This is a fun link...

[Bill Ashton]

Don't remember this being posted here before:

http://en.audiofanzine.com/acoustic-gui ... itars.html

Have not listened to all of them, but my initial impression is that the Guild F40 takes the small body class, and the Martin D45 takes the dreadnaughts. There is nothing that sounds bad to my ear, just some better than others.

There is one Ovation there, sounds nice, great bass, but a timbre that just doesn't do it for me personally. Pretty guitar, though...

 

[learnintoplay62]

Great fun. I listened to many of then a couple of times and here are my thoughts.
The 412 just blew me away, hands down the best
The F40 and the scgc tony sounded about equal.Both handled various playing styles easily, Guild is probably half the price
D50 sounded great also
Was disappointed with the Martin choices
Wish they also broke it up between hogs/rosewood
Now I'm in the hunt for an F40 burst :mrgreen:

 

[Bill Ashton]

You see, this is how everyone's ears and tastes are different...

I thought the F40 was by far the best of the small bodied guitars, however I did not care for the mushy-ness when the hard strumminig was done without picks.

I was actually disappointed by the Tony Rice model...it seemed to have no volume, although the tone was nice enough...thought that was supposed to be a cannon.

The Gibson Hummingbird sounded like a blanket was over it, compared to others.

I found the Martin D45 to be just what I would want a rosewood body to sound like, and it had a bass, that at least on this machine...rumbled your gut...but still balanced. Not unlike my D55

 

[killdeer43]

Nice discovery, Bill. I'll save this one.
Thanks for sharing with other ears. :wink:

Joe

 

[frankieb]

I give my nod to the F412, the more I hear Guild 12 strings the more I am beginning to hold back from sending my DV52 packing in favor of one :shock: