Holy!!! Congratulations! That is a beautiful guitar. Good luck with it. I expect those contests to award cheap prizes usually but that is nowhere near the cheap scale!
How is that Ibanez 12 string? The neck on my 40 year old Epiphone warped and I have tried several times to straighten it out unsuccessfully. It is impossible to tune properly now. I may be in the market for a new one.I appreciate the sentiment, but I'll get my Taylor at some point. I the meantime, I'm doing okay for guitars. I own a 2018 Takamine GN51CE 6-string (left) and a vintage 1985 Ibanez V302 12-string (right). I love them both. The Takamine is one of their more affordable made-in-China ones. I don't think anything else can compete in its price range. On my shopping list is one of their higher-end, made-in-Japan P5NCs, and of course a Taylor, and a Martin. Those are all great guitars, but in different ways. I happened upon this vintage Ibanez acoustic over the summer. An elderly gent was its original owner, and was selling it because he didn't play it very much. I was wanting a 12-string acoustic because it works great for playing Hawaiian music. Ibanez is better known for their electrics, but they've made some good acoustics over the years, especially their made-in-Japan ones. The electrics in the photo are my Ibanez Artist AR325QA. I love it. The blue electric is my Sire Larry Carlton S7 FM. It's basically a superstrat designed by Larry Carlton and made in Indonesia. I'm blessed with some nice instruments that I enjoy playing.
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That Taylor that you've won is a really high-end one! It's probably made in USA, in El Cajon, California. If you're ever out there, you should totally visit their manufacturing facility. That's on my bucket list. If it's not made there, it would have been made in Tecate, Baja California, Mexico. But I think yours is probably a made-in-USA one. Either way, Taylor knows their stuff. Their guitars are outstanding. It's time for you to celebrate, man. You've won a wonderful instrument. Contrats again.
It's in excellent shape. This guitar's first owner took excellent care of it, and it's always been in a good quality Guild guitar case when not in use. The old owner recommended that I keep it tuned down a half step to a whole step generally and to only tune it up to standard while playing, if I want standard. I've been taking his advice. It's how he did things for years. So far, so good. I had it set up just to be safe, and put on new strings. I read up on his tune-down advice. Most places said an older acoustic like this didn't have as sturdy of neck support as a modern guitar might, but must of the old Ibanez's did fine anyway. They still advised light tune-downs when not in use. They said some older acoustics from that era had necks start to come out of their securings and needed to be reinforced. I haven't needed to do that, but I think it's a combination of that previous owner having taken such good care of it, and Ibanez's methods even back then weren't known to be terrible. There just wasn't the super reinforcement that a more modern guitar would have. But if you look for a similar acoustic guitar from that era, I would recommend that the neck attachment structure be something you check out well. If it's been fixed or reinforced there, I wouldn't call it a deal breaker. If they did a high quality job, it could still be a good quality guitar, and even better reinforced than before. If there's any evidence of shoddy work, then pass on it, of course.
My Epiphone 12 string was $100 new when I bought it. It sounded great. Over the years it got harder to tune. The intonation was getting worse and worse. I took a look at the neck a few years ago and found a severe twist to one side. The neck itself it not bowed, which would be an easier fix. I tried all the tricks to reduce the twisting but nothing worked for very long. Sadly. When it was new it sounded great. Now I am afraid it is just firewood.
Never been the biggest fan of the gold hardware.
My Les Paul Studio has gold hardware. I had considered changing it all out of black hardware but at this point I am not sure I care anymore. I am the only one who sees it!
I have a Les Paul Black Beauty that came with gold hardware, little screws and all, gold everywhere on a beautiful black finish. I took it to Guitar Center and had them change all the gold to silver hardware and it looks amazing, silver on black. It took them about two weeks to get all the stuff ordered. So, in my guitar case I have all the gold hardware in case I ever sell this guitar, the buyer can put it all together with gold again if they want.
Mine is deep red, with gold hardware. The pickups are gold too. Maybe I'll look into changing everything but my guess is it would be expensive.
I believe gold-colored hardware has improved a lot in the last 10 years or so. I bought my Ibanez Artist in 2019, and it came with gold-colored hardware. The pickup covers, the tuners, the bridge -- they're all gold-colored. Five years and counting -- still no sign of the gold rubbing off.
Oh, a red guitar I think the gold would look really good.
Yo man that is a sick guitar! Congrats!
