I bought this because the pre-amplifier in my old Harley Benton 120CE had started to misbehave, and I needed an electro-acoustic for gigging. I decided to go up market and choose an entry level quality brand guitar and this was my choice.
It’s nicely finished, although there is stress mark on mine on the body which I find rather distracting. The frets are properly dressed and the neck relief and intonation are both good. The tuner is a particularly useful and effective. The tone from the pre-amp has a tendency towards muddy. OK through a guitar amp but needs work if running through a desk.
The first thing I did was change the strings. The factory D’Addarios sounded to my ears rather cheap and nasty. I now use Ernie Ball strings. The main thing that distinguishes this guitar from a more usual dreadnought is the shape, thickness, and finish of the neck which is more electric guitar in profile and has a matt surface. It is even thinner than the necks on either of my Schecters and this causes a measure of difficulty when using a capo – the only capo that will work is a Shubb (C1), my favourite Daddario CP02 simply will not go small enough to fret the strings. The string tension is also pretty high, making playing it a physical rather than enjoyable task, exacerbated by the neck profile.
I can imagine that there are better made and finished guitars of this style out there that cost a lot less. So after 2 years I have decided to sell it and look for an alternative that is more playable and sounds better through a desk (like the Harley Benton!)
