See the video review of the Timberline T30Ac

Finding a mid-price guitar that sounds great and enables you to grow as a player has become easier over the last decade. But for the acoustic guitarist who’s exploring a stylistic niche, the quest for a more specialized instrument can narrow your choices. This is certainly the case for aspiring fingerstyle specialists who find the body dimensions of the average mid-price dreadnought less to their liking. It’s also why the Timberline T30Ac, an affordable grand auditorium, proves to be such an appealing instrument.

The pedigrees among Timberline’s design and product development team explain much about the company’s ability to address the fingerstylist’s needs head on. The combined experience of the team at companies including Taylor, Martin, Guild, and Yamaha adds up to several decades. And the same collective experience enabled Timberline to source seasoned guitar builders overseas who can reliably deliver top-quality guitars.

SEDATE STYLING

Timberline had the good sense to avoid glitter and bling in the effort to set the T30Ac apart. Instead, the company has concentrated on quality materials, fit, and finish. The attractive, satin-finished Sitka spruce top, which is bound in black and white ABS, lends an understated, no-frills appeal. And the austere vibe is offset only by an abalone rosette that seems positively flashy in the otherwise minimalist setting. The light-colored Sitka top also highlights the reddish-orange hues of the mahogany back and sides—a striking but natural combination that complements the compact curves of the grand auditorium-size body.

At the neck joint, on the fretboard, and inside the guitar itself, the workmanship is excellent, if not flawless. Some heavier-than-necessary gluing was apparent around the kerfing. But the bracing work was quite clean and the addition of a thin strip of mahogany to reinforce the area on the sides where an aftermarket preamp would go is a thoughtful touch.

The headstock appears somewhat compact and squarish—almost like a fatter Paul Reed Smith–style headstock. But it’s adorned with a set of 18:1 Grover gold tuners (with keys best described as mother-of-butterscotch) that lends much to the instrument’s overall feeling of quality.

FINGERSTYLE FRIENDLY

The T30Ac’s construction and design certainly suggest that it was conceived as a fingerstylist’s instrument. And the even, harmonic resonance derived from a few first-position chords suggests that Timberline nailed the basics of fingerstyle guitar design. The substantial neck, short scale, and ample string spacing make moving around the fingerboard fast and comfortable, and under light picking the guitar rings with a pleasing, round, and colorful tone.

The cutaway enables easy access to the 18th fret on the first string, which facilitated some cool dulcimer-sounding chord shapes and rangey modal runs in D A D G A D. It also invited some full-step blues bends way up the neck in standard tuning, which were eased by the almost jumbo-size fretwire. Playing standing with a strap attached to the pin at the neckblock provoked stabbing electric-styled picking and cool neck-flexing pitch bends.

Lower-register strings, too, rang out with a smooth, round, bell-like quality when I picked lightly up the fretboard. The guitar was less effective when I flatpicked or strummed second- and third-position chords, however, and some of the harmonic richness was lost under more aggressive attack, where certain strings also became a little buzzy. Some of the guitar’s lack of ceiling may be attributable to the guitar’s freshness. And our particular instrument would certainly benefit from a quick saddle adjustment and work on the intonation, which left notes a little sharp at the 12th fret.

THE WRAP

Timberline’s attention to detail does a lot to set the T30Ac apart in the mid-price fingerstyle-guitar pack. The high build quality and fine timber suggest that the Timberline will last more than long enough to develop a more complex voice and higher volume ceiling. And the guitar’s sweet tones under lighter attack hint at its balanced construction and a well-conceived tonewood recipe. A player seeking the design advantages of a dedicated fingerstyle guitar would be well served by what the Timberline offers out of the box right now, and as it mellows down the road.