Singer, songwriter and musician William Fitzsimmons plans to spend the rest of 2009 touring the U.S. and Europe in support of his latest recording, The Sparrow and the Crow. On the rare occasions when home he gravitates toward writing (he thinks writing on tour is not the best environment).

Earlier, Fitzsimmons discussed his Gibson L-130 but he also has an older acoustic, a 1965 Guild M-20. This is the guitar favored by the late Nick Drake, whom Fitzsimmons admires and whose playing style he emulates, to a degree.

“I certainly can't speak on what the guitar would have sounded like in 1965, but if it's anywhere near what it can do in 2009, the previous owner must have been ecstatic,” says Fitzsimmons. “The wood has aged wonderfully. The thing that surprised me about this guitar was how full and balanced it sounds, particularly for being so almost comically small. It's a warm sound, and definitely sits more in the middle due to the dearth of heavy low end or over-brightness.”

Fitzsimmons says that the guitar sounds "almost as old as it is," noting this may make him sound a little crazy, but that vintage guitar owners will know what he means.

“But really the great volume and projection of the instrument are the hardest thing to comprehend given its diminutive size. You have to hold and play one to truly get it,” he says.

What drew him to the guitar more than anything was Nick Drake’s music. The idea of finding some connection with that great songwriter meant a good deal to Fitzsimmons. This can be a dangerous way to go, in general. Some musicians (old blues musicians for instance) were poor. They sometimes played (for lack of a better adjective) crappy guitars because that was all they could afford. They just happened to be SO good, they could have made amazing sounds with a shoebox with some string taped to it, if need were.

This is not the case with the M-20.

“I know for a lot of fellow M-20 owners part of the appeal is a search to match the exquisite sound Nick was able to capture,” says Fitzsimmons. “But really for me I just wanted to learn what it was that drew him to this guitar, allowed him to fret and write the way he did using it as a medium, and so forth. There's a mystique to and something very special about this instrument, no doubt about it.”

The guitars still sell for well under $1,000 -- far less than their quality and age would suggest. Fitzsimmons says the prices have been rising but not dramatically.

“Probably the most logical explanation would be the still under-appreciated nature of Nick's music. To be sure, people's exposure to his catalog has grown leaps and bounds over the last several years, but I think as long as he is still not as widely known as he should be, these beautiful guitars remain a mostly glossed over secret to the community that adores him and the music he made.”

Possibly, but collectors often have reasons that musicians do not. Who knows? It could be any number of reasons. But for real musicians what does it matter? You can get a 44-year-old guitar with a storied past for a great price.

Comparing a well-made guitar of this age to new ones is a little unfair, but we asked Fitzsimmons to do it anyway. We are not Fox News. We do not need to be fair or balanced.

“Well cliches about them ‘not making things like they used to’ aside, I would have to venture to guess this guitar was made about as strong as one could be, short of stringing up a block of steel,” he says. “I'm not saying I plan on throwing it off my roof to test the theory, but if it happened to fall off, I have a feeling it would still be in tune when I picked it up off the ground.”

The guitar is mahogany, which Fitzsimmons thinks is the best choice for a smaller-bodied guitar.

“It lends itself to the [small] size but doesn't overpower it.” Says Fitzsimmons.

Many who play an M-20 play fingerstyle -- like Drake. We brought this up with Fitzsimmons and asked what sort of player would appreciate the instrument most.

“I would hate to put a limitation on this guitar, because I think if it does have any they disappear in comparison to its strengths. But I would have to agree it's much more suited to a fingerstylists' orientation of playing,” he says. “It can certainly be strummed, and I've used it for any style I can, but the sound it produces being strummed might be a bit too specific or 'niche' for everyone's tastes. Even still, as an all-around guitar it could easily be placed head and shoulders above most other guitars I've picked up.”

When asked his single favorite thing about his M-20, Fitzsimmons gets metaphysical on us.

“This will likely sound overly esoteric, but there's some sort of reverence it seems to require and no matter how much I play it, I still have this strange feeling that it's not entirely mine or something,” he says. “Almost as if it will only permit me to get so connected with it. It's an inviting guitar and a pleasure to play. But if something like magic exists, this guitar definitely has a touch of it.”

Fitzsimmons is freaking us out at this point. This is getting very spooky.

On a more mundane level, guitars of this age often have had the odd lift, nip or tuck. They break and are fixed. This is not true of Fitzsimmons' guitar.

“I've yet to do anything substantial to it, or allowed anyone else to since owning it for the last couple years, partly because it's not really in need of anything major, and partly because I'd be terrified to. As sturdy as it is, the fear of permanent damage looms heavily when I consider more than minor cosmetic work on it,” he says. “It could possibly use a new saddle -- it rides low due to wear and likely a past attempt to augment the action -- and a new pickguard -- no matter how good the glue is, 40 years is a long time to hold anything -- but nothing really more than that.”

Although Fitzsimmons wrote his last record with his M-20 he just could not bring himself to take it on the plane (checking a guitar, even in a travel case is risky and if it gets smashed. . . good luck getting reimbursed).

”I intended on recording my last record with it, but when it came time to travel, I just froze and couldn't let it be taken on the plane. I've collected a guitar at the airport before only to find a partly smashed case and cracked guitar waiting for me inside,” says Fitzsimmons. “I think I would have had to punch somebody in the face if that had happened to my M-20, so I figured it better to leave it than risk breaking some nice airline employees nose. So for that reason it hasn't ended up on anything I've officially released yet, although I'm sure in time it will.”