Okay, it's no vintage guitar. I'm not sure I'd like to buy a vintage guitar: I just don't know enough about guitars to buy an older guitar with confidence. It's also difficult, unless you're willing to take the ebay plunge. So I checked out plenty of guitars, very much like Blueridge's stuff, the BR 160 is a nice machine. But in the back of my mind, from years ago, is the image of the basic Guild guitar. . . as the quintessential guitar. I don't know how this reverence was formed. But I popped for the Guild GAD 50: nicer than the other stuff I looked at, offers a lot. Has a plasticy smell, of course, but the sound is very good. It's a good intermediate guitar. I don't have the skill or the money to make a more expensive guitar appropriate for me. God knows, if there's an all mahogany D-25 in excellent condition that I could check over, perhaps I'll pop for that. . . one of those cherry red deals.