Good for you! I remember reading there there were members on this forum that actually prefer ovangkol to the other tonewoods.
These are great guitars - I love my AD27
I hope mine is. My only issue is that I hope the matte finish (it's not "silent satin") doesn't make the guitar feel cheap. How is yours?
The silent satin looks and feels amazing to the touch - however it’s slippery nature ultimately led to me ditching what at the time was my favorite Taylor ever, the 324ce BE. I anchor my arm on the top when I play, and the slippery finish led to the guitar slipping and sliding all over the place. I hated to part with it, but the unstable playing was affecting my playing. I think the armrest played a role too but I’ve heard others who have complained about the same things.
The AD finish isn’t nearly as slippery, and that’s a great thing for me! The woods have not been sanded quite as smooth as say, the back wood on a 317 (I owned one last year) which has satin sapele. You can See it up close and you can sort of feel it, but it is far smoother than Eastman guitars “open pore” finish which is even less sanded. I don’t think it feels cheap at all.
In terms of tone and performance, I would rate it slightly higher than the 324ce BE. Out of the box the bass was stronger whereas I needed 56 gauge strings to get what I wanted out of the 324ce BE. The AD27 has a more even tone across the fretboard whereas the 324ce BE had a few notes that were hyper-resonant like the G and A on the 1st string.
