***UPDATE***
Thomann sent me a new wraparound bridge. This new one works way better than the first one. The adjustable saddle for the B and G string stays in place and I no longer have notes choking out. I LOVE this guitar now. Thanks Thomann!
I fell in love with this guitar the moment i saw it. I wanted a relatively inexpensive backup guitar to have on hand. I will start with the "pros" but please continue reading, because there were some major "cons"
PROS
- Beautiful guitar. The second I unpacked it, I knew it was something special. There is no way this guitar only cost $240 (with an additional $80 shipping....WOOF)
- Decent sounding pickups (for the price). A little boxy and flubby, but definitely usable.
- It played real smooth right out the box. Had to do a couple minor adjustments, but who cares? It came from Germany in the middle of winter. You have to expect it to move a little.
- Tuners aren't locking, but they do a decent job.
- The single-coil tap is a cool feature. Many options.
CONS
- The wrap-around bridge...Good concept. Poorly executed. There is a saddle for the G and B string that can be adjusted more to correct the intonation. If that saddle is slightly out of place in a clockwise manner, my B string notes choke out when I bend. I have to carefully line up this saddle, tighten it WITHOUT knocking it out of alignment, in order to keep my B string from choking out. It took A LOT of time and money to figure out this problem. Also, I've tried FIVE different replacement wrap-around bridges from Amazon. NONE of them work for various reasons. So, you are at the mercy of the bridge they give you. (I've been trying to buy extra bridges from Thomann to have as spares, but I'm having no luck)
- There must have been something funky going on with the press that was stamping out my frets because several of them had a slight gouge running down the middle. I had to have my guitar completely releveled before I could really play it (another $75 added to my cost)
- Not only was the bridge intonation saddle wonky, but the bridge itself feels cheap and lightweight.
- Difficult to find a hardshell case for this guitar. Had to buy one from Thomann. $65 case (nice) with a $60 shipping fee (BOO).
So, in closing...
This guitar is FINALLY in working conditional after a LOT of headache, confusion, and sacrifices. I thought I was getting away with a steal ($240 guitar).
But, shipping fee ($80), case shipping fee ($60), fret relevel ($75), frequent trips to my guitar tech to fix the bridge ($75), with the additional time and energy put into finding a replacement bridge...I'm not sure I would buy this guitar again. Every time I've ever purchased a guitar online without playing it, I've been burned. And it kinda happened again.
Just get ready to bury a LOT of time, money, and energy into this guitar if you buy one.
P.S. Now that I have the bridge situation figured out (even though I'd still like a replacement bridge) , I dropping in some locking tuners and some Seymour Duncan JB and Jazz pickups. It's a tone monster now. A $240 guitar is closer to $700 at this point (gulp)