I have honed my selection of my-favorite-guitar-if-I-were-to-win-the-lottery. And the winnner is the Tony Rice Special Edition, from Santa Cruz. One of the most playable guitars I've ever picked up. Sound is clear and strong, punchy if you want it, with great sustain. $3000 and it's mine.

I took a couple'a weeks off from playing, letting my shoulder heal but couldn't stand it any longer and dropped by Galaxy last Thursday. They have completely jumped over to the Martin line of acoustics. The Larrives are simply not selling, even heavily discounted. In the Martin room I played a birchwood dreadnaught that sounds as full and mellow as any guitar I've ever played. Martin is branching out in what they call their 'Smartwood' line. Light weight, scalloped X-bracing dreadnaughts made from non-traditional and non-ecothreatening tone woods. The result is room filling sound. Each priced around $1,100.