Brownsville DG-3S NL Acoustic

Chinese Taylor copy, bought new in 2004 or so. Solid Spruce Top (low-grade). This is a standard Dreadnaught guitar with nice binding, pretty wood color/finish and nicely shaped bridge and pickguard. Nicely appointed guitar for its price.

Has a Gibson headstock shape, almost identical.

Standard features for an acoustic.

I picked it out of 2 of this model, it was better than the other one and better than any other guitar in the store under $300. It's a pretty standard sound, but nice, not boxy or dull, not twangy like all those plywood boxes. For the price this is the best guitar I could find and the best-looking too. Like most cheap guitars you'll want to use Phosphor Bronze strings for a bit more warmth.

The sound could be warmer, but at least it's deep. 8 for the price.

It has nice finish. It had a fret-buzz up the neck, but the store tech fixed it easily, no problems since.

The top is not very well bookmatched - the 2 halves are slightly off-color, but for a "take with you" guitar it's ok.

it's made of wood. It's definitely less afraid of abuse than expensive guitars, simply because it's cheap.

I've been playing for about 15 years on and off. My previous guitar was a Martin D-15 solid mahogany dreadnaught, which I loved but had to sell for financial reasons. I don't miss it that much with this guitar, it sounds pretty nice to me and should sound even better after some mods. If it was lost I would likely be forced to buy another cheap solid-top guitar from RondoMusic.com - Sam Ash doesn't have these anymore. I would likely get a cutaway dreadnaught with built-in pickup if I could find a solid-top at a decent price. Maybe a Seagull or something like that. Or a Washburn.

It's a nice "beater" guitar to have, especially if you don't really like the sound of cheap guitars, because this one sounds ok. I think with cheap Asian acoustics consistency is more an issue - they have some good-sounding instruments, but you have to hear before you buy.