New Toy

I got a new guitar today - a Silver Creek D160 which is a solid mahogany sides and back, solid spruce top dreadnought. Sometimes I play places that I feel a little uncomfortable taking my Lowden. It is a pretty expensive guitar that I couldn't afford to replace. I've tried lots of cheap guitars, usually with laminated sides and backs and solid tops, and while some were OK, they still sounded, well, cheap.

My son played violin and cello for a while and we purchased some extremely nice Chinese made violins and cellos that held their own against European and American instruments at 2-3X's the price. Then I bought a Kenny Hill nylon string guitar which is quite nice... and made in China. So, I know they can build very nice instruments there for low prices. Yes, I know about cheap labor and all of the arguments. I also know that if it came to paying an American price for a solid wood guitar, I would have just passed at this point.

Just after Christmas I saw a deal online for this al solid wood guitar at a ridiculous price - $254 shipped with a hard case. I checked out the online reviews and they were all good. So I took a chance nd ordered one, figuring that if it was a dog, I could send it back and planning to sell my Yamaha knock around guitar to bring the overall cost even lower.

The Silver Creek arrived today and I am astounded. I have owned tons of high end guitars and even more low end ones and this guitar holds its own with the big boys. Bottom line is that it plays and sounds great... easily as good as US guitars at 5X's the price. So once it gets electrified, it will become my main gigging guitar.

If this guitar is representative of the line, I highly recommend them to anyone at any level of playing who is looking for a guitar. It isn't going to give you status or appreciate in value but when you play it, everyone will turn their heads and folk who spent 5X's as much will go home and look online at Silver Creek D160

and here's the back...