I have bought and traded a fairly large number of vintage guitars, mostly acoustic, mostly Martins,…read morenot because i was collecting but because i was looking for the holy grail, great action, great sound. Steve brought three guitars to my house when he was in LA where i live some years ago, two Martins and a Gibson. i had owned a couple of early 50s LG-1s which i had traded away, they were from eBay. But it was from Steve that i met and fell in love with my 1931 L-1, the first Gibson of that vintage and model i'd ever touched. It happened to be the least expensive of the three guitars and i had a mid 30s Martin 0-17 i wanted to trade so i ended up making some money on the trade, the L-1 was priced lower because of some repairs and internal structural problems it had, which Steve disclosed and discussed. I considered the deal to be fair to me. The match between me and the guitar i got could not be more perfect. Again, after going through so many guitars that were not what i really wanted, it was a glorious thing to be brought together with this guitar.
After i'd had the guitar a couple of years, it developed still unresolved issues making it unplayable, but in spite of that and unless i find someone who can fix it, i would buy it again in a heartbeat, just to have those two years or however long it was that i had playing that guitar. It made me a better player, i was able to do things on it i hadn't been able to do before, because of the responsiveness, and the action was low with a light touch and my hand seemed to fly over the fretboard, like being set free from barriers i had always come up against before. It permanently improved my playing, to have that guitar playable for a while.
Later, i bought an 1932 L-00 from Steve which is a keeper, and while not the holy grail that the L-1 was, i love the guitar it's one of my two or three favorite acoustics. It was a very fair price and also involved the trade of a couple of other guitars i wanted to part company with.
As others have said, working with Steve is a real pleasure, he's a really enjoyable person to spend time with, not just about guitars but a really neat genuine sensitive guy and a caring person. I experienced him as honest, fair and trustworthy. I can see Steve loves musical instruments and loves people and loves what he does, and that money is not the main priority, although of course he needs to make a living, and i think he does that successfully because of the way he does business and the way he is.
And how many people actually ever find the holy grail, even if only temporarily? Lord knows i had gone through a lot of pretty nice guitars without finding it, and then i met Steve and it happened. Steve brought the three guitars to my house from his large selection because he got to know me and what i was looking for, and all three were wonderful. Because of the repair issues the Gibson had, he encouraged me to think about the others. But when you find the holy grail, you are not going to just walk away from it.
Update: I found a repair guy who got the holy grail playing again, just like it was before, and i was so happy, words can't describe. i wanted to play the guitar constantly after it was restored. I played it pretty hard sometimes, and the problem it had internally, a cracked X brace, broke again after being regaled. My repair guy, Norik Renson in Studio City who i have reviewed on Yelp, glued the brace again and put a graphite support next to it, to try to give it more support. So now it's playable again. As Norik said, the action is more low than before (and it was already quite low) and there is some buzz when capo-ed. He said to try it out and if i wanted he could raise the action by raising the bridge, so i'm doing that now, but the main thing this guitar does for me is the playability, which is so far into a class by itself compared to any other guitar i've ever played, i am less worried by the buzzes. I am just glad to have a guy who will work with the guitar and keep it playable. Norik said it i might want to think about replacing the (modified by a previous owner) overly thinned braces at some point because of the fragility they cause. So it may come to that.
Again, Steve Swan is someone i have gotten two well loved guitars from, one which is a magical being of unique character and miraculous qualities, and i would not hesitate to buy or trade another guitar from him if i found one that i want and if i have the bread, which i might not since i'm retired now. When i want to look at guitars, i look to Steve first.
