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We're a fan of the all-mahogany gloss look.

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• Review

When you talk about acoustics, Walden might not be the first name to spring from the lips of the man on the street, especially in the UK, but the company has some significant firepower in its armoury.

Currently offering around 100 different models and variants in its extensive budget-to-sub-£1,000 catalogue, the brand was founded in 1996 as a collaboration between boutique US luthiers Charles Fox and Jonathan Lee, and leading Taiwan-based instrument manufacturer KHS, whose other lines include Mapex drums and Jupiter brass.

"The CG4041-CERT carries the FSC logo, indicating that all woods come from legal, sustainable sources."

Designed in the USA (Jonathan Lee is Walden's chief designer), the guitars - focusing predominately on dreadnoughts, grand auditoriums, OMs and nylon-stringers - are made in China, in a factory that, according to Walden, is the only one in Asia with 100 per cent Pure Chain-Of-Custody certification from the Forest Stewardship Council.

Indeed the Madera Series CG4041-CERT grand auditorium carries the FSC logo label, indicating that all woods come from legal, sustainable, well-managed sources, from forest to finished instrument.

Walden is also a member of The Forest Trust, another global, non-profit organisation concerned with ensuring ethically structured timber supply chains.

Named after the Spanish word for wood, the top-range, all-solid 'FSC-Pure' Madera Series was launched in early 2010 and presently comprises three grand auditoriums, a trio of dreadnoughts and a nylon classical: all non-cutaway acoustics.

Four of the six are cedar/mahogany, but the CG4041-CERT and a CD4041-CERT dreadnought equivalent are fairly unusual in the general scheme of things by being all-mahogany instruments.

Yes, we could cite, say, Vintage's budget V300MH and V400MH or Martin's 15-Series as other examples of the genre, but these are no-frills satin or matt-finish guitars - as is usually the case with all-mahogany jobs - whereas these Waldens are high gloss, including the necks.

The type of finish tends to define series within the Walden catalogue. Gloss lines - the Maderas and cheaper Concordas - carry a combination polyester/polyurethane coating; satin ones, such as Natura and SupraNatura, of which our D2040 is one of the latter, use nitro-cellulose lacquer. Measuring 406mm (16 inches) across the lower bouts and with a generous maximum rim depth of 118mm, the CG4041's body is Central American mahogany, as is the neck.

Both are bound in tortie plastic, the top adding narrow white/black multi-ply purfling, plus coachlined purfling strips around the rims and back. The purfling theme is continued for the abalone-inlaid rosette's concentric rings, while a tortie scratchplate echoes the binding material.