An Educational Trip

Yesterday went with Sebastian to Mandolin Brothers in Staten Island. Learnt a few things. One is that cheap Martins don't sound very good compared to, say, Guilds in the sub-$1000 price range. Also learned that the more expensive ($2000 to $5000) Martin guitars don't seem more expensive than the boutique guitars at any given price. So you're paying for the Martin name for the cheap guitars but not for the expensive ones.

Also -- Mandolin Brothers has an interesting way of hanging their guitars. They use these leather straps which hook over the tuning pegs and then they hang them on simple 25-pound picture hangars. This keeps the finish from being eaten away by the regular guitar hangars which the guitar neck usually sits on. I have two guitars with their finish eaten away because of one Summer on regular guitar hooks.

So I bought a couple guitar hanging straps. Three bucks each.
I'm also obsessively reading through the entire Lee Child oeuvre. But that's a story for another time.