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Returning to the UK - the monarch is also the head of the the protestant church of england, hence the church is established - but since the monarchs power is now only vestigial - limited by parliament - the churches governmental role is confined to the bishops who sat in the house of lords. The link is still there, but its sort of not got any real power.

All this stems from Henry VIIIth who for was excommunicated for divorcing a catholic lady - and effectively became a protestant for political reasons and threw out the catholic bishops - who in those days did have quite a say in government. and had piles of cash. Since that day England was effectively at war (hot and cold) with catholic Europe. Meanwhile north Europe grew a protestant movement of their own, and also ended up fighting with everyone else.

Back in the UK, the Scots were dragged into all this because the monarchs were related, and some parts of the family were catholics and some protestant and - oh well you guessed - everyone was fighting. Once some form of status quo was reached  in the UK (for protestants) paranoia set in and the protestant rulers started persecuting catholics.When it looked like the UK king was wobbling and getting a bit too catholic, his son in law King William (head guy in Holland and the kings son in law) invaded and took over the throne. He then did a bit of ethnic cleansing in Ireland .

On the fifth of November, to this day we burn a catholic in effigy on a bonfire and celebrate Guy Fawkes night - when a catholic plot to blow up parliament and kill lots of protestant bigwigs was foiled in 16??. Of course nowadays its just a night out - but the origins are quite sinister, and of course all this history still resonates today in Ireland - where King William is seen as a hero in the North, and a genocidal maniac in the South.

I' ve no idea where god (or guitars) is in this story!

looks like it - my work colleagues tell me to treat myself.
Let the shopping begin!

thanks pj - I do feel the itch getting stronger - and those GH songs will sound pretty cool on one, don't you think!

Thanks guys
I hear a lot of good and bad about ebay - I'd rather play before I pay for an acoustic I think.
But Zurf could have a point - both about guitar shop rule 1, and luthiers. I will look into that. It would be nice to pay an individual rather than a faceless corporation! Or the tax man.
Su

hey rebel
look at this site - its got all you need
http://www.justinguitar.com/
Su

congratulations on your new baby!

quite right - some guitars fight back. It was my third acoustic (a Crafter) that became the real deal for me. My Washburn had to go! Needed monkey hands to hang on to a barre chord. Go and pester them in the guitar shop.

VOX - sounds like the real deal

Well I have to admit I could never buy an ugly guitar even if it sounded like honey. Luckily if a guitar is well made it's usually well played.... so don't be snobbish about names and origins. I have an Korean Indie Ricky 330 copy that if better finished than the original. A Korean Ibanez Sz that has more abalone inlay than the pacific etc etc. I enjoy both owning and playing them. I would look at the Indie guitar range for sure.