This was purchased principally as a back-up guitar, though this model was in part chosen out of curiousity as to how an all-mahogany guitar would perform at this price range. Aesthetically the open pore top is more subtle than shown, and in terms of texture feels comfortable once well acquainted with the hands. However, the back is very thin and therefore I wouldn't feel comfortable gigging with this in anything but the most intimate of settings. The neck is smooth and plays well, though perhaps thinner than one might expect. The provided strings are servicable and sounded better once the guitar had been set up and settled in open-D ? though it doesn't handle a slide particularly comfortably. In this tuning as well as standard, the tone growls and is full of mids, thus I would recommend the instrument to anyone to whom such a sound appeals seeking a cheap acoustic for home/studio use, though to aficionados of mahogany interested in more than just the novelty of the material I'd suggest looking elsewhere. Though at this price, someone tempted by more expensive Ibanez acoustics in this style would do well to try this out first.