Trying some nylons...

What?  No, I was not trying on stockings... although I do have this cute little outf - nope, not going there.

The nylons I am referring to are nylon string guitars.  You may remember that I tried some nylon strings on my delightful Emerald X7 - a steel string guitar that was not designed for nylon strings.  Oh, goodness, it was an awful experience: those strings on that guitar sounded like crap.  The guitar was embarrassed; I was embarrassed for the guitar.  Those strings didn't stay on there long; the X7 is happily wearing my favorite Elixir Phosphor Bronze strings.

But, I have found myself "nylon curious"... yes, still talking guitars here.  My favorite guitar maker, Emerald, does make nylon versions of most of their models... but, they aren't inexpensive.  And, for giving nylon strings a fair try, I can't justify spending that kind of bucks... in case this nylon stuff isn't all I hoped it would be.

Taylor Guitars does make a nice (well, favorably reviewed) entry level nylon string guitar.  It is "entry level" based on the laminate back and sides, relative lack of finishing and details, and not a lot of hand-work done on it.  Everything I have read about it says it sounds and plays decent, as you'd expect from Taylor.

The problem has been finding a guitar shop that has one of these in stock.  I have looked around some, but they have been "out of stock" where I've looked.  While doing some other running around today, we stopped at the nearest Guitar Center.  We saw 4 or 5 employees, but no one acknowledged us (typical).  That's OK, we were fine looking around on our own.

I played an interesting Ibanez thin-body nylon acoustic-electric...

Decent looking guitar.  Played decent, too.  The acoustic sound was a bit weak, but that is to be expected with the thin-body (only 2 3/4" thick).  It has a Fishman pickup and sounds very nice plugged in.  Alas, no Taylor nylon to be found in the Classical Acoustic Room.

In the acoustic room next door, there was a young guy torturing an acoustic guitar and singing loudly off key.  Also not unusual in Guitar Center.  We decided to brave the banging and screeching to see if there was anything interesting in the main acoustic room... lo and behold: the exact Taylor nylon I was hoping to see!  Rather than try to hear it over the cacophony, we took it out of that room and back into the classical room.  Oh, we could still hear the screamer, but it gave me the opportunity to try the Taylor vs the Ibanez.  Yes, the Taylor sounds better acoustically - as it should, since it is a larger, thicker body guitar; plugged in, though, they were pretty close, with the Ibanez perhaps a bit better sounding to my ears.  The Taylor...

In the end, I didn't take either home with me.  I'll do a bit more research to see if there is anything else in that price range (although the Taylor is more than twice as much as the Ibanez).

Back home, Rufus got to take a walk...

We are in the same park, on the same site that we were nearly a year ago when we brought him home.  This is where he first learned to walk on a leash.  It's his idea now.  :-)

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I had to add this photo from last year on February 12th...

Yeah, the vet said he was fully grown at that time last year.  Look at how small he was compared to today!