Wood Library Artist and Wood Library 10-top

I'm finding that it's a struggle to find a top as nice as my old SC 10-top. Even the artist tops don't measure up. I've seen some PS tops that do, for sure.

On the other hand, it’s always a “beauty/eye of the beholder” thing with tops folks like, colors, trim, etc.

I’m more or less in the “I really like nice, but I’m totally open to different kinds of nice and I don’t need awesome” camp these days. I used to be pickier, but it stopped mattering to the degree it used to for me.

I didn’t even pick my PS models for their looks - for example, I’d never have ordered the quilt top on my CU24 30th PS. But the guitar played and sounded SO GOOD I had to have it! And Jack Gretz and Paul Smith picked out the wood for my PS acoustic; I wasn’t there. Just wasn’t crucial to me to sort through a buncha wood, though I will say they certainly picked some nice stuff, and I’m glad I left it to their choice!
 
I just gotta have it all...

Here you go then. From top to bottom.
Private stock
Wood library Artist
10 top
Regular top I was told was 10 top.
:mad:


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Agree on both counts, but I may be weirder.

It dawned on me that I scrutinize the look of the guitar with eagle eyeballs before I buy it, but after a few days I don’t look at the guitar except to take it out of the case and play it.

But every so often I look at pics of my guitars. On my phone!!

I mean, I could look at the actual guitars if I wanted to. I just never do!

WTF is up with that?

I think it's about "keeping the dream alive". I've been "accused" of being a dreamer not a doer but dreaming is the only thing we CAN do to successfully negotiate this world. In other words it's better to abandon doing for dreaming than to abandon dreaming for doing if we want to make it thru hell in one piece. We do what we must, but we dream what we want.

"I dream not to escape reality, but to create it".

I do the same thing, but what I'm actually doing is fostering my dreams. If I were to put more effort into it I'd be taking away from the dream to do it. Dreaming isn't about doing anything, it's about believing we can do anything.

"Row row row your boat gently down the stream, merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream" :)
 
You guys misunderstand. I didn't mean the figuring pattern is uniform, I meant that there is figuring uniformly across the top, no spots without significant figure. The figuring itself can be wild and wonderful.

But spots are ok, too. Sometimes they make the crazy areas more apparent. And they can add to the book match.

My wife is an impressionist oil painter. I’ve heard her say many times that you want your eye to be drawn to your subject matter. While not a perfect comparison to wood figuring maybe, I get that sometimes simpler is better. It’s how it fits in to the overall aesthetics.
 
But spots are ok, too. Sometimes they make the crazy areas more apparent. And they can add to the book match.

My wife is an impressionist oil painter. I’ve heard her say many times that you want your eye to be drawn to your subject matter. While not a perfect comparison to wood figuring maybe, I get that sometimes simpler is better. It’s how it fits in to the overall aesthetics.

I design Landscapes. Same "rules" apply. A splash of a Red Japanese Maple in front of a backdrop of all green boxwood or taxus can have a much larger effect than many different colors and or flowers. In most cases, as long as its somewhat balanced, asymmetrical beats symmetrical as well
 
Whoa whoa hold on a sec fellas. You gotta satisfy MADlow’s hierarchy of wood figuring.

You must have enough tops with plain and uniform textbook figure, before you can appreciate unique and character.

It’s the law.
KV2dkgR.jpg
 
I just gotta have it all...

You know those beer commercials where everyone’s cute, everyone’s beyond cool, and they’re all having an absolute blast /doing awesome things 24/7?

I kinda want my life to be that, except for the beer part, but of course real life isn’t that. And in fact, it’s the ordinariness of life that makes the extraordinary stuff we do interesting when we do it, because there’s that wonderful contrast.

Which brings up one of the great reality conundrums of picking out a guitar; if they all did exactly the same thing, and looked pretty much the same, i.e. gorgeous and perfect in every way, you’d get a chunk of the beer commercial thing, but choosing the one that’s ‘you’ wouldn’t be as much fun. And playing would be less interesting.

Seems to me with an instrument, the sonic character is what makes a great one great. If it’s also beautiful, hey, party, bonus, congrats and happy birthday. But the real prize is finding one that sounds indispensably great. For me (and I’m only speaking for myself here), that’s the “all”, and the rest really recedes into the background.

Unless, of course, I’m looking at the pictures on my phone. ;)
 
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That 594 is REALLY great looking!

Reading the modcat is also good idea if you can get past that mod looking cat. :p

That MODCat runs the household... LoL!!! Queen of the Stone Age Cat...

If you saw the 509 and 594 in person in medium to bright light, you'd scratch your head over which one was the Artist and which was the "10"....
 
You know those beer commercials where everyone’s cute, everyone’s beyond cool, and they’re all having an absolute blast /doing awesome things 24/7?

I kinda want my life to be that, except for the beer part, but of course real life isn’t that. And in fact, it’s the ordinariness of life that makes the extraordinary stuff we do interesting when we do it, because there’s that wonderful contrast.

Which brings up one of the great reality conundrums of picking out a guitar; if they all did exactly the same thing, and looked pretty much the same, i.e. gorgeous and perfect in every way, you’d get a chunk of the beer commercial thing, but choosing the one that’s ‘you’ wouldn’t be as much fun. And playing would be less interesting.

Seems to me with an instrument, the sonic character is what makes a great one great. If it’s also beautiful, hey, party, bonus, congrats and happy birthday. But the real prize is finding one that sounds indispensably great. For me (and I’m only speaking for myself here), that’s the “all”, and the rest really recedes into the background.

Unless, of course, I’m looking at the pictures on my phone. ;)

I find that I adapt to the guitar. With a decent setup, pretty much any guitar will do for me. I've had deep love affairs with certain guitars, but when I worked with others and went back, it wasn't the same. I keep changing.
 
I find that I adapt to the guitar. With a decent setup, pretty much any guitar will do for me. I've had deep love affairs with certain guitars, but when I worked with others and went back, it wasn't the same. I keep changing.

I keep changing, too. I’ve had a lot of guitars over the years, and have always given changing needs as a reason, but in truth, all I’d do for the most part was reboot and re-buy what I already had.

So...yes, I’m one crazy dood. ;)
 
Whoa whoa hold on a sec fellas. You gotta satisfy MADlow’s hierarchy of wood figuring.

You must have enough tops with plain and uniform textbook figure, before you can appreciate unique and character.

It’s the law.
KV2dkgR.jpg

My “joke” old mans eyesight read “Unicorn tight curl” to begin with!!:confused:
 
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