[jseth]

Hoopsfan;

Definitely call ahead and make sure it's a good time to visit, but absolutely... make that drive! If nothing else, it's a gorgeous trek through some amazingly beautiful country... time it right and you can stop at Libby's, in Philo (just past Boonville on 128 west...), one of the very best Mexican restaurants I've ever had the pleasure of encountering!

Funny, all the talk about Goodalls and overtones/harmonics... and I don't really get it. To my ears, Goodalls sound like a whole lot of the best guitars I have ever played; incredibly responsive, lively, lightly built, tone that rings seemingly forever... you get the idea.

One of (possibly THE) the loudest guitars I've ever played was a 1936 Martin D-18; my little Goodall Grand Concert has a lot of similarities to that guitar; mostly the light build, the "directness" of the tone from the mahogany, the fast response. Of course, the D-18 was in horrendous playing shape, needing frets, a neck reset and probably more to make it a truly playable instrument, but I'm just talking about the tone. Both guitars have a LOT going on, other than the note played...

I've had the pleasure of playing a good number of older Brazilian rosewood Martins, mostly D-28's but a couple of the 40 series guitars, too... and rosewood Goodalls have that same sort of richness and quality of tone as those old Martins. Rosewood has a WHOLE LOT going on, along with the note played...

Although older Gibson acoustics don't tend to be nearly as "complex" of tone, I have even played a few old Gibsons that had these same qualities.

Of course, I have played a fair number of luthier-built instruments that had similar sounds...

Never have seen the sort of consistency that James achieves regularly... and the purity of the sound he gets from his guitars. He definitely has his own ideas of how a guitar should sound, and he produces that sound without scalloping braces or building guitars that won't withstand the ravages of time and play....

When I had James build me my GC, I specifically did NOT want a guitar that had a pronounced higher register... I wanted the guitar to have an overall mid-range-centric tonal quality, and James gave me what I asked for... so I know he CAN build a guitar however someone wants it... whether he WILL do it your way is up to you and him to work out!