This all mahogany parlor guitar shootout should give you a good idea about Art Davis Guitars’ mission. Guitars need to be easy to play and return your investment. In other words, the guitar should give as much as you put into it.
Importantly, any guitar must sound great to be useful. Otherwise, why bother?
Ease of playability is a key factor in how a guitar sounds. Crucially, you can’t make great music if the guitar is hard to play. Also, the difficulty creates distractions such as physical pain or the sound of a bad note. Alternatively, you can automatically make a guitar sound better by making it easier to play clear notes and chords.
One trick I used on these guitars is to string them with .010 to .047’s. Mostly, acoustic guitars strung this way sound cheap and tinny. However, these two are braced very lightly so it works out. Additionally, you can play rock and pop tunes you don’t normally play on an acoustic.
Most importantly, all the tonewoods and bracing have to be carefully put together to make a guitar sing with really light strings. That was an easy task when guitars just graduated from nylon or gut being used on everything. Martin built the 2-17-25 in the mahogany parlor guitar shootout part 1 under those conditions. Fortunately, you can hear a modern take on traditional designs that put great musical quality in your hands.
Please, listen to my novice playing and tell me what you think about the sound of these guitars.
