Cheese Steaks and Guitars...

Wit or no?

 

I took my family to both Pat's and Geno's on the same day so we could do a proper taste test. It was fun and they are both awesome.

 

Guild!

 

I’ve noticed they seem to like to cut holes in Taylors.

 

I literally just finished a steak (wit) from Steve’s Prince of Steaks (Northeast Philly based but I go to the Langhorne location across from famous Reedman Car dealership). In Philly proper, I rate Tony Luke’s as the best in town but Geno’s and Pat’s are fine. To really hijack this thread, Tony Luke’s roast Italian pork sandwich with sautéed spinach and aged provolone is just to die for! OK, back to Martins and Taylors!

 

Subliminal activity here as I just saw the title of the thread and NEED a cheesesteak. I have some Italian sausage left over so that will have to do the trick.

OK, now back to the question. I love my Taylor 414ce. Great full neck at 1.75" with an ebony board to really make it friendly on the hands to run thru 10 songs with ease.....tons of tone and a resonant "boom" going on. Need to switch to some soloing? It's great.....like playing a Gretsch.

A Martin? I always thought they sounded "dead". Some people say Les Pauls sound muddy but that's my perception of Martins. They're tough on the fingers also. I always felt my calluses need extra beef to play a Martin.

With that said, my 1st acoustic was a Sigma by Martin in '91. I love the guitar and has a special tone but definitely stays on the sideline while my Taylor gets all the playing time.

Now it's time to gobble up some of Italian sausage I have calling my name!

 

Is it still considered a cheese steak using medium rare beef?

 

Here in Chicago we eat Dipped Italian Beef sandwiches. They are drenched in spicy giardinara sauce and served with a cup of beef broth to dip in.
Really messy. They drip everywhere. If you’re not careful the juice gets all over your trousers. I eat mine off of a Taylor to keep my pants clean. Hopefully the sauce will season the wood over the years and bring some of the top end down. Lovely looking guitars but not enough of a round sound. No beef to them.
Im an Al’s Beef and Gibson accoustic guy.

 

You know, it's funny, because they're fine guitars, but I've never found a Martin or a Taylor that really floated my boat enough to buy it. For now anyway, I'm sticking with the three G's - Gibson, Guild and Gretsch!

But over on the Acoustic Guitar Forum, yes, you'll find many an acoustic player that owns both, in addition to some other high end brands like Collings and Furch. Tone's the name of the game over there, much more so than brand loyalty.

And cheesesteaks, yeah, they're wonderful. I could really use one ... right now!

 

From 2017:



I went to Villanova University, about 12 miles west of Philadelphia. Every Saturday in the dorm cafeteria,
we had Philly Cheese Steaks. It's been a few decades, but I remember that they used Steak 'um sandwich meat, Cheese Wiz (or liquid American Cheese?), Grilled Sautéed White Onions on a French or Italian submarine roll.

I did some reading, and one authentic recipe calls for thin-sliced Ribeye steak meat (!) + the ingredients you see above. One recipe had (substitute) provolone cheese and green peppers, in addition to the onions.

 

Sure - Martin and Taylor are not enemies. I own two Taylors and soon a Martin.

 

I have played all of these side by side and I can say that as you "go up", they sound better. Played a wonderful D-28 and loved it. Picked up an HD-28 and it was even better. Then a Collings and it was better. Then he handed me this certain Lowden and it blew me away. But I'm settled on an HD-28 at this point.

 

I never had that much cash too buy either one worth buying.

 

Stevo, you're right, "going up" helps, but then you hit that cost/value argument. Is the 6K you'll spend on a Collings really worth it - to you as the buyer. For some people it is, others (like me) have a more difficult time justifying that kind of expense. Some of those AGF guys will spend 12K on a hand-built, boutique one-of-a-kind instrument, some brand you've never heard of, all in search of that magical, mystic tone they hear in their heads. I can't imagine that, for myself, but more power to 'em.

Interestingly, the closest I ever came to buying a Martin was when I stumbled across a Road Series model that sounded amazing, and was of course reasonably priced.

I wound up not getting it, but you never know how things are gonna play out. If I'd bought that, I'd probably never have bought my J-35, which I'm totally crazy about. So sometimes things work out for the best, you just have to take a crooked path to get there.

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