Stringing Along

My high school drafting teacher would always say, "The most beautiful instrument in the world is the human voice."

That may in fact be true for a gifted few; however, many people's singing voices are less appealing than a cacophony of old bicycle horns. But I digress... personally I've always preferred to hear a good sax solo or the sound of strings - specifically acoustic guitar.

After fooling around with a violin, recorder, alto sax, trombone, and guitar all before the age of 13, I eventually gave up on playing any instrument. Oh, I would have continued with the sax (**modesty alert** I had become rather good after 4 years of playing) but couldn't afford my own at the time and didn't like the high school music program - so that was that.

At 21 I decided to try my luck again and bought both a tenor sax and a new guitar but never really got going with either of them. After reaching 30 it seemed the time had come to say "It's now or never" if I ever wanted to play anything again; thus, I once again took up lessons and have made enough progress over the past 6 months that my good old guitar just doesn't seem quite right anymore.

It's a lovely instrument - a Charvel 625D, sunburst - in mint condition though almost 10 years old. Yet, whether it's the pear-shaped body or just the fact that Charvel is better known for making electrics than acoustics, the lows don't sound quite low enough and the "feel" isn't quite as nice as the Seagull I use at my teacher's place. So here is the big debate: to trade in my old Charvel or keep it as an extra (it does have pick-ups in case I ever want to use an amp) and work my budget somehow to buy a new Seagull anyway. Of course I could perhaps trade in the tenor sax but, with a dented bell, I'm not sure how much that would fetch.

In any event, I've narrowed my choices for a new one down to these two models:
Seagull S6+ Spruce - or - Seagull S6+ Burst Gloss Top

For some reason I like the sound of the GT version better but both the sales guy and my teacher think the non-gloss is best. Decisions, decisions. I'll keep you posted, and once armed with a shiny new set of strings, I might even bring my voice out of storage. Perhaps in harmony, a guitar and voice together may top any claim that an individual instrument can be the sweetest sound in the world.