Walden Guitars
 

I played a friend's Walden guitar over the weekend. It was the first time I had ever played one. I was very impressed. It was a G730 model. It was well made and sounded great. Another quality budget guitar.

D-550
 

I was in a shop the other day and tried Walden D-550 (budget solid spruce+laminated mahagony). The guitar was very nice and I believe if I had guitar tech finish the frets and change saddle for a bone one, for the price this guitar would be excellent.

I also did some web research on Waldens and I haven't seen anything negative. Considering the price is cca 80-90% of Yamaha FGs, they seem to be of comparable quality if not better.

I have Yamaha FG730S (solid spruce+lam.rosewood) and if I happen to buy a budget mahagony guitar, Walden's D550 is a candidate. I also like its matte finish, which Yamaha FG only has on 700MS model which is more expensive than Walden.

I suggest we have this thread as a general Walden guitar thread.
Have good time...

A Walden is the only guitar that I've ever accidentally walked out of a shop with. Several years ago I played a few of them and I just decided, heck, it sounds good, plays good, and for that price what the heck. I forget the model that I ended up with, I've and since sold it on to a friend, but, yeah. Good value for money. And to my ears, yeah, better than any Yammis I remember playing.

I've handled a few, and they all seemed better than the price dictates, very nice for the money.

we bought one for my boy to play and learn on. Plays like butter and sounds very good-- great quality and tone for the money.

I had a G1070 at one point. Bought it used and it had a sound port in it. I asked the guy if the sound port was a standard feature and he said yes. Later I found out it wasn't so I sold it. It was a really nice sounding guitar and played very easily. Just couldn't get past that after market hole.

Over here, they are like 2/3 or 3/4 the price of a similar speced Yamaha. If you can afford the extra cash, I'd go with a Yamaha though.

I find your post to be:

___confusing

___baffling

___interesting

Not sure which to check. The guitar had the port when you bought it, sounded really nice, and played easily, yet you sold it because of the port. Huh.

i had a d550 for a couple of years and it was a nice guitar for the money.

I have a CO550
 

I bought it to keep it handy on our main floor (my "guitar room" is in the basement). I absolutely love it. Great sound and sustain. Excellent playability - very easy to play. It's a keeper. Yamahas are great, but I prefer the Walden. I had a FG700s and sold it when I got my Alvarez MD80. I wish I would have kept it, so I could keep it at my dad's cabin.

In my experience, the Waldens are amongst the best of the Chinese-built acoustic guitars, offering an awful lot of tone for your money. All of them seem to have a very pure and focused tone.

The Supranatura models are outstanding for the money and the grand auditoriums in particular are an excellent choice for fingerstyle. The G2070 is probably the best value all-solid acoustic I've played to date - lovely big mellow, woody tone. The G3030 is also fabulous, with a great voice.

Paul

I picked up a walden g640 in a shop in London the other week - wow what an amazing guitar for the price - just incredible. Shame I'm too broke to even buy it!

Sabatini,

I bought the Walden with the port thinking that Walden had cut it. When I found out that it wasn't stock I either sold it or took it back(can't remember). It did play good and sounded great, I just didn't like the idea of an after market sound port. I wasn't sure if it would be detrimental to the structure of the guitar since Walden didn't design it for one.

I just bought a Walden CG570CE... cedar top, lam. mahogany B&S, cutaway.

What my "prerequisites" were: solid cedar top, mahogany B&S (solid or lam.), cutaway, acous/elec. I was trying to stay in the $500 price range.

I played a buddies Takamine EAN40C over the weekend, and just loved it. But the cheapest price new I could find was well out of the $500 price range. (It has lam. sides, but a solid back). The Walden was the only thing I could find that fit all my requirements. I think Seagull might have also had something, but I just can't get past the headstock. Call my silly.

So I guess I'll know in a couple days if the "budget" Walden is "worth it"...

P.S. does anyone else find it pretty ridiculous that prices can't be printed here? WHY? No other forum I frequent has this "rule"...

-You should be pretty happy with it. I've played both the G570 and the G570CE quite extensively and love them both except for one exception. They both have those tiny, vintage style frets. That one feature has kept me from buying one of them. I don't want to buy a guitar that I think will need refretted after about 6 months of playing. Plus I just don't like the feeling of tiny frets when I play. But those two guitars have tone galore. Very solid overall construction too.

L8R,
Matt