Eastman E1D dreadnought Acoustic Guitar Review

The good, the bad and the ugly

If you’re reading this, then like me you may have come across the glowing reviews this guitar has received since it was launched. 

I’ve been after a solid wood dreadnought guitar for ages but didn’t want to spend silly money on it. I wanted a pure acoustic instrument.  This guitar fits that bill perfectly.

Because of lockdown and family illness it was a long time before I was able to venture out to test drive one of these guitars. Sadly this meant I missed the first release which came with nitro gloss finished tops. The second release has a thin satin poly finish. To be honest I’m not totally  unhappy about that as my fingers do tend to make nitro go sticky.

The good. 

These guitars are amazing value for money. The cash is spent only on what really matters. Solid tonewoods and a lightly built guitar produce a tone that will just make you smile as you play. Full range sounds for fingerpicking and the dreadnought roar as you strum hard. I tried both the cedar and the spruce topped versions and I personally much prefer the spruce. 

Don’t believe the hype! The woods used for the back and sides of an acoustic guitar make very little difference to the final tone. Check out this research if you don’t believe me. http://www.psych.lancs.ac.uk/hearing/the-guitar-experiment/ 

The use of sapele on back and sides of this guitar is a sensible choice. It looks good and is hard and resilient. It's supposedly more environmentally sustainable than mahogany or rosewood, but of course a lot will depend upon how Eastman source their stock. I like the open pore finish, no filler to add weight or deaden the sound. The woods are all where they should be. Ebony on the fretboard and bridge, spruce for the soundboard and bracing, and mahogany on the neck. The neck is sensibly scarf jointed at the heel and under the plate of the headstock to save wood and add strength - I much prefer this 'hidden' approach rather than having the scarf joint like a Frankenstein scar on the neck under the fretboard.  The nut and bridge are made of well cut bone. All this comes at a price range where other manufacturers can only offer guitars full of phenolic resin (read up about it - and please be really careful if you work on guitars with it) or plywood or both.

My guitar was set up by the shop I bought it from and plays really well.  The fretwork is excellent. It sounds huge and well balanced, and reminds me how much I love dreadnoughts and their range, volume and versatility.

The ‘tortoiseshell’ binding is a really nice touch, as is the total minimalism of the guitar’s finish.  You get the impression all is focused on tone not bling.

The gig bag this comes in is also worthy of a mention - it is surprisingly robust.

The bad.

The worst thing is trying to find one of these guitars in good order. I don’t know what Eastman are doing, but in my experience in the UK in 2021, the quality control has been sadly lacking. I found this quite upsetting as friends who have Eastmans have always spoken so highly of them. However I have to say that the dealers who I’ve worked with have been absolutely outstanding addressing  issues as they have arisen.

The first example of this guitar that I bought was a lovely playing guitar, but when I ran my hand over the top it felt very rough, and on closer inspection it looked as if the top been sprayed in a non-sterile environment and there was a considerable amount of dust particles under the clear coat finish on the top of the guitar. This was obviously really disappointing so the guitar went back and unfortunately no replacement was available, so I got a refund.

I then travelled down to one of our major cities and I had a play of another E1D in a major well known store. This one was a lot better but the finish to the back and neck looked almost like a sunburst. I’m not sure what happened but it looked like a stain hadn’t been applied evenly.  I also wasn't totally happy with the fretboard finish so I walked away.

Hoping for third time lucky I stopped off, on the way to see a member of the family, at another well-known guitar shop to check out and hopefully buy a keeper. Sadly after purchasing it on closer inspection, out of the rather dark showroom, I noticed a small crack in the top that had clearly been present at the time of manufacture - the clearcoat finish was applied over the top of that crack.

Crack under clear coat of guitar top

Back it went and I had a bit of a wait for the fourth example of this guitar to arrive. It was probably the best of the lot but sadly still not right. The woodgrain had the best figuring of the four, but the binding between the top and the sides of the guitar had not been finished properly and was extremely rough to the touch. Fortunately I have some basic luthiery skills, and in the end I was so fed up with the back-and-forth that I smoothed this off myself. While not totally perfect, no one who didn’t know of the fault would ever now know it had been there. Why wasn’t this done at the factory?

I don’t know what to make of all of this, whether Eastman are giving these guitars to trainees to finish, or if they’re trying to cut costs because of the very competitive pricing of these guitars.  Satin finish is certainly more prone to problems because there is no buffing after application.  Whatever the reason it’s depressing to see such poor quality control on the finish of such an amazing guitar.

The ugly.

All this leaves me totally torn as to whether I can recommend this guitar.  I hate these sorts of dilemmas! There is no doubt in my mind that the final guitar I have ended up with, while not perfect, is a superb guitar regardless of price. I think it would sit quite happily tonally with guitars costing four or five times as much. Eastman have really thought through where to put the money into the materials of this guitar, and have produced a beautifully light, resonant and enjoyable instrument. 

However the guitar is totally let down by poor quality control and I have had a frustrating time of chasing around different shops and being disappointed, and at several points thinking of just giving up on Eastman altogether.  I'm glad I didn't and IF you can find a good example of this guitar I would really highly recommend it as a lovely instrument at a great price.
 

Fender Telecaster Modern Player Thinline Deluxe Review

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I wrote anything but true to form I've just picked up another guitar, secondhand of course, and at a great price.  This time its a guitar I've had my eye on for years, but have never got to the point of actually buying one.  However when the price is right then you'll probably find me there, thinking that a year or two down the line I can easily make my money back to move onto something new if I don't like what I have bought.  In reality this doesn't usually happen I just add to the collection!

The Modern Player series of guitars was a huge step for Fender testing out the waters in China. It does make me smile reading the forums to see how conservative guitar players can be. This is particularly evident in discussion about the geographical location of a guitar factory.  There has been a long love/hate relationship with Fender guitars made in Japan over the years.  Now the same debate rages over guitars made in China and Indonesia.

If you've read more of my blogs you'll know that I think that Asian made guitars can be excellent purchases with a quality and attention to detail that would cost substantially more on a guitar made in Europe or America, but of course you can get poor attention to detail and manufacture evident in a factory made guitar anywhere in the world.  If you are buying new there may be some deep moral questions to be faced concerning the relocation of manufacturing globally from West to East that has happened in almost every industry over my life time, but it is a fact of life we live with, from the cars we drive to the computer I'm typing this blog on.

The Fender Modern Player series broke the mould by 'crafting' Fender branded guitars in China, with some quite avant guard (for Fender) designs, and some really attractive (for Fender) pricing.  I'm a cheapskate and I still baulked in 2011 at spending the best part of £500 for a guitar that had a Fender logo rather than Squier on the headstock.  I ended up at that time  with a Squier CV Tele, which is a lovely guitar with a similar pedigree to the Modern Player.  It's interesting to note how short lived this MP series of guitars was, mine has a 2017 serial number but in effect most production seems to have stopped by about 2015 if I understand it correctly.

So what of the guitar itself?

I've always liked the Thinline versions of the Telecaster.  I like a more resonant body on a guitar, and the associated lightness that comes from removing wood from the body.  I also like the look and the italicised 'f' that Fender chose for the sound hole.

This guitar definitely doesn't disappoint.  It comes with a very nicely executed three piece mahogany back with a thick one piece mahogany plate on the front.  This makes it look head on like a one piece body.  The neck is a good straight grained piece of maple with a rosewood skunk stripe.  The fretwork is good and when I set the guitar up there were no obvious high or low frets.  The poly finish is mirror and on mine pretty much unblemished.  The tuners are typical vintage which I guess you will either like or hate, but they are well fitted and function well.  The bridge is the equivalent of a vintage hard tail Strat, with the usual vintage style Fender branded bent steel saddles, that are as uncomfortable as ever, but part of the history!  I've heard some people even trying to argue that they change the tone of the guitar...  The controls are Les Paul style with a three way throw switch and four pots.

The pickups are P90s which I like and have on a couple of other guitars, they give a sound somewhere between a humbucker and a standard set of tele single coils.  The MP90s are maybe a bit focused towards the mid range and sound a bit woolier than a Wilkinson set I have on a another guitar.  This is not necessarily bad, just different, less jangly.

I was intrigued that this guitar was so cheap, less than half its original selling price, secondhand.  It's odd to be able to pick up a big brand guitar for so little money and it got me to wondering why it hasn't yet found more appeal in the used market.  This is a really good guitar, it plays well, it is light, it sounds good, it is well made - the materials and craftsmanship are excellent.  No-one in the audience except another guitarist is going to know that it is a Fender MiC.  They'll all be photographing the band with iPhones MiC anyway, driving home in cars made in Turkey or India, and wearing designer clothes made in Bangladesh.

Maybe part of the problem lies in the fact that where a big brand, factory guitar is made is one of the only unique selling points left and therefore this has become a major marketing and reselling point. I know I mention it when selling stuff on EBay. In almost every other aspect Asian guitars are there in terms of quality, from raw materials to craftsmanship.  Everything depends on how much the manufacturer puts into and monitors the process of the build.

The MP series guitar is unique in having a 'Fender' transfer on the headstock of a MiC guitar.  Labels and brand is almost everything in this fashion conscious time...I'm not immune to this influence. I must admit I like having 'Fender' on the headstock, and if the guitar is well made and sounds good who am I to argue with paying a few pounds more than a Squier for the privilege.

Epiphone Century Masterbilt Zenith Review

I've had this guitar for well over a year now and used it in a number of different contexts and settings.  I really like it but reading other reviews and forums it seems like it has had a very mixed reception.

I suppose many people will struggle to know what this guitar is for.  Excuse an existential question at the beginning of this review, but it is an important one.  This guitar is bit of a niche product that doesn't really have any obvious direct competitors.  However it does have lots of indirect competitors that come close to doing the same thing, and I wonder if anyone really wants that 'thing' any more.

I love playing carved top archtops, there is a mellowness to the sound that is perhaps slightly lacking in the Zenith. Is this a premium carved archtop guitar to rival a 1920s Gibson L5?  No, nor would I expect it to be at this price point, but read some of the disappointed internet forum reviews and you'd be forgiven for thinking that that is what it should be judged against.

Maybe I got lucky but I'd say this guitar gets a lot of the way towards that sound and for a fraction of the price.  It has opened up a lot as it has been played in too. I've travelled quite a lot of miles to try a number of sub £1,000 Chinese built carved top guitars, which many people have raved about in reviews. I've tried to like them, but each time I've been bitterly disappointed by poor finish, necks on new guitars that feel like they need a reset out of the box, atrocious fretwork and less than responsive acoustics.  Maybe I've just been unlucky, but build quality is important and things like the break angle of the strings over the bridge, and fretwork make a huge difference to tone and playability of an acoustic archtop.  Peerless and Eastman guitars I really like, but they are considerably more expensive and often geared more towards straight jazz applications being fitted with floating electric pickups, rather than acoustic pickups.

So where does the Zenith fit in?  I guess the difficulty of answering this questions might be part of the reason that the Century series seems to be struggling to gain traction in the marketplace or at least that's my perception. Happily for me this means I picked up mine way way under list price.  The Zenith sounds like an archtop, I like that sound, acoustically it punches through a mix of other instruments in a way a flat top guitar doesn't and gets lost quite easily. The Zenith seems to respond directly to the amount of energy you put into playing it, allowing a greater dynamic range than a flat top which always seems to have a natural compression once you hit the strings with rather more gusto.  Lead lines seem to project with this guitar in a way they just don't with a flat top.  It has that lovely natural reverb which comes with an archtop guitar.  But having said that a flat top is a much more pleasing rounded tone and overtones when played on its own. There is a richness to the tone which is severely lacking in the Zenith, which has in its place a bark and bite and a more strident mid range. This is not unpleasant but just very different and needs a slightly different technique to exploit and tame.

I love the way the flame maple glows through the deep red finish in certain lights

One of the main technique differences is in how you hold this particular kind of guitar.  An archtop is unusual in that, when it is working well, the back plate and the top work together to make the sound.  When you hold the guitar you need to keep the back plate away from any obstruction.  This not only vastly increases the bass response, but is also creates a 'bellows' effect literally pushing the sound out of the f-holes in the front.  This guitar is severely handicapped if you play it standing up for this reason, s the bass and overall volume drop off significantly.  A flat top guitar's back plate is far less critical in this respect.  With the old school players like Freddie Green you'll observe that archtops are played angled away from your body to allow the backplate full movement. If you develop this technique you'll get far more out of this guitar.  Interestingly with the relatively cheap Chinese carved top and back guitars I mentioned before the carving is quite thick and this is less of an issue.

Another technique difference is that this guitar, like a Macaferri, is no shrinking violet.  Limp wristed playing won't bring out the best in this guitar, you need to get the soundboard moving to get the tone and projection.  I suspect a lot of people pick these up off the shop wall and try to play them like a flat top and are deeply unimpressed by the tone.  However it is best to play this guitar with other instruments to appreciate the way it sits in the mix when my flat top for example would be totally lost with its wider tonal range. In this context the particular tone of the Zenith really begins to make sense. 

I do like acoustic tone of this guitar a lot.  In some ways more than the Deluxe which is a fuller rounder sound.  This one really does cut through a mix of instruments with its more midrange focus.

How does it amplify?  Now here's a thing.  A lot of jazzers for reasons best known to themselves seem to like to buy very expensive carved guitars and then amplify them using lo-fi 1930s magnetic pickup technology (I may just be guilty of this myself!) The worst culprits make big holes in carefuly carved guitars to accommodate these. Others 'float' them on top so as not to spoil the acoustic properties of the guitar which they have paid thousands for, and admittedly some wonderful sounds can be had mixing a magnetic pickup in with them miced sound of a fine instrument. However to make the old pickup technology work many people put much less acoustically pleasing nickel strings on lovely tap tuned acoustic guitars or worse still flatwounds, which just make a beautifully crafted instrument sound rather dead and lifeless. Please don't get me wrong.  I love electric guitars and have lots of them. The electric jazz guitar sound is one of my favourites, but I mainly keep those sounds and pickups for much more feedback free laminate archtops in my collection, which are more robust and cope better with feedback.

Epiphone took a braver and more helpful route and put into these guitars an acoustic pickup.  At this price point it would be wrong to expect this pickup to be the absolute cutting edge of acoustic technology, but it is not at all bad.  However it has really divided the crowd. My main gripe would be that it doesn't do full justice to the 'real' sound of the guitar, instead it sounds much more like any other amplified acoustic guitar.  Not at all unpleasant, but losing some of the bark and bite of the unamplified sound. I would say that about my flat top guitars too, that an under saddle pickup doesn’t get to the heart and soul of the real sound of the guitar.  To get the best results you really have to mix the pickup together with a microphone, in my opinion, or just mic direct, depending on the circumstances.  However it is extremely convenient to be able to plug in and play, when there is no other alternative, and above all to be able to use bronze strings to really get that lively thin top plate moving.

This guitar is not ever going to directly compete with the big money carved archtops which are rightly prized, find a builder who will craft a guitar for you and you are into a totally different league of sound.  However the Zenith is in my opinion a really good honest working guitar.  It sounds good, it looks amazing, you don't have to worry about it like something costing thousands.  Perhaps the most pleasing thing is the fit and finish.  Other brands might offer carved specs for just a bit more money but it breaks my heart to see beautiful materials being wasted with poorly executed workmanship.  The Indonesian factory where the Zenith is made have done a lovely job on finish, fretwork and appearance.  The lacquer is nice and thin, the frets are smooth and level, and I haven't had to adjust the set up at all on mine since buying it.  The inlay work is well done and all the peripherals are solidly attached, no shifting strap pins.  The tuners are great with a huge nod to the 1930s, but on a guitar that stays in tune, is well intonated and doesn't need a neck reset or handling with kid gloves.

I've used this instrument in a huge variety of contexts and been very pleased with it, from ceilidh music, to trad jazz, to pop stuff, once you get the hang of playing it you realise just how versatile it is, and it doesn't get lost in the same way a flat top often does in a more complex mix.

The good news is that because the market doesn't quite know what to make of these beauties you can, like me, pick up one of these at very reasonable prices as retailers try to shift them.  I think they will be one of those guitars people will only really begin to appreciate a bit further down the line, maybe when they are out of production, and when some of their nearest competitors are lying unplayable and unplayed in a corner, while the tops of these well made guitars have just begun to open up and mellow into maturity...

Review of Eko Evo Gipsy Guitar - natural

This was a find that I had been wanting to make for a long time.  I play some Manouche/Gypsy Jazz with a friend who is a violinist and I'd been wanting to try out a 'proper' Macaferri style guitar.  This one came up locally at a price I couldn't resist and I went to try it out and (of course) came home with it!.

My first ever acoustic guitar was an Eko Ranger, so I have a soft spot for the brand, and I am really pleased to see they are back up and running and making some really good guitars these days, this being one of them.

First off this guitar is LOUD!  I am a bit of a sucker for niche acoustic guitars and have an acoustic archtop and a resonator This sits somewhere between them in terms of volume and projection.  It seems the more energy you put in the more sound you get out.  It doesn't quite match the resonator, but it comes close and of course the tone is very different.

I don't think Eko market this guitar very well.  Part of the reason for writing this review is to clarify some things I think they'd do well to mention to sell this guitar.

The most glaring error is that these are being marketed with a 648mm scale.  Unless mine is a one off I think they have this wrong.  Mine is a long scale 670mm or 26.3 inches.  This combined with an oval version of the 'grande bouche' gives a volume, projection and snap that is a prized part of the 'petite bouche' Selmers.

The guitar is very light in construction, weighing in at 1.78kg or about 4 pounds.  This also helps with the very lively and resonant feel.  The guitar finish is very thin, and the mahogany is open pore rather than filled, and both these factors help with the overall resonance.

The other thing that gives the unique manouche sound to this guitar is the fact that the top of the guitar is ladder braced, not x braced like most flat top guitars.  This allows the guitar sound board to resonate more freely as there is far less bracing than on a standard flat top. To give the top and back more strength both are very, very slightly arched.  This allows the bridge to sit slightly higher than a conventional bridge and the neck is angled to accommodate this, like on an archtop guitar.

The rosette is a really nice touch, not painted on, but a properly crafted inlay made up of concentric ovals of different woods.

Then there is the heritage.  It is arguable that the manouche guitar comes directly from an Italian tradition of luthiery, and I love the fact that this guitar is conceived and designed by an Italian company, even if it is made in the PRC.

The sound of this guitar, apart from being very loud, is gorgeous.  Eko have done an excellent job of putting together a unique guitar that gets to the very heart of that manouche sound.   The beautiful solid spruce top, laminate sides, thin finish, ladder bracing, arched top and long scale make this sound just like the sound I have in my head of a gypsy guitar.  It has a very special place in guitar history as makers tried to increase the sound projection before the advent of electric guitars.  Although I love the electric guitar, my heart is with these old designs and I am rather sad that most people only ever get to play on a Martin inspired flat top (nothing wrong with that design, I love it, but it is a particular sound).  What you get with this guitar is an ability to cut through other acoustic instruments, either with chords or with a lead line.  It doesn't compress the sound like a flat top guitar but translates all that energy you put into plucking into volume.  It is not subtle when you do this, but it sounds fantastic, if you play more gently there is a lovely tone there as well. Of course you need to string this with Argentine strings to get the proper sound.


The rest of the guitar as a package is very nicely executed.  No faults I can find.  The wood binding is done well, the veneers and top well book matched.  The nut is bone with a zero fret, and the tailpiece is pressed brass like a Maccaferri. The neck is a slim flat D in shape.  The action is highish as it needs to be to obtain the projection.  I like the simple Evo inlay on the 12 fret.  The tuners work well, and the headstock veneer is a very nice thick slice of rosewood.


Although this is a bit of a specialist guitar, if you can find one give it a go - lots of craftsmanship for your money.

Westone Thunder 1A Bass - Matsumoku Active Bass from 1986 - Review

I thought it was about time I reviewed this beautiful piece of history, which has been with me since 1986.  It's difficult to remember now that a hugely conservative (and sadly sometimes rather arrogant) bunch of guitar players viewed Japanese guitars with just as much suspicion and scepticism as they view Chinese guitars now: they were cheap so they couldn't possibly be any good, and what did the Japanese know about instrument building anyway?

Into that climate of change came Matsumoku, modelling a concept that would revolutionise guitar production, as one high quality production line produced guitars for many different brands.  This was a factory concept that could easily be rolled out to Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia and now China.

I remember as an impoverished student in the early 80s looking at Westone Basses and really liking what I saw (particularly a Westone 2 fretless in a secondhand store in Nottingham).   However a friend lent me his Burns bass for an extended period so I didn't need to part with any cash at that stage.

In 1986 the Burns had to be returned, and I was visiting a girlfriend in London, and ventured out with about £160 in my pocket to Denmark Street to finally pull the trigger on a Westone and hard case.  It was snowy in London that day and I had to walk through and inch or two of snow carrying my new purchase back to Norbiton where I was staying.

This bass has stayed with me ever since, put up with all sorts of abuse, and bears the scars to prove it.  I have never had to adjust the truss rod, never done any work on the frets, all I have done is clean it and restring it and very occasionally change the batteries (which seem to last for years).  This last restring I tightened up the machine heads which over the years had worked a bit loose.  The quality of the parts and workmanship is, now I look back, just absolutely stunning.  I've not even had to adjust the strap hooks.  No crackles in the pots, the micro switches still work the same as ever.  The active electronics still function perfectly.

5 ply neck, rock solid

So after 31 years some of my reflections on a long partnership.  I kick myself for not buying that secondhand Westone Thunder 2 fretless, but I still love the Thunder 1A.  It was innovative at the time, with its coil tap and active electronics, allowing it to produce a whole variety of tones.  The attention to detail in production really has to be seen to be believed.  The quality of the wood still amazes me - the ash, walnut, maple laminate of the body is extremely well executed.  All the joints are as steady and as tight as they were 31 years ago when this was made.  The 5 ply neck is slim and fast, and rock steady.  The rosewood fretboard shows almost zero wear. the frets only very slight wear.

Superb neck to body fit

Playing the bass is comfortable, the low action and the slim neck make it a joy to move around the fretboard.  It has plenty of weight without being too heavy.  The brass hardware is a little tarnished in places but all functions as it ever did, and the tuners are smooth and true.

None of this of course changes the fact that for most bassists this isn't one of those desirable basses that they will go out of their way to find and pay big money for, so if you like them they are still a real bargain if you can find one in good condition.  You'll certainly be hard pressed to find better quality workmanship than a Matsumoku guitar - sad the factory was so short lived...

Alden Monte Carlo Guitar

I came across this guitar used. It was in excellent condition sold with good quality gig bag included.  I picked it up and had a good look, walked away and then after some consideration went back to the shop the next day and tested it out and came home with it!  It was in really wonderful condition, except for one slight ding which I have now repaired, still just visible, but smooth to the touch.  I gave it a clean, new strings and oiled the fretboard which was a bit dry, then set it up to play as well as any guitar in my collection.

Something about this guitar really appealed to me, I can't quite say what it is, but there are some times when you pick up an instrument and it seems to be more than the sum of its parts, even with old tarnished strings and badly in need of a clean and set up.  Suddenly against your better judgment you end up adding it into the family...




This guitar is an evolution of the the Epiphone Casino, and new is not too far off the price of that guitar.  However it has some important mods which I like.  The neck join is at the 19th fret which gives improved access to the upper neck.  The top, sides and back are in a very attractive flamed maple, not very highly figured, but good to look at.  This is not a hollow body guitar like the Casino but has a centre block which carries the pickups and bridge - this makes it a lot more feedback resistant.  That being said it is still a very light guitar to hold and play, very resonant, and very well balanced.  Mine sounds amazing unplugged and I think that is what attracted me to it in the first instance.  The maple neck is a comfortable profile and well made, using scarf joins at the headstock and heel.  The parralelogram block work is expertly done and the mother of plastic inlay has a deep quality and catches the light nicely. 

Plugged in through a Hughes and Kettner valve amp the sound has a very mellow single coil defintion to it.  People describe P90s as having something between a humbucker and a fender style single coil tone.  I have another guitar with P90s on a tele thinline body.  That guitar sounds more jangly.  I think the Monte Carlo is the next step on towards the humbucker sound but still very much a single coil with lovely bell like sounds using the neck pickup.  Maybe the semi-hollow body and metal pickup covers add to this.  I find it works extremely well with strumming open chords - giving an almost acoustic feel to the playing.  I like the trapeze tail which seems to change the responsiveness of the strings, but that might just be my imagination.

So what about the negatives?  A few cosmetic grumbles, but no deal breakers. The neck pickup sits rather proud of the body where the body is contoured around the neck.  The 18th fret was slightly high at the B string and needed filing to get the action spot on where I like it.  The flame top is not finished to the very highest of standards noticeable only where it meets the binding it looks as if the routing was done with a rather blunt tool (but you do have to really look close up to see this).  I had to tighten up the tuners, as when I took off the strings to oil the fretboard, they were rattling about, maybe due to slight shrinkage.

Would I recommend this guitar?  Well, it is a bit of a one off - no-one else is offering quite this combination, and it is fast becoming one of my favourites.  It has perhaps some of the appeal that attracted the Beatles to their Epiphones all those years ago, but addresses some of the issues of upper neck access and feedback inherent in that model.  It is reasonably finished for the price, there is nothing, in my mind, construction wise that rules it out.   The lightness makes it a joy to play standing up without getting back ache.  Certainly as a used guitar it is amazing value for money - I couldn't buy a kit to make my own guitar for that price, new it is probably not going to hold its value, but if you bond with it then it is a lot of guitar for the money.