A day of Browsing: Acoustic Centre

This will be a geeking out sesh.

I have been on the other side of the world supporting one of our flagship trade conferences. As such, I have been pretty busy supporting the mission, but Thursday I had a 100% free day.

Al0ne, in South Melbourne, Australia, I tapped the maps app on my phone, and searched for music stores. There were several, but three in particular were interesting, and one stood out: Acoustic Centre.

Turns out that I made it just there, and geeked out for a few hours.

Why I wanted to visit a music store?

One of my favorite players of the guitar is an outstanding gentleman from Australia, Tommy Emmanuel. If you haven't heard him play, check out him just ripping on Classical Gas:

Anyhow, he plays an Australian guitar brand called Maton, and try as I might, I just couldn't find one in the US near me to lay my hands on.[1]

Looking at the Acoustic Centre website, I see that they sell them. And the shop was about three quarters of a mile from my hotel, basically south on Spencer street and a block off at Park.

Airpods in, suitable music in my ears, wearing my Birkenstocks (my tradeshow shoes have become torture devices) I embarked about 11:00 AM.

The building isn't very fancy, but opening the door, I am welcomed with the ground floor. The cashier at the door welcomed me warmly, and I began browsing. The main floor is 100% Basses, and the usual display of strings.

But, there's a sign to go upstairs. The stairs creak at each step, and at the top I stand agog. Straight ahead is their Classical Guitars. To the left was a room of acoustics. The attendant said the expected g'day, and told me to enjoy myself, pull anything down that I wanted.

I told him that I wanted to see that if I picked up a Maton, would I be able to sound like Tommy Emmanuel. He laughed and said it didn't make him sound like TE. (Good dude there!)

He pointed me at an abalone shell on the counter with plectrums, grabbing a thin one, I headed to the room. On the wall was a small sampling of Fender acoustics (meh, I can see them anywhere), but a full wall of the Maton guitars. The lower oned being the "affordable" ones[2], the mid row being a cut above, and at the top were there master craftsman grade. They even had a couple of the TE editions (priced at $7,000 AUD or about $4,500 US, not bad at all!)

I started cheap, and played up to the God-level. Every one of them was outstanding. Even the affordable series was a joy. Great action out of the box, and the shop keeps the strings fresh (or they move them so fast that they are all crisp and bright)[3]

I must have spent an hour just on that wall. I even played their "Mini Maton" a parlor/travel guitar that was about $600US.

Neat.

The next wall was split between another Australian maker I had never heard of, Cole-Clark guitars. Turns out that it is a maker based in Melbourne, and they make just beautiful instruments:

Visually stunning, and outstanding sound and playability.

Next to them on the wall was a name I knew, but acoustic guitars that I had not seen live, Cort. A lot of people have played guitars made by Cort, but haven't realized it. The PRS economy line is built there, as are the Sterling by Music Man guitars.

Cort was founded in the 1970's in Indonesia, they have been the contract builder for many well known brands, and while early on were known for mediocre guitars, they have really become a force to be reckoned with.

Thus, what you should take away from that is that Cort may not be a household name, they've been building guitars in Indonesia for a loooooong time, and if you read the reviews of the various guitars they make for PRS, Musicman et. al. that they are quite good.[4]

Pulling a few off the wall, after having spent an hour or so picking and strumming the Maton's and the Cole-Clark's, I have to say that had I not looked at the label, or the price tag, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.

What I am saying is: Damn, they are good. A great deal for the price!

But the one that I really fell for was a limited run of something they had used as a capability demonstration at NAMM a few years ago. The Abstract Delta (picture below) was hanging there, $2,700 AUD (about $1,700 US) staring me in the face. Beautifully figured, delightfully adorned (not festooned with abalone like the high end Martins or Taylors), tempting me to pull it off the wall.

So I did. I sat down, tweaked the tuning, and put it through its paces.

Wow. I wanted it. So bad. The figuring of the top was exquisite, and book matched. The binding was stark and not awful (I thought that the red body binding would turn me off, but honestly, it goes well with this axe).

The thin heel of the neck made access to upper frets a breeze, and while I prefer not to have electronics in my acoustics (I am a fuddy-duddy about that) the LR Baggs system is unobtrusive, and there's no control panel that is in your face.

It sounded heavenly. A good bite of the strings, but also a mellow sound. THe Grand Auditorium body shape was comfortable to prop on my knee. The action was spot on, intonation was perfect, and strumming, finger picking or using a pick, it just felt comfortable.

It took every fiber of my self control to not whip out my AmEx card to take that home.

I did stroll over to the electric area. The shop had a couple of Fenders, a Gibson ES335, and a pretty solid selection of Gretch's, but my heart wasn't into them.

There was a second acoustic room, this one being dedicated to Taylor Guitars. I did a cursory walk through, as America is full of Taylor's. I suspect that they are exotic to Aussies.

In all, it made for an enjoyable afternoon, capped off with a quick bowl of Pho at a small restaurant on the way, then back to the hotel to tuck into some work.

1 - The closest authorized dealer to me in the US is in Honolulu, Hawaii, a wee bit of a trek...

2 - Guitar makers in general have three (or more) tiers. The affordable ones are often matte finished, with less figured tonewoods, and modest appointments (tuners and the like), the mid range will often have the better woods and appointments. The top tier are often made by a single craftman, with more attention to detail, more adornments (rosettes, inlays, etc), and in general are beautiful.

That said, for quality makers, even their "budget" guitars are outstanding in playability and sound. You really can't go wrong.

3 - One thing I hate about big music stores are that 1) all the display guitars are badly out of tune, and 2) the strings are often oxidized and full of finger oils. Eww.

4 - This is a lot like when people assume that something being made in China makes it low quality, and cheaply made. Anyone who has worked in any sort of manufacturing environment knows that if you have good manufacturing engineers and have well defined processes, and inspect the production facilities, China (and indeed all the south-east Asian countries where manufacturing is located) can deliver primo products. You just have to specify it, and pay for it. Guitars are no different