One of Revival Acoustics more popular guitars is the RG-26M an OM / OO size / shaped acoustic guitar. If you appreciate the quick response and unique sound that mahogany gives and appreciates good tone with added volume and punch; then the Revival RG-26M may be just the ticket for you!
As a dealer for Revival Acoustics, I had heard good things about this particular model, one of my incentivies for stocking this guitar was that I had ordered the RG-26 with the spruce top and liked it!
The RG-26M has an even more reasonable price tag! After making numerous attempts to purchase the RG-26M guitar from my supplier (because they continued to sell out of them so quickly) I finally got my hands on two and began to compare them! I'll admit that I'm a bit biased, in that I do like the sound that mahogany / guitars make; having said that, playing these guitar's for me was a satisfying experience! It is also important to note that size / shape matters here as well and there is a big difference between playing a dreadnought size / body guitar and wrapping arms arms around an OM with thinner sides; none one has long arms; it just feels more comfortable! The OM body is still versatile enough for flat-picking and excel's at finger style approach's like! This guitar features a 1 & 11 / 16th's nut width and works well for people with smaller hands, obviously it does not have the power and depth of a dreadnought, but it can squeeze out a lot of sound which should satisfy most people and it has a uniqueness that is all it's own!
There's Something about the way she Woo's me, this guitar is simple, no nonsense and straight forward, in that it's uniform (basically all the same material / wood goes into building it). Simplicity has a beauty all it's own and though mahogany may not be exquisite like Koa wood it's distinct and rich in color, style and tonality! What you see is what you get here, this may sound redundant, but when you play an all mahogany guitar you get an all mahogany sound, not the sound of a combination of woods like the Sitka spruce topped mahogany back and sides RG-26 ( see the Guitar Player Review on the articles page of my website) Both of the tops on the RG-26M guitars I received had a reasonable amount of what I call character; which I felt made them unique / pleased in there own right; despite being green, (right out of the box) both of these hogs performed well and whenever I am reluctant to put any guitar down, that's a very good sign to me, and not only that, but when I continue to pick them up to play them and continue to be satisfied by them time and time again!
There is nothing fancy here, but I think this model does really show off the abalone rosette well, which to me looks like a jeweled necklace and looks great against the dark mahogany top wood! The finish is all satin / matte and this gives the guitar a real nice natural feel and an overall rustic appearance! I also believe that a satin finish helps this guitar breath out more sound better than a gloss / poly coat would and it just fits so well with this particular model! If there we're something's I would change about this guitar, it would be the width of the neck, I would personally prefer to have a 1 n nut width. I would probably swap out the Grover mini Romatic's and replace them with open gear tuners for a more vintage vibe and because I find the mini knobs small for my hands to maneuver.
The specification's of the RG-26M are the same as the RG-26 guitar, with the only exceptions being the hog top, the satin finish and the headstock inlay; which has Revival inscribed on it in abalone vs. the tree of life Revival logo which is done in pearloid on the RG- 26. The Revival RG-26M is a very affordable solid wood acoustic guitar providing a lot of sound and bite for the money, an if your looking for an all solid mahogany OM sized acoustic guitar you will be hard pressed to do better!