I am new to Irish Bouzouki but play guitar, uke, bass and Saxophone. I got interested in the instrument after seeing one played.
So, the item was very well packed with a box inside the box and the instrument within a case. It even came with a 9v battery for the pickup and the mandatory allen key. The strings were not at full tension which is what you want for shipping.
The fit and finish are generally good for the price but certainly not remarkable. The finish on the body and neck (not counting the fingerboard) were remarkably good and cosmetically, it is attractive and nicely finished. There were a few things that were not as good as I would have hoped. There are gaps around the dot markers on the fretboard, there was a random wood chip inside the body of the instrument and the truss rod hole was badly drilling and clogged with wood shavings. If this were a high end instrument, I would have rated the quality lower but none of these things affected playability.
The tuning machines are fine. The tension was a little uneven but a tweak with a screwdriver sorted that out. There is no fret sprout. It is nice to have a zero fret.
The action in nice and low at the nut end and the strings are remarkably easy to fret - and yes, there is a long way between frets up that end. The action was quite a bit higher than I would like towards the bridge but I gather that flat tops can dip a bit so that may be future-proofing. I replaced the saddle (keeping the old one) with a bone saddle that I have filed down. I can swap back later if I need.
So, in terms of quality, it is not the best but the areas where more attention would have been nice were not ones that affect playing - and everyone likes a different set-up.
The wood grain is good and the stain job is very good.
So, acoustically, the sound is lovely and warm and bell-like. It really does sound incredibly good. It sounded just as good before I tweaked it too. But what about the pickup? It is very faithful to the unplugged sound. I don't think that you will ever have complaints about that. It is significantly better than I had expected.
Overall, yes, I had a couple of niggles and things that a good setup would fix but once that is done, it really is a lovely instrument.
