[mawmow]

I like Tony Podecastro videos as he compares two guitars with the same recording system. I mean you can hear many great videos but the different recording setups cannot actually help make an idea.

Mahogany top on all mahogany body appeared quite recently probably as a reminiscence of the 1955-1965 Gibson's, say Lg-0, that were made cheap and became the sound of many bluesmen: These were quite bold, were ladder braced (instead of modern X-bracing) and had a boxy sound. That is to say they are primarily for blues players. Late Bill Collings more recently lauched a series (ladder as well as X-braced) under the name of Waterloo reminiscent of the original Gibsons of the 1930ies but I never touched any.

I owned a Larrivée OM-03R (made in Canada) and can tell you it did not compare with the OM-09 2014 (US made). My (rare) L-03koa sounds great though. Larrivée are generally worth their money.

As a first guitar, you would probably look for a Mahogany back (Rosewood is more expensive) with sitka spruce top, x-braxing. It is how most guitar are crafted.

I recently heard a pro play a Taylor Academy that blowed both of us away.