Guild M20

[onepatrick]

Beware the Guild M20. It's often referred to as the "Nick Drake" guitar, but that is because it shows in a famous photo of Nick, not because he played it much, because he did not. Most M20s have a very dull tone with minimal overtones; slow attack, fast decay. They're low volume as well. They do not compete with the complex tones of the human voice, as many "better" guitars do and are appreciated as singers' guitars. People call any mahogany or ladder braced guitar a "blues" guitar, because they are cheap, punchy, and have a dark, thumpy tone. I consider this identification to be a thoughtless and simplistic miscasting of the blues, but it's a widespread view. To be fair, one of the most beautiful sounding guitars I have ever played was an all mahogany Martin with bar frets -- I'm guessing it was prewar 00-15 or something similar. It was lively and just gorgeous, completely different from what anyone would expect. So there are winners that are all-mahogany. Most are more ordinary, which is how they were situated in their makers' product lines. I would be even more wary of a new "mahogany" guitar as it could be made of any of a number of so-called "mahoganies," with almost never even approximate the look, structure, and acoustic quality of great old mahogany.