Members RKW Posted March 1, 2007 Members Posted March 1, 2007 The AJ-500ME arrived last Saturday and I really like it a lot. There nothing to dislike. It's chock full of creamy hogwood goodness, but it has less volume than I thought it would have. Now I'm driving myself crazy wondering what a AJ-500 with rosewood back and sides would sound like. So I ordered an AJ-500RE. It's $150 more the the AJ-500ME. I'll play them both for a while and before the 45 day guarantee is up for the first one, I'll make a decision on which to keep.
Members AugTPD Posted March 1, 2007 Members Posted March 1, 2007 Just keep them both, it's only money!
Members bbarkow Posted March 1, 2007 Members Posted March 1, 2007 The AJ-500ME arrived last Saturday and I really like it a lot. There nothing to dislike. It's chock full of creamy hogwood goodness, but it has less volume than I thought it would have. Now I'm driving myself crazy wondering what a AJ-500 with rosewood back and sides would sound like. So I ordered an AJ-500RE. It's $150 more the the AJ-500ME. I'll play them both for a while and before the 45 day guarantee is up for the first one, I'll make a decision on which to keep.Differences in tone aside, my AJ-500RE is as loud as my old HD-35 was.
Members Hudman Posted March 1, 2007 Members Posted March 1, 2007 My DR-500R is one of the loudest acoustics I ever played. I seriously doubt rosewood will be louder. I wonder if your current AJ-500 has a loose bridge plate or some type of bracing isssue.
Members DeaconK Posted March 1, 2007 Members Posted March 1, 2007 I've been playing my AJ500R with several other guitarts in a church setting and haven't had a problem. I have a nice full ringing tone that rides over the Takamine's, Yamaha's and one Martin. I agree with Hudman, you might want to check the construction.
Members RKW Posted March 1, 2007 Author Members Posted March 1, 2007 My DR-500R is one of the loudest acoustics I ever played. I seriously doubt rosewood will be louder. I wonder if your current AJ-500 has a loose bridge plate or some type of bracing isssue. My spruce / mahogany Larrivee OM-03 has excellent volume for an OM sized guitar. Well it might just be me. The first words my wife said when I played it for her was "wow, that's got a lot of volume". So it's not quite by any means. Maybe I'm just a rosewood kind of guy and didn't know it. At any rate I now have the unpleasant task of playing two new guitars and picking the best one.
Members RKW Posted March 4, 2007 Author Members Posted March 4, 2007 The spruce over rosewood AJ-500RE arrived yesterday and because of time constraints, I've only had a few short sessions to compare it to the spruce over mahogany version. The difference in tone is definately not subtle. The rosewood back and sides version sounds metallic and twangy. It sounds good, like a big ol' bluegrass dreadnaught. It favors the bass. I've never heard an acoustic that projected the 6th string as well as this one. Ever. Individual, flatpicked notes is where this guitar really shines. When playing chords though it's hard to hear small changes in fingering. You know like playing two similar chords that have nearly identical fingering. Switching back and forth, that note gets lost somehow. In a blind A/B test my wife picked the hog over the rosewood, both in volume and tone. Go figure. The hog version's 6th string sounds positively dead next to the rosewood model, but all other strings, when played open, stand up well against the rosewood. I'm wondering if, in fact, the 6th string is dead. It's that different. Any thoughts on that? The mahogany sounds better strummed and that's about all I do right now. At this point, I'm leaning towards keeping the hog version and returning the rosewood. The rosewood version is $700, the hog is $549. Somewhere around the $650 zone one has to think about jumping into the next value bracket. That $700 could go a long way towards a Larrivee D-03 or L-03, for example.
Members Whalebot Posted March 4, 2007 Members Posted March 4, 2007 DR-500M AJ 500RC (rosewood cedar no-cutaway) I owned them both. Great guitars.
Members bbarkow Posted March 4, 2007 Members Posted March 4, 2007 The spruce over rosewood AJ-500RE arrived yesterday and because of time constraints, I've only had a few short sessions to compare it to the spruce over mahogany version.Give it some playing time before you decide for sure. The tone of my AJ-500R changed dramatically once the new strings settled down. It still sounds more metallic than mahogany, of course. But after a week, it has balanced out, the bass has gotten tighter, and the nasty midrange bark is almost gone. Really nice... I'm a happy guy. I'd love to try a hog version too. I think I might need another Masterbilt.
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