Baden a-style rosewood

Here is my review on the Baden a-style rosewood guitar. Baden guitars was started by T.J Baden who used to work for Taylor Guitars and the Taylor influnce can be seen in the quality and playability of his guitars. Baden Guitars are built in Vietnam, but don't let that put you off, these are high quality intruments which are handbuilt and offered at prices comparable to high end factory built guitars in the United States.

So the Baden a-style rosewood acoustic has all solid woods. Solid rosewood back and sides, solid european spruce top(upgrade from the standard sitka spruce top) one piece african mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard and ebony brige, bone nut and hand shaped saddle. The neck has a satin finish and the body is all gloss. Badens have a very clean look with a modern design the fretboards only have postion markers on the side. All the woods are high grade and the craftmanship is top notch. The guitar has a unique cutaway which isn't really a cutaway as you can see from the picture, I personally love this design but not so sure traditionalists would go for it.

When I first picked up the guitar and sat it on my lap I immediately felt comfortable with it. Although it is loosely based on the Auditorium body style it has a slightly deeper body, I find this gives the guitar more presence. I love the neck profile( 1 3/4 nut) very comfy in my hands which makes chord changes and complex fingerstyle playing a breeze. I currently have this guitar strung with D'addario EJ 16 phosphur bronze. This guitar can handle all styles of music, it is very responsive to a light touch, yet you can strum hard and it produces great volume. It's a very balanced guitar; the different strings all seem to mold into one mellow sound that is very pleasing for the player and audience alike. I really like the bass response, it's not overwhelming but has enough thump that you don't have to really pluck the low E to make it stand out. My Baden does come with the upgaded European spruce top it does sound noticeably different from the standard Sitka spruce, not better just different. I liken European spruce to Adirondak(red spruce) but if your interested in Badens please try out the different models and wood combinations before you buy. Badens also come with the optional fishman ellipse aura pickup which is one of the most natural sounding pickups avaliable.

Ok Badens don't look like your regular acoustic and they are made in Vietnam but so what? If your interested in an easy playing, great sounding high quality handbuilt guitar at a factory built, price give Badens a try.