walmart, just original and cherry. Maybe check Krogers in a few days. I've never tasted, or even seen a paw paw, so my opinion might not be too valuable, but I'm curious.
BTW our locally bottled, weirdly named soda pop is Dr. Enuf from Johnson City: drenuf.com/
Maybe local sodas would be good subject for a new topic.

I like the name...lol. I would ask our family in Johnson City if they drink it, but they all hate us...lol...so, can't ask them.

Well I just erased my whole thang. In a nutshell, what I said before I hit whatever that is I always hit do delete stuff...I used to love Coke...they changed to New Coke, which was disgusting, so I quit. Then they had Classic Coke come out because apparently so many people quit when they put out the New Coke. I tried it several times and it just didn't taste right to me so I quit again. Didn't like anymore types of pop. Up here I have gotten into the habit of sparkling water types...whatever's on sale really, but Perrier is the best ... but only barely affordable when it's on sale. I don't normally drink Ale 8 either...not crazy about pop except my memories of regular Coke back before the 80s. So anyway, up ok... what? my stuff earase again???? Ok 'nother nut shell...I tried Cokes up here bottled in Mexico advertising they use cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup used in U.S. I was thinking maybe that was the secret missing from Coke. But it still didn't taste right. Finally, I recently read that colas no longer use cola nut extract anymore...they use a combo of cinnamon and other spices to try to emulate cola taste. Apparently there is only one organic brand in the U.S. that uses real cola, and I haven't found it anywhere around here...can't remember the name of the brand now. So...I never really liked any pop except Coke from the old days...maybe I already said it...I"ve deleted this thing and/or parts of it three times, or wrote it again three times, so deleted it twice...but I don't really like Ale 8 either...never drank it much either. Just like mainly sparkling water...but the paw paw flavor was just something different and really not bad...better than plain ol' Ale 8. I've never tried their other flavors...they don't sound good to me...lol. So...sorry for the rambling...and if I've repeated myself, it's because I can't write a whole paragraph without somehow deleting it and too lazy and in a rush to go back and start it all over again...I know it's a hot topic and everybody's just in suspenders wanting to know my thoughts on it...lol.

Sounds interesting! I want to try Paw Paw flavor!

I’ve really been into Spindrift lately. Went to a sesh at somebody’s house and he handed me a ice-cold Spindrift and I was like, “what’s this” and I’ve been addicted since then. So far, favorite flavor is grapefruit. Well, then the whistle player walked in with a little cooler of Guinness…but everybody was busy drinking their can of spindrift, haha.

I’ve been in a contemplative slower pace too with music. I switched over to the Lazarus fiddle (the one from my friend’s attic) as my main squeeze! Getting comfy on it. It has such a mellow deep tone that just invites me to relax and slow down. Also I don’t know if it’s me or the setup, but fast string crossings are tricky … so I’m loping along gently these days while I get the hang of it. So funny that I now have a fiddle with a true
“fiddle story” to go with it…it arrived free from my friend’s attic, a dusty old box without a bridge or strings, and I almost did not bother to bring it to the luthier. When he told me the fingerboard was tilted the wrong way, but he thought I was going to like its viola-like sound, I was skeptical. But here I am!

C0ngrats on new 'friend' Peggy...:-)