I know you'll find this hard to believe, but I frequent a couple of other acoustic guitar forums. As I stated in my intro, I've been out of the loop for a little over twenty years. But, getting back INTO the loop, I'm discovering a completely different mindset than what used to prevail "back then". I think I would term it "snobbery" or almost guitar "holier-than-thou". Believe it or not, people are actually REJECTING the purchase of a guitar because it doesn't have fret markers!! They are also rejecting them because they have laminate back and sides... even though they readily admit the sound/tone is inconsequentially little-changed from real wood. Funny but sad, "back then" people bought guitars because they liked the sound. Because they had great action. Looks had a LITTLE to do with it, but not to the point of LACKING FRET MARKERS. Am I missing something? "Back then" we used to sort of look down our collective noses at names like Stella, Kay, Silvertone, Applause, because "back then" the action was horrible and the sound coming out 'em was even worse (I know.. I used to own a couple of 'em... briefly). Interestingly enough, the very same Stella, Kay, Silvertone, et al from that period seem to be highly regarded. What the heck's going on?! Has the guitar world gone mad or have I missed a paradigm shift somewhere?