Walden Guitars D550

This review is for all the beginner guitarists out there, looking for a great guitar for a decent price that they won't regret buying for lack of knowledge, experience etc. I was in that exact same boat a year ago, when I went shopping for my first guitar. I didn't know what to look for, I didn't know how much I should spend, didn't want to break the bank, but didn't want to end up with a piece of junk that made learning to play difficult and frustrating. This dreadnought guitar has a solid sitka spruce top and sapele mahogany (laminated) sides and back. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. The neck is thin, really comfortable for small hands, and the satin finish makes it fast and easy to play.

Now that I have some experience and I know what a 'good' guitar sounds and feels like, I grow more and more impressed with the sound quality and playability of this guitar. I was just in a shop today and played a dozen or so acoustic guitars, wondering if perhaps I was ready to upgrade my instrument. After playing guitars that were more than three times the retail price of this Walden, I couldn't find many that came close to how mine sounds, and those that did sound good to my ears were not appreciably better, there's no way I could justify spending $700 - $2000 for any of them. I do tend to like a slightly mellower sound than sitka spruce, some day in the distant future my next guitar will have a cedar top, otherwise this Walden has a gorgeous sound, full, rich, seems to get better and better as the wood opens up, a little on the bright side maybe, but it really holds its own against the high??r pedigrees and more recognizable brands i tried.

The action on this guitar was great right from the factory. I took it to a luthier when I first got it, at the time I didn`t know low action from high, and the luthier said he wouldn`t change a thing. That was a year ago, today I took it to another luthier at the insistence of a (online) friend, as I`m struggling a bit with barre chords, lol. The luthier who looked at it just a few hours ago didn`t want to change a thing either, but he did tweak the truss rod just a tad for me while I waited, no charge. Hardly a noticeable difference, I just need more time and more practice to develop the strength to nail barres consistently. After almost a year of playing this guitar, I still can`t find any noticeable flaws, despite the fact that I purchased this as a B stock. It did originally have a couple of rub marks in the finish, but I buffed them out easily with extra fine steel wool.

The tuners are excellent, I only need to tweak the tuning once a week or less, despite aggressive strumming. The body and neck are solid. This is a plain jane guitar, the rosette is an appliqued sticker, nothing fancy about the binding either, but the finish is a beautiful satin nitrocellulose lacquer, pretty much unheard of in a guitar at this price point. I don`t find the finish particularly fragile, but as with all wood finishes, satin is less durable than gloss. I do take good care of my instrument, so far no major nicks or scratches. Next to a guitar coated in polyurethane there's just no comparison aesthetically or acoustically speaking. Personally I think the satin finish gives a much more elegant and refined look to a guitar than a flashy gloss coating of any kind, and scratches don`t show as much. The only negative I can offer is also personal opinion, the pick guard is really cheap looking and unattractive, not just because of the shape, but because the edges are not beveled. It was simple to remove with a warm hairdryer, I replaced it with a gorgeous classic faux tortoise one. At first there was a bit of a shadow/shade difference in the finish,(almost imperceptible) as the old pickguard was wider than the new one, but after a few months the finish has evened out and you can't tell that I ever changed it. The finish is warming up slowly, in a few years it will have a rich amber patina, otherwise it still looks like new despite many hours of play.

I have had no issues with this guitar and thus no reason to seek warranty work or repairs.

A year ago, I was completely ignorant and naive about how to choose an acoustic guitar. When I sought help from a couple of the 'cool' guitar shops in my city, I found the sales people to be rather condescending, I was sent to the beginner acoustics room and told to basically pick one I liked. I felt neglected and left on my own to figure out just what that was, at the time I couldn't play a note and had no clue about how to compare one guitar to another, aside from what was aesthetically appealing to me. In all honesty, I lucked out when I found this Walden online, and so I want to spread the news and hopefully help other new guitar players who find themselves in the position I was in a year ago. All I really knew at the time was that a nitrocellulose finish is usually offered only on high end guitars. I basically just took a chance, it wasn`t a big risk or investment, I got a B stock guitar(which only had a couple of swirls in the finish that i buffed out with fine steel wool)as this guitar was well below my price range and had a solid spruce top. I'm so glad I did, this guitar is worth full retail imo, I really feel like I totally lucked out. Some day when my skill level warrants, I will look for a new guitar, and I will definitely be checking out one of the high-end Waldens. If I had known then what I know now, I think I would have chosen a cutaway electric acoustic, the D550CE, the D630CE or the D710CE maybe, but overall I have no regrets, this guitar is perfect for a beginner and well into intermediate player. If it were stolen, I`d replace it with another Walden in a heartbeat. In a similar entry level price range are Seagulls, Art & Luthier, Yamaha, Ibanez....this guitar smokes them all across the board...fit, finish, comfort. looks and sound. I played an Ovation today, marginally boomier, the $3900 Martin was noticeably amazingly wow-ish.... but it still didn`t put my Walden to shame or anything, for my level of skill and ability I certainly wasn`t tempted to drop that kind of coin for the difference or the status.