J, it was my third guitar. I moved to Vegas with the Guild D65S and the Washburn, which is beautiful but not satisfying acoustically. Plugged in it's great but I didn't even have an amp back then. So then I was here on the forum and I wanted another guild but mostly I wanted small (concert-ish), and rosewood (didn't have one yet), short scale (hard to find) and something finished nicely and easy to play. So Guild had nothing in that category at that time. Still don't I don't think. So i ventured out and looked and when I went to GC (back when they were good and had fun and talented people) and met Mark S. who was amazing and we're friends to this day. The Taylor was lovely and he played it really well and made it come alive and it was marked down from whatever the MSRP was (like $2995) and they got it down to $2398. So I left it and came back 3 weeks in a row to play it and then on the 4th time to play, it was marked down to $1998. So I played it again, and he played it again and I made an offer, he had to get the GM and they said no, so I made another offer, and he went away to think or calculate and came back with no again. So then I got up, and said okay, this is my final offer, I'll give you $1800 out the door, taxes and case included and DONE!! (Which was actually less than my other offers with all the gyrations....) and he came back and said okay. . And I made sure that Mark got the commission (back when they did such things) and I walked out of there with this guitar!! Super killer deal. I think the fact that it has that dark streak where the bookmatched Sitka meets at the bottom has a dark line. The wood is good, the joint is flawless, it's just a coloration issue. They had another one in stock and they brought it out and it was pretty, didn't have that dark stripe, and it didn't sound as good and they said, they couldn't do the same deal because that one was "unplayed". So I was getting a demo model. So what? That poly finish is amazing..... It was a good addition to the stable and I've never once regretted that decision. The slotted headstock is so nice and light and Taylor supports their stuff so well. One day I was winding a tuner and the bone (look) button just shattered. I called them and mailed the pieces back with a return auth #. an within 2 days I had a brand new tuner to install!!
