I heartily agree with your assessment of the 110e sound, and from my experience, you won't be gaining much with a Seagull. Also, the Seagull "slim" neck, is not all that slim.

I believe that what you are describing is a Blueridge, I don't own one, but have played a bunch of 'em. The BR series guitars that I have played have a fast, thin neck, and even the laminated models have a much fuller and more balanced sound than either the 110e or any of the Seagull models. If you want it to plug in, you will need to save some of your budget to add electronics. The laminated models would give you plenty of room to do that, and if you look patiently, you should be able to find a solid wood model ... either a BR-140 or BR-160 ... that would fit your budget with room to spare. Many people don't like the thin neck, so you might even be able to find a Blueridge owner interested in trading for your Taylor.

I personally would not depend on Youtube videos to judge the sound, and they certainly won't help you judge how comfortable you are with the neck. The only real way to know what you like is to play 'em!

I would recommend a Blueridge, very slim necks, easy to play, string spacing is tight, but I really like the thin profile. Depending on your budget I recommend the 140 or 160 models, spruce tops with mahog and rosewood respectively. I should also mention they have excellent tone, resonate all day, and sound best with Elixir lights IMO.

I just ordered an Alvarez Masterworks series with the same slim neck, it is model no. MD70, Cedar and Rosewood. Either of these two lines should be exactly what you're looking for.

Good luck!

You might look for something in the Yamaha L series, as well. They sound really good and play very easily. My LS6 has a nice neck. If you want to spend a bit more money, try to find an LL16 or LJ16.

I have one of these and am very pleased with it. It's a lot easier to play than the standard Taylor necks. In the past, I've owned a 410 CE and 414 K (Koa with pinless bridge before Taylor discontinued the pinless bridges in '97). Both of those Taylors wore my hand out and forced me to either give up on trying the few songs that I could easily play on my Takamine EF341 using my thumb technique on my fretting hand or use different fingerings that made it more like work than the fun I was just loing for at the time.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...mymartin-1.jpg

This MIM Martin has a Fishman "blender" inside--meaning a saddle pickup as well as an internal microphone which you can switch and blend to achieve a variety of amplified sounds. It sounds very good unplugged too and is light. It's a Martin Xc1T Ellipse. If you use "Martin XC1T Ellipse" as a search criteria on the YouTube site, you will find a bunch of videos of guys playing these. I put a few links below too. They sell for betw $799 and $899.

Taylors are great guitars but my left hand just seems to be clumsy in the open position chord forms at the end of the neck where my playing technique includes using my thumb to "walk" down and up some bass routines. I don't know if it's the radius of the neck or the nut width or what but this Martin lets me do what I like to do and get it right without my left hand tripping over itself and getting tired. Give it a listen. FWIW.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SFLtSGoLgw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf10qhMtlGw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b21vRZv11w

Yairi's are hand built guitars made in Japan. They are a quality guitar and very undervalued in this country. Consequentially you can get used ones at a very attractive price.

The typically have thin necks front to back and side to side. My DY-91 has a 1 11/16th neck width. They play very easy.

There are a couple of very nice ones on E-Bay right now.

One is a 1983 DY 75 model

It can be purchased in your price range.

Here is the item number 230279126189

There is also a very nice DY-57 in your price range.

Item number 300246878077

This one is sitting in Palos Verde Estates. I know the area and it is strictly a bucks up neighborhood. Can you say fully gated community. It sits on the knob just west of Long Beach. It is some of the most expensive real estate in Southern California. So the odds that this old Yairi was pounded around are slim. It looks like a great deal to me. If I were in the buying mode I would be all over this one.

Another vote for trying a Blueridge.
Their skinny necks are one of the reasons they don't appeal to me. :P

On the other end of the spectrum, Petros's have very skinny necks...which for some reason I don't mind at all.

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Blueridge here too. I have the BG 140 and love it. Sounds great and plays just so so easily.

Most of the new Alvarez guitars, as far as I know, have the 1.75-inch nut width but otherwise has a fast neck, so that may be too wide for someone. The older Alvarez models seemed to have the 1 11/16 nut. I don't know when the switch was made or on what models.

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I don't know if flower is even around anymore. His last activity on the forum was around three years ago.

I have a Takamine GD model that the neck is not much different than my Strat. But unfortunately it is pretty bright sounding, so it doesn't get much playing time.

Do you like the Dread size? What I would recommend is, after trying new strings, either return or sell the Taylor and add that money to what you already plan on spending for a new guitar to step up into something that a) You'll love and b) play for a really long time.

In terms of tone, obviously, I would look at Martin and at your price range, you should be able to find something nice (used). However, I would look at some other brands - Yamaha LL16 AREs are really nice. I would also check out Larrivee. But what you should do is really take the time to go try out as many guitars as you can, sleep on it, play some more, and then make a decision. It's a fun ride - enjoy!

Guys, this is a ZOMBIE THREAD :rolleyes::p:confused:

It appears this 8 year old zombie thread was resurrected by accident - probably no use giving advice to the OP as that time is long gone