Baden d-style mahogany

The Baden d-style is the Baden Company’s dreadnought design. Though it looks like a very modern design it certainly has a traditional sound. As with all Baden’s it is handbuilt at the Ayers factory in Vietnam.

The Baden is handbuilt with all solid woods: solid African mahogany back and sides, solid Sitka spruce top, one piece mahogany neck, rosewood fret board and bridge. The one piece mahogany necks are hand carved and the bone saddles are hand shaped. Baden guitars are not flashy, no intricate inlays or abalone anywhere on this guitar. The quality of woods and clean design make for an attractive guitar, obviously Baden’s focus is on building a guitar from quality materials rather spending money on over the top inlays.

Baden’s are some of the easiest playing acoustics around, the hand carved neck has a very comfortable shape, combined with the satin finished makes for easy, smooth playing. The neck width is 1 ¾ and with the low fast action makes complex finger style, chord shapes and leads easy to play. The sound of this guitar is impressive; whatever preconceived notion you had about the guitar from its appearance soon disappears after the first strum. The guitar sounds as if it has already opened up, the top is very responsive; notes just jump off the guitar with very little effort, even my bare fingerpicking brought about a lively, responsive tone. I found it to be very evenly balanced across the strings with a nice clear treble which complimented the bass and midrange. I set the guitar up with medium gauge d’addario EJ17 strings but the guitar plays so easily you would hardly know the difference between medium and lights.

The Baden d-style would be perfect for a do it all guitar, but I think giving it that tag only would be an injustice. A finger stylist would be as happy with it as would a strummer or blues guitarist. The d-style is available with the Fishman Ellipse Aura system which is a very natural sounding pickup. I particularly like that pickup as it is concealed in the sound hole which means there is no ugly hole cut in the side of the guitar. Rosewood is the other back and side’s option and European spruce is the other top wood option. The Baden’s unique design will catch your eye, but don’t judge a book by its cover, sit down with one for a few minutes, you will be glad you did.