Acoustic Guitar Magazine's Forums: There are discussion groups on many topics here, gear, playing, building, workshops, and more. its a fairly active active set of moderated message boards and a very friendly group of people.
	RMMGA: The biggest message board of all, dedicated to acoustic guitar. There's a very diverse population of players, and the huge number of unmoderated posts can sometimes make it hard to keep up, and there is a lot of off-topic noise, but RMMGA is an invaluable resource. But if you want information about anything related to acoustic guitar, search here first. Someone has undoubtedly asked it, answered it, debated it, swore by it, denied it, bought it, or sold it on this news group.
	Acoustic Players Magazine forum. Originally started as an online magazine, APM is a nice friendly community of guitarists, mostly focused on fingerstyle. The discussion tends to be more focused on music, playing techniques, and sharing recordings of each other's works in progress than most forums.
	The Acoustic Guitar Forum. Formerly the Taylor Forum, this site still tends to be frequented by Taylor enthusiasts, but it's broader than that, and is a very active board.
	The 13th Fret: A message board and other resources for the acoustic guitarist. The board is frequented by many luthiers, and is a good place to get answers to the most esoteric questions about guitars, as well as just to discuss guitars, music, etc. There's a slight tendency for the posts to focus on instruments and wood, with people frequently posting pictures of their new guitars. Not as active these days as it used to be.

Gryphon Stringed Instruments: One of a small number of really great guitar stores. They're friendly, love guitars, and always have wonderful instruments in stock, as well as books, strings, amps, and supplies of all kinds. The only problem is that it's hard to visit without buying something! Also check out Frets.com for a wealth of information about guitars.

	Eric Shoenberg's: A one of a kind store, with some amazing old Martins, as well as wonderful new guitars. A very dangerous store to visit if you like guitars and are occasionally tempted to buy one.
	Luthier's Collection: An wonderful example of what the Internet has made possible. A truly stunning collection of high end guitars, all carefully selected.
	Guitar Gallery: Another business leveraging the internet to sell very high end acoustic guitars. You can enjoy visiting this site as well as the others just for the photos and descriptions alone.
	Dream Guitars: A great collection of guitars, with demo recordings to tantalize the browser.

	Laurence Juber: When I first started to work on playing fingerstyle guitar, one of the first tunes that really grabbed me, and made me say "I have to learn to play that" was Laurence's. I'm still knocked out by almost everything he plays. If you play guitar, try to catch one of his workshops. LJ has some free tab on his site as well.
	Phil Keaggy. I've been a fan of Phil's since I first saw him in Glass Harp, when he was a teenager. We never willingly missed a Glass Harp concert. Phil's playing, especially live, simply defies belief, it doesn't seem possible for anyone to make that much music on one guitar. I have a couple of rare and somewhat unusual photos and a story of the one time I met Phil, that might interest Phil's fans.
	Stephen Bennett: If you haven't heard of Stephen, you don't know what you're missing. I love his beautiful tunes on both the six string guitar and the harp guitar, as well as his driving beat. Stephen has info about his harp guitars and his CDs on his site.
	Pat Kirtley: Pat has a wide ranging repertoire and style, from Kentucky thumbpicking, to Bossa nova. Besides being a great player, Pat's also a very good teacher. I attended a week long workshop with Pat a few years ago, which lead me to start using a thumb pick, and to start exploring the EADEAE tuning Pat often uses.
	El McMeen: El creates wonderful, rich arrangements of traditional tunes. He gets a huge sound, with lush harmonies. El makes most of his material available as tab (some for free online, others in his Mel Bay books), providing a terrific learning opportunity.
	Martin Simpson
	Peppino D'Agostino
	Mark Hanson and Accent On Music. Mark has probably help more fingerstyle guitarists get started than almost anyone else, with his excellent series of books. He also runs a very worthwhile summer guitar camp that I've had the pleasure to attend several times. Check out his free tab of the month feature.
	Al Petteway. Al plays some of the most beautiful guitar music I've heard. He has an amazing knack for composing tunes where every note is right, with nothing unnecessary added, and yet it all lays right under your fingers, as if it was just meant to be that way. Al has lots of interesting information on his site. He also runs the incredible guitar week every year at the Swannanoa Gathering.
	Pierre Bensusan. One of a kind, what can anyone say about Pierre, but "wow". The longer I play, the more I appreciate Pierre's magical musical abilities.

	Fran Guidry Fran is an avid slack key fan and guitarist, and an active participant on many online guitar groups. Check out his tune on the taronet soundclick page. He also has an interesting Mic Test page on his site, comparing different microphones for recording acoustic guitar. Check out Fran's new Slack Key site!
	Chris Wilhelm Chris has a great CD of tunes he wrote in honor of various women in his community. I like them all, but I liked "Gretchen", which he wrote for his daughter, enough that I wanted to record it for my own CD. I got a chance to visit Chris once in Ketchikan, Alaska, and we sat along the waterfront and he showed me how to play the tune.
	Paul Jones: I met Paul at Mark Hanson's guitar camps. Paul has a wonderful voice, somewhat reminiscent of James Taylor or Paul Simon, and creates complex-sounding arrangements and beautiful original instrumentals as well. His Baptism River CD is excellent.
	Tom Lamson. Tom has a new CD, completed just about the same time as my Laurel Mill CD. Lot's of great sounding fingerstyle guitar.
	Matt Sarad. Matt doesn't have a web site, but he has some really nice tunes posted at Fran Guidry's site.
	Steve Rapson has an interesting site with lots of tips about performing. He has many CDs, with tab available as well.
	Bill Hammond is someone I first met online and then in person at the Swannanoa Gathering. Bill's great in a jam, whether cranking out a solo, holding down a rockin rhythm part, or playing solo fingerstyle. Check out his latest solo fingerstyle instrumental CD, "Speechless".
	William Bajzek. I met William around town a number of times, but never got to hear him play until we both showed up at 2004 Swannanoa. William plays some great Celtic material, and has a rather varied musical background.
	Clarelynn Rose Clarelynn  lives in Northern California, so we keep unexpectedly crossing paths. She plays beautiful solo acoustic fingerstyle guitar in many open tunings.

Here are a few of the Luthiers whose work I've come to especially appreciate, whether I have one of their guitars, or just wish I had one:

	Dennis Scannell
	Gerald Sheppard
	Jim Olson
	Kathy Wingert
	Kent Hamblin
	Kevin Ryan
	Lance McCollum