A bit of history...

"Are you going to tell us about when you rode dinosaurs to school, Jim?"  No.

It is time to move some guitars around and get another one ready to sell.  Before doing that, we made a trip to Brownsville to look at some electric guitars at Guitar Center.  I had a particular model in mind and they have several variations of that.

I too the Yamaha SLG200n along, in case there was a possibility of a trade.  I dealt with a couple guys there, both very helpful.  I tried the SG model I was thinking of, along with a couple Les Pauls (heavy beast), and some Fender Strats.  I asked their guitar tech what else in that range of guitars he'd suggest: he pulled down a couple Paul Reed Smith guitars for me to try.

No, I didn't come back with a new guitar.  Once home, we started "the shuffle": besides getting the Taylor GSmini photographed for a for sale ad, I wanted to play my Taylor T5 and Gibson ES335 (both semi-hollow body electrics).  Neither has been out of the case in over a year.  After playing some solid body guitars today, this will be an interesting comparison.

The "history" mentioned above: the ES335 that I got on my 13th birthday...

No, this isn't for sale.  I have an emotional attachment to this guitar.  Besides my family helping me pay for it, this guitar fed me (and us) for a bunch of years.  It still plays and sounds great.  Giving it a go...

It is a beast - weighs about 300 pounds.  No, not really; but it is a heavyweight compared to my other guitars.

The other contender for "who stays out of the case": a Taylor T5...

If you say, "They look similar," you aren't looking close enough.  I have an emotional attachment to the T5 as well... it appeared as an incredible deal, just after I bought a Taylor 814ce (more on that).  Joan encouraged the purchase, I was feeling like I had spent my wad.  She bought it and declared it her guitar.  No, she doesn't play guitar.  She does let me play her guitar, and it is an outstanding guitar.  In fact, it has moved the 335 out of first place for "favorite electric guitar," something no other guitar I've played over the decades has been able to do.  I wanted to see if that was still the case... yes, it is.  The T5 stays out.  It also made me forget about getting a solid body electric.  Unlike the crappy guitar I had before the 335, I did not play the T5 "until my fingers bled."  But, they were tuckered out by the time I quit playing and started photographing the GSmini for another ad.

The rest of the story: some swapping around... the Taylor 814ce is getting its turn on the wall, the 522ce 12-fret is back in the case.

Yeah, it is time to "thin the herd."