Recommendations for medium-bodied acoustic please (up to £500)

DartmoorHedgehog

Well, just to keep things up to date - we bought something

In the end we decided that driving round the country chasing the more obscure makes wasn't really practical (but still thanks to everybody for their suggestions) and the advantage of being able to test the actual guitar we bought rather than buying blind just made more sense. And I think it's important to support the local music shops that still exist.

So, the winner of all the guitars we tested was the Faith Naked Venus.  Only slight reservation she had was with the very pale top, but it turned out there's a black stained version available (FKVBK), which Manson's were happy to get in for us.  We went out on Friday, played it (just as nice as the natural finish version) and bought it.

Perhaps a bit of a cop-out going for something quite common, but it's really very nice indeed (and looks really good in black IMO), was within budget (just) and she's very happy with it (which is the most important thing).  Its gig bag is good enough for now, but she'll get herself a hard case before she's off to student-land.

Sounds fantastic when she's been playing it at home - should see its first live outing in a couple of weeks.  It'll be a relief for her not to have to explain the dodgy DIY lash-up pickup in my guitar to the soundman every time!

Mellish

@DartmoorHedgehog ; - glad there's a winner.

That pale top may take on a honey colour down the road  

bertie

@DartmoorHedgehog ;
 good GAS-ing   

DartmoorHedgehog

Mellish said:

That pale top may take on a honey colour down the road  

It might. Black stain does look very nice though - quite unusual as well, don't think I've seen a non-gloss black acoustic anywhere else. Really does suit the minimalist "naked" look.

Pjon

I tried a Faith Naked Venus last year, in PMT Bristol. I was very impressed, and the only reason that I didn't buy one there was that I wanted to try a few other similar guitars at roughly similar prices, and the shop couldn't provide any alternatives. I, also, wasn't enthused by the extremely pale colour.  

DartmoorHedgehog

@Pjon it really is very nice indeed, I have to admit to being quite envious. Personally I'd be happy to play the pale natural version, but I think the black stain does suit it really well. I was very tempted to see what sort of deal they'd give me if I bought both, but sense prevailed - the acoustic I've got is perfectly good for my purposes. 

Dave_Mc

Nice score! The Faiths are very nice, hard to beat the Naked series for what they cost.