Sometimes you just don't realise what you need until it lands in your hands. My origins are back in the days of Blowing in the wind and all of my early playing involved cheap acoustic guitars. That morphed into electrics thanks to the Shadows and in more recent years my acoustic playing fell away.
You see, electrics are so much easier to play with curved fretboards that create buzz free barre chords and slim bodies that hug close to the body and infinitely flexible tones thanks to modern electronics.
However, I've always had an acoustic about the place, either with built in electrics or simple pickups I've installed, mostly spruce and rosewood. Then I read an article about an all mahogany folk size guitar with the legendary 12th fret to the body join and I thought about it.
This guitar arrived in all its simplicity and required the usual new guitar adjustments to suit my playing style. Now it's settled down and sits on a handy stand. I've got a folder with most of the folk style songs I enjoy close to my music stand and at any time of the day I can sit and sing. And I want to do that in part because I have an acoustic guitar that sings sweetly and is reasonably easy to play.
Reasonably easy to play? you ask. Well, there is enough room on the fretboard for the old thumb over playing style and old fingers not going quite where the text books say they should. While the fretboard is acoustic style flat it isn't outrageously wide and that means that, if I take my time, I can get those pesky barre chords sounding good. In sum it's improved my left hand work.
It took 3 months to learn to play This old Guitar using Travis picking. That was a few years ago. This guitar would have made the process easier because of the comfortable bridge spacing and now makes the song sound really good.
The sound is a major element. Mahogany is recognised as producing a mellow tone with rich mids. The 12th fret placement pushes the bridge deeper into the body for better resonance. The thing is that these are only words. It's not until you get a guitar like this into your hands that you get the message. It sounds lovely and mellow and the people who hear it are universally complimentary.
So it's a very simple guitar that happens to be the guitar I have been looking for for decades. And it doesn't need electrics - none I've come across could reproduce that sound.