Mountain W-450

I bought this accoustic guitar in 1976 in Australia. It was incredibly expensive at the time ($345 AUD - and I was bringing home $90 per week), but I chose it on the recommendation of a professional musician friend. I had been playing steel strings for 6 years on an old beat up Susuki and it was time to buy up big.

It was made in Japan by Hyashi and originally was a beautiful thing to behold. Not too heavy but with real wooden grain throughout. 20 frets, tortoise shell pick guard and beautiful pearl shell inlays.

For my style at the time (Cat Stevens, Neil Young, George Harrison, Neil Diamond, blues and jazz) it was perfect. The sound was and still is, deep and warm, but with the right kind of strings, it can turn into a real Country and Western party starter. I've even played it at a gig with semi-accoustics hogging the limelight and it could still be heard at the back of the hall.

I once tuned it up in open strings and used a slide and it was still amazing although I wouldn't recommend this guitar for that exclusively.

The sound today, 30 years after is probably as good, if not a little better than it was originally.

Like most Mountain guitars, the action was a little too high for me. I adjusted it as best I could, but it has remained a little high for my liking. It spent almost all of its 30 years in the tropics and with humidity levels often up around 90%, the action became way too high to be comfortable. Even a guitar tech couldn't do anything with it.

Strangely, when I moved to Europe a few years ago where the humidity levels are often around 30%-40% and the winters very cold, the action has improved to the point where it is almost back to its original state. I'll try a guitar tech once again soon.

The tuning would often wander after 30 minutes playing too and the top E was a bitch to keep in. All of that has disappeared with the move to Europe and I often don't have touch the tuning for as much as a month!

This thing was obviously made to last. It has stood up to gigs and get togethers, sometimes at the beach around a fire and sometimes in front of a crowd singing along. It's been dropped several times, but apart from some scratches and one small dent, it still looks good. The pearl shell inlays have also stood up well although one is now cracked and will need to be replaced sometime.

The high action only showed up after about 5 years and the problem, in hindsight, seems to have been far too much humidity for far too long. Even keeping it in a case with silica gel, didn't do the trick.

After 30 years, I can still pick it up and play away without trouble, so I think it was money well spent. It outlasted my handmade classical guitar by about 10 years (another victim of humidity). I love the sound of this thing and the way it can be strumed or picked and still hold up. I'll get that action thing fixed yet, and then maybe keep it for another 30 years.