Coming back to the guitar

I have always enjoyed music, but seldom what was popular at the time. As a kid in the 50s, with early rock & roll on every other kid's transistor radio, I preferred the pop music of the times. Broadway musicals, movie scores, and classical music. I became quite the classical buff for some time, and annoyed my army buddies by playing Rachmaninoff and Sibelius on my portable record player.
I gradually began to appreciate some of the pop stuff, and was amazed to learn that many of the tunes I was listening to were Lennon & McCarntey items! Totally out of touch...Hehe.
However, one of my fellow officers on the County PD was an ex-folkie from the Gaslight Square era here in St. Louis. Through him, I fell in with a crowd of people (including my wife-to-be) who were either musicians or otherwise involved in music.
My buddy introduced me to a variety of artists who were part of the folk revival at the time, and also a bunch of local artists who played in a variety of styles. I began to hang out at an "open mike" club in South St. Louis, and eventually became part of the regular crowd.
It was sort of intimidating being a non-musician in a crowd of musicians. Nearly everyone I knew played something! So, I bit the bullet and bought a banjo. I was beginning to appreciate bluegrass music, and had always liked Pete Seeger.
I was living with my wife at the time, and I flogged away at the banjo, working out of books. No one else in the crowd played banjo, so I didn't have any tutors. During this time, I had obtained an inexpensive nylon-stringed guitar for my wife, as she'd had to leave hers behind with her ex-husband.
My progress with the banjo was slow, and occasionally I would pick up the guitar and fiddle with it. For whatever reason, I found I was making much more progress with the guitar than the banjo, so I trucked the banjo back to the music store and traded it for a little Yamaha steel-string.

Before long, I was doing pretty well. I mastered basic flatpick technique, and was soon playing well enough that I could sit in on jams with the rest of the crowd, and even back up my wife. She was a semi-regular at the above-mentioned club, and often subbed for the owners, who were the main act.
I started subscribing to Guitar Player, and before long was playing pretty complex stuff, working on Jazz chord-melody styles, and beginning to get pretty decent at improvising lead lines and blues.
We got a generous income-tax rebate one year, and I bought us each a new Martin.
I got my wife a nylon-stringed classical model, and for myself a very nice D-18.
Wonderful instrument, very balanced. A lot of the more expensive rosewood Martins have a rather bass-heavy tone; sort of "boomy". This is due to their traditional use as the rythym instrument in string bands.
But for all-around use and recording, many preferred the more-balanced tone of the mahogany D-18. I sure liked it.

Eventually, when I started fooling with blues and jazz, I bought an electric. The high acoustic action of the Martin just was not conducive to making complex chords and fancy string bends, at least for someone with average-sized hands.

However, all things come to an end. The club we all hung out at closed, over a lease agreement. Folks got older, moved, quit playing, and so forth. The "scene" sort of died. There was always talk of a new club, but it never materialized. With no outlet for playing, interest waned. We'd occasionally break out the guitars and play a bit, but we fell on bad economic times, and the Martins were sold. Eventually I picked up a used Yamaha and kept playing, but it was difficult to keep the interest level up with no real outlet for performing.
Finally, last year, I sold the Yamaha, and that was pretty much that.
I contented myself with listening to other folks play.

A few months ago, however, I was thumbing through an issue of "Make" magazine, a publication for folks who like to ....Make things. The cover article was "how to make a cigar-box guitar". I looked at the article, and said, "I could do that". I've always enjoyed making things, from tying flies as a youthful fisherman to handloading my own ammunition to building recumbent bicycles...

I checked the internet and sure enough, there were several web pages and a Yahoo group devoted to cigar-box guitar. Within a few weeks, I had obtained the necessary bits and had built my first instrument.
This is quite a fun little thing to play, but eventually I found it rather unsatisfying. You're pretty much limited to playing with a slide, though it's possible to install frets. Very limited volume as well unless you build in a pickup.

The project sort of fired up my musical juices, however. I found that I wanted a proper instrument again. I had been saving money to upgrade my computer (a never-ending task), and couldn't decide which way to go on that project. So, I decided to wait on the computer, and see what kind of guitar I could get on limited funds.
We have a big chain Guitar Center here, and they have a variety of brands. I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of instruments you can buy in the 200.00 price range. (My Martin had cost 600.00, and was worth some 1200 when I sold it.)
I hauled instrument after instrument back to the sound room, and played and examined them all.
Eventually, I had it down to two identically-priced guitars. One was a Fender dreadnaught, that came in a kit with tuner, string winder, picks, bag, etc. The other was a Mitchell acoustic/electric cutaway model. I had never heard of Mitchell, but assumed it was some sort of overseas import. Seemed very nice, however.
I went home and did some research on the net. The Mitchell, it turned out, was from Indonesia, part of the growing instrument industry in that island nation.
It got excellent owner reviews on a number of sites, not only for sound, but for fit, finish, and overall quality.
The Fender fared not quite as well, scoring significantly lower in similar reviews.
When playing both, I'd noticed the Fender was a bit heavy on the base, and had a rather stiff action that would require adjustment.

So, I bought the Mitchell. It's an impressive instrument for 200.00, and came well set-up from the factory. Even came with my favorite D'Addario bronze strings.
I'm working on re-establishing my callouses, and looking over the wide variety of guitar resources on the web.