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Walden G570CE Acoustic Guitar Review

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Walden G570CE Acoustic Guitar Review

This review was submitted by Guitar Jar contributor: Gaelen Carter

As a bassist-turned-guitarist who had only been playing for a year, and had already joined in a band, I needed a new acoustic guitar.

…Walden G570ce is an underrated guitar that has spectacular value…

I was looking for a compromise between quality and affordability.

Since I had already been exposed to quality musical equipment and good sounds, I had a good sense of value in musical instruments.

That’s when I walked into my local music shop and spotted their display of Walden acoustic guitars. I, as well as most, had never heard of the brand before but the price range was in my budget and at a glance they looked to be quality instruments. I decided to pick up a G570ce to play around on and that was it: I was sold.

The price tag was perfect ($550 Canadian), and so was everything else.

Features:

When was first looking for a new acoustic guitar, I laid out the features that I needed and, as well, the features that I wanted.

Simply put, the G570ce has all of it.

To start, the cutaway allows for comfortable access to higher frets making soloing and lead parts much easier and smoother. Unlike many cutaway guitars, the cutaway section on the G570ce is flat, which is very visually appealing. As well, the tuning pegs are solid. They hold a tune well, even after a year and a half of ownership.

I find that my Walden will still be in almost perfect tune after 2 weeks without use, regardless of the fact that I experiment with different tunings on a regular basis. Another feature that I felt essential as a live performer is a built in pickup. As live microphoning can deter sound quality and sound hole pickups can be a hassle, a built in pickup was a key feature I was looking for in a guitar.

Though the pickup in this guitar sounds very good, it tends to over project the bassier strings. I usually make minor adjustments in muting and dynamics to remedy this and it works to keep a balanced sound. Along with a pickup is a built-in preamp and tuner. The preamp has EQ controls that work well in sculpting the tone of the guitar signal and the tuner is fairly accurate.

Another perk of using this tuner is that it directly bypasses the guitar signal so that when tuning during a performance, no signal is heard from the guitar. A final feature that came as a surprise to me was a solid maple top. The top of the guitar is a solid piece of maple which helps to create a richer sound than most guitars at this price point.

Ease of use:

The G570ce is a very comfortable guitar.

Walden demonstrates their devotion to their customers by setting up the guitar very well right out of the box (and I swear I’m not a sales rep).

As soon as I took the guitar home, I found it extremely comfortable to play.

Once I threw on a set of Elixir light coated strings, I found that even the cleanliness of my guitar parts improved as it became easier to do intricate fretwork based upon the comfort of the instrument, which leads me to the body shape. The body of the G570ce follows a dreadnought design which fits comfortably between the leg and the arm and, as mentioned earlier, has a comfortable cutaway.

Simply put, from the factory, the guitar was well set up with a good action, nice strings (though one would do well to restring with Elixirs) and a comfortable body shape.

Any guitarist should find that it is an easy guitar to play the moment they take it home.

Sound Quality:

When examining the quality of a guitar with a pickup, both plugged and unplugged sound must be addressed.

As I described the sound of the guitar, while plugged in, earlier, I’ll go a little more in depth about the acoustic sound of the G570ce.

Straight away the first thing I will have to say about this guitar is that it sounds much better unplugged than through the pickup. The tone is fairly rich and has good projection in spite of its somewhat thin profile.

Leads are crisp and chords resonate beautifully (which is partly what sucked me into a love affair with this thing). Again, the solid maple top acts as a great tonal advantage and really sets this guitar apart from others in the same budget range with the same features.

The G570ce fits well when playing with other acoustic guitars as leads can cut through while chord based parts sit well as a rhythmic enforcer.

Reliability:

The reliability of a guitar such as the G570ce is defined by a number of factors.

a) Can it hold a tune?
b) Will the preamp/tuner drain the battery quickly?
c) Will the wiring be solid?

To start off, as stated previously, yes it can hold a tune.

The tuning pegs are of high quality and are not inclined to fluctuate in any significant way unless you so choose.

As far as battery life goes, let’s just put it this way: I’ve had the same 9 volt battery in for nearly 10 months and it is still going strong regardless of frequent use of the tuner and preamp. Continuing on to wiring, a common issue among electric-acoustic guitars…

I was playing a show the other day with my band. We had all set up and sound checked, save for the other guitarist. He had brought his Taylor guitar, almost identical to my Walden in most all features that had set him back nearly two times as much as I paid.

To shorten the story, the wiring within his guitar had failed him. Due to a loose connection, his internal pickup simply wouldn’t function properly and we had to resort to throwing a microphone on his guitar which, in turn, caused our sound quality to suffer.

This was not the case with my Walden G57ce. Reliable as ever, my pickup worked with full functionality and outperformed a guitar valued at two times as much by a brand that has far more support behind it.

For me, that speaks volumes (no pun intended) about the reliable craftsmanship of the G570ce, and Walden guitars in general.

Overall Rating:

If this guitar were to be summed up in one word, it would have to be this: Value.

There isn’t really another guitar with as many features, beautiful sound quality and reliability as the Walden G570ce.

For only $550, it’s impossible to find another guitar that sounds, plays and is as reliable.

It out-performs guitars at a much higher price tag and sounds just as good.

In all, the Walden G570ce is an underrated guitar that has spectacular value, amazing features and would be a great guitar for any guitarist, from a nice beginner guitar, to a backup for a seasoned professional.

This review was submitted by Guitar Jar contributor: Gaelen Carter

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