Product: Breedlove Guitars AC200/SM
Price Paid: US $319 (without case)
Submitted
11/01/2003
at
12:31am
by
J.Gargus
Features
:
9
This guitar is from the BreedLove Atlas series. These guitars are made in Korea so the cost is obviously less than the USA made Breedlove guitars.
-Full bodied concert size. (medium size in my opinion)
-Solid spruce top, laminate mahogany back and sides.
-20 frets.
-Rosewood fingerboard
-Grover tuners (closed gear)
-Abalone rosette around the sound hole (very nice looking!)
-Comes with D'addario EXP light gauge strings(80/20 bronze,coated).
-This guitar also has the JLD guitar truss system. You can check this system out at: http://www.jldguitar.com/
-Natural, satin finish.
-Black binding
-Pinless rosewood bridge
Has everything it needs.
Sound
:
10
The sound of this guitar is GREAT. The mids and highs sound bright and clear and the bass is definitely present but not boomy. You not only hear this guitar, you feel it vibrate. It's hard to believe that only the top is solid. This guitar is alive with sound!
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
10
The factory setup of this guitar is VERY good. The action is among the best i've ever played (if not *the* best) for an acoustic.
The intonation is also good. The string nut and saddle work is good.
The finish of the guitar is a nice satin which I feel allows the top to vibrate more than a gloss finish, contributing to it's good sound.
The fretboard looks nicely oiled and the frets are very well polished.
I got a flashlight and looked the guitar over inside and there was some glue visible but not enough to make me think the assembly was sloppy. This guitar seems to be put together quite well.
This guitar is set up so well I feel it deserves a 10 for this category despite being able to see a little glue inside. And i'm being picky about the glue.
Reliability/Durability
:
No Opinion
Seems to be well put together, and with proper care should be just fine.
The tuners seem stable and turn smoothly.
The guitar comes with one push in type strap button in the end block. I prefer to use Schaller strap locks with my guitars so I added one to the end block. I put the second strap button in the position suggested by Breedlove. E-mail them and the will send you a diagram of where the second button should go. It's important to put it where they suggest, otherwise you can damage the guitar.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I've not dealt with them enough to put a rating here.
Overall Rating
:
10
This guitar sounds and plays great! I am in awe that I have a guitar *this* good, especially considering the price I paid for it. I can't think of another guitar out there that is a better value than this.
Beside the number '10' in the rating drop down box for this category it says "Fantastic Value". This guitar definitely fits that, so I am giving it a 10.
I had to get this guitar mail order, and I had to search through quite a few Breedlove dealers before finding it. I expected it to be at least decent or Breedlove wouldn't have put their name on it. This guitar has far exceeded my expectations of what it would be. I am very impressed.
The only possible negative to this guitar is the nut and saddle both appear to be some sort of plastic. I would normally replace a plastic nut and saddle with tusq, but somehow this guitar still sounds amazing just the way it is so I feel no need to change it right now.
How does Breedlove do it? I don't know, but i'm glad they're doing it! GREAT guitar!
