Beach Guitars ...

Pepi (my friend) wrote to me today... he asked what I thought about Kelly Street Guitars... ie. in this age of so many private guitar-makers, have I evaluated them? It would of course be cost prohibitive to buy and evaluate every one on my end. I know that Fender and their custom shop are putting out excellent guitars, period. I also know that Kurt Linhof is also putting out excellent guitars, and people like Keith Richards and Joe Walsh own them. (If you can currently find one, certainly consider buying one..they are hard to get right now though, until he makes his next 'batch'). I also know, that if you have $1600, Nash is making great guitars (for my mind, get his '60's 'T' series with the Rosewood Necks... ). How about an unknown maker though... how does one make the decision to risk a buy.... here are my own criterion:
1. Have respected players taken them into their 'guitar collections' as regular players?
2. What information do you have on the maker, from on-line blogs/ Harmony central reviews?
3. I have found out the hard way, if a guitar costs under $1000, it probably is the same as going to Cabo and buying a guitar.
Kelly Street says his guitars are made of 100 year old wood. I don't know if that means anything. If artists play his guitars, and feel it does, then it does.... However, should these guitars meet all expectations, I will certainly keep everyone posted if someone has one and wants to give their opinion... and if it truly rocks, I want to purchase one for my own 'stable'. Hope this has helped Pepi! Remember, I am a jet-pilot/ humble musician, not Keith Richards.. but I feel I do know something about guitars... at least let's hope so.