Say it aint so--- Teres quality question

Yeah, my only acoustic right now is a 70's Yamaha dreadnaught that belonged to an old girlfriend (yes, she gave it me, no, I didn't steal it, or even particularly want it, but it serves OK). I like the sound of a more narrow-waisted, rounded-bout guitar than a dreadnaught. I'd also love to get a really decent classical instrument, but hardly know where to start in that department...

Enjoying my lurk immensely. If it's any consolation, Psychic and I are getting info from someone in a position to know that the platters of our beloved SL1200's (of which the platter is my least-beloved part, for its resonance) have lately begun arriving in a 'non-flat' condition (yeah, they don't cost what audiophile TT's do, and also use a compliant damping mat, but our sort always likes to brag on the 70's-era Nipponese mass-market quality angle :-) Well, I got inspired by Patrick and went down and took a 7" aluminum architectural scale to mine ('83 vintage), and you know what? Approx. 1/64" uniform deviation. I think it's dished, and I think they knew what they were doing.

Jphii: I've got all kinds of radical ideas for a TT design - just don't know how to implement any of them or how well they'd work. Send me a million bucks and I'll be happy to share. ;^)

FWIW: Personally, I don't really see *slight* deviations from perfect platter flatness as ever presenting an audible problem, and if a wood platter sounded best, I wouldn't be scared to get it. IMO though, if one isn't clamping and using a mat anyway, the deviations inherent in the record will make this whole question nothing more than an academic point of aesthetics. (Sorry Focusedfx, but that's based on absolutely no personal Teres experience whatsoever, which will be my reason for making like Tom and receding back into the 'woodwork' now...)

Arrgh! You pulled me back out with the Martin reference. I once had the long term loan of a '39 0-18, which had originally belonged to the grandmother in a family close to ours. I received it when I was about 14 years old (began playing at 11), and the bridge had raised up due to its having been left unattended in its case for years with the strings tensioned. So my folks sent it off to Martin, and they did a super repair job. I played that thing like crazy for around 10 years - never played another guitar that 'talked' so responsively. Then, a relative in the family it had come from decided he wanted to play the guitar, so I had to give it up. Long story short, he moved to tropical Miami, and when I visited him a few years back, the Martin had been rendered completely unplayable by the climate, much worse than when I had gotten it. To me, it looked ruined and sounded like hell (couldn't be tuned at all, and barely fretted up the neck). Naturally, he had given up on trying to play years before. What a waste...it's an ambition of mine to one day own another (probably a 00 or 000 though).

...I don't imagine Patrick will be satisfied to stay away from his friend's house when Chris comes to do his thing - and well he shouldn't be. That'll be an interesting day - here's hoping that afterward, they can turn to the 'table's owner and say "We're taking you out to dinner", as opposed to "We're taking this out in the alley"...