What's a B-Stock you ask? It's a label that the manufacturer, in this case, Walden Guitars, gives any of their instruments that may have a minor defect to it, stating that it's not up to top quality standards. This doesn't mean that the guitar isn't still in great shape. More often than not, the B-stock label means that the finish of the guitar has a small blemish to it.
This is good news for you because these guitars are discounted even further from the normal price that we would sell them at. To make it even better, Walden Guitars are still honoring their factory limited lifetime warranty! They even throw in a gig bag for most of these guitars. Whata guy, whata guy!
Walden Acoustics carry most all body types for acoustics from a standard Dreadnought to Grand Auditorium and Classical. They are all made from the finest woods including Solid Sitka Spruce for most of the tops to the dark and beautiful Indian Rosewood for the back and sides. Other woods include Western Red Cedar, African Mahogany, and Engelmann Spruce.
These guitars are made in China however not through factory machines like most guitar companies produce. Back in November of '09 we had the great pleasure to meet Jon Lee, guitar luthier and CEO of the Walden Guitar Company. He explained to us how he knew to make an excellent guitar it need to have the human touch. The following words are from Walden guitars themseleves.
"Walden's manufacturing process draws specifically from Jon Lee's experience as a luthier at CFox Guitars, and from techniques used at USA large production shops such as Martin and Taylor. Our guiding principal is to respect the elements of the guitar building process that are critical to producing quality stable, excellent sounding guitars. Knowing what we absolutely can not compromise and knowing what we must do to create instruments at this price level.
In our four broad departments: Parts Fabrication, Body-Neck Assembly, Finish, and Setup, each process has its own jig, machine fixture or mold that ensures the consistency of result. Most work is done by hand with recognizable standard woodworking machines such as table saws, jointers, routers, band saws, etc. Some automated machines are used when either a better result can ensue, such as a fingerboard fret-slotting machine, or when an operation is too laborious for an employee.
In our four broad departments: Parts Fabrication, Body-Neck Assembly, Finish, and Setup, each process has its own jig, machine fixture or mold that ensures the consistency of result. Most work is done by hand with recognizable standard woodworking machines such as table saws, jointers, routers, band saws, etc. Some automated machines are used when either a better result can ensue, such as a fingerboard fret-slotting machine, or when an operation is too laborious for an employee.
Looking at the history of Asian guitar making, most current factories trace their history to Japanese methods from the 1960's where they were essentially producing low cost alternatives to USA and European made instruments. As labor costs rose in Japan, this system of guitar-building moved to Korea and Taiwan, and later Mainland China and now Indonesia.
Many Asian operations still make "guitar shaped objects." This is due to a lack of understanding of the fundamentals of guitar design or manufacturing, or due to the business model of producing the cheapest instruments dictating their choice of poor materials or poor method.
From a product standpoint, outside of procedural differences, all Walden guitars incorporate a bolt-on neck joint and 2-way adjustable truss rods which are both less common in Asian manufacturing. Fret ends are hand shaped and polished above standards even seen at Martin." - Walden Guitars
Many Asian operations still make "guitar shaped objects." This is due to a lack of understanding of the fundamentals of guitar design or manufacturing, or due to the business model of producing the cheapest instruments dictating their choice of poor materials or poor method.
From a product standpoint, outside of procedural differences, all Walden guitars incorporate a bolt-on neck joint and 2-way adjustable truss rods which are both less common in Asian manufacturing. Fret ends are hand shaped and polished above standards even seen at Martin." - Walden Guitars
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