For my birthday Megan let me go to Guitar Center. It's never been a favorite place of Megan's, but she not only sat there like a pro and let me play super fine guitars without fear of hurting our relationship, she let me buy something. Don't worry, it wasn't a guitar. She let me get a pedal board and box to hold my pedal and the "Box". I know, that sounds lame. I got a box for my box. However, I'm extremely slow and this rig should allow me to set up and take down on Sunday's a lot faster. For those who don't know, Megan fulfilled a longtime dream and let me get an Avalon U5 for Christmas. For those of you who don't play guitar, an Avalon U5 is a big box that makes my guitar and mandolin sound really awesome through a sound system. To really simplify it, it's just the "Box" that makes my stuff sound awesome. Got it?

Well I promised a big guitar confession, but first you need a way to detailed build up. I got my first guitar on January 16, 1999. Five months later I got my first Taylor, a 710CE. I got a Taylor because a friend of mine, who really didn't play guitar, told me they were the best. Well I love that guitar. It's now ranks second place behind my wife, but before the dogs. Several years later I got an amazing Larrivee. However, I turned into such a Taylor brand snob that I actually traded that awesome Larrivee for a less awesome, although still nice, Taylor. Now I'm up to three Taylors. I'm pretty devoted.

Well at Guitar Center, I had the opportunity to play a Taylor PS14CE (Top of the Line Presentation Series - $4,000), a Taylor 614CE (like Kris Allen on American Idol plays ~$2,300), a Taylor T5 electric/acoustic (beautiful - $2,200), several Breedloves , a Gibson, and just because it was fairly pretty (which is rare), a Martin. Let's just put it this way, if it cost less than $2,000 it didn't have the privilege of being played by me on my birthday. Now if you're not familiar with acoustic guitars, Martin is the Arch Nemesis of Taylor. People are usually either devoted to Taylor or to Martin. There are very few lovers of both. So, being a Taylor nut, I clearly think Martin is junk. Hence the ruthless jab at its looks.

Unfortunately, and I'm willing to admit it, the Martin was by far the best sounding guitar. I actually think all the rest of the nice guitars at this store were there because they had been passed over for years at other Guitar Centers with real selections. This Martin was the rare find for that store. It was a OMC-Aura, which is the top of the line Aura guitar. Since I'm not a Martin man, I was unfamiliar with the Aura system. Basically, they take each of the guitars that will be equipped with the Aura system and record it in a studio with 6 different microphones. Then they build that sound into the onboard preamp. So, not only did this guitar have the best acoustic sound, it was amazing plugged into an amp. In my opinion that's rare. It's usually hard to get a guitar to sound great when amplified. There are a lot of good sounding guitars that struggle to make sound as good electrically. However, this thing sounded better.

The onboard electronics are ridiculous. They have all six of those recorded models built in. You get a little knob with six positions. Each time you turn to a new position, the amplified sound is completely different. You wouldn't believe how different it sounds. Not only do you get to choose from six awesome sounds, you also have a regular pickup in the guitar, and a fader to select how much of each you want. So, you can either have it sound entirely like the modeled sounds, entirely direct from the guitar itself, or any combination between which mixes the two. The salesman at Guitar Center plugged me into a fat amp, and then as I played would turn the model knob so I could hear all the sounds. If all of that isn't enough, the electronics have a built in tuner. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal, but my friend has that in his guitar, and I'm jealous. It's cool. It's always with you regardless where you're facing, you don't have to carry anything extra, you don't have additional batteries to worry about, you can see lights on your guitar when you forget to turn it off, no one can borrow it, and most importantly, there's no setup. Sold?

So there you have it. The Martin sounded the best. However, all of the Taylors I played were a lot prettier. So, if you're playing on a dark stage, go to the Clear Lake Guitar Center and buy that Martin OMC-Aura for $2,800. Depending on how much money you have, it might be totally worth it. I'm still holding out for a $3,750 Taylor Doyle Dykes Signature Model. Sure it's worth more than my car, but that's pretty common for poor musicians.