Crafter DE-7

It was made in 2002. Solid spruce top, mahogany back and sides. satin finish. Dreadnought w/cutaway. Shadow/crafter pick-up and electronics.

It sounds great! When I saw the guitar in the shop it was love at first sight! I play most Praise and Rock. finger-picking and lead guitar. No problem. Sounds great! It sound very 'balanced'. very powerfull.

It was set up a little high. No problem. After customizing it it plays great!! The fret's are beautifully. Not one to high or to low. For the rest the body and neck are 100%!!!

I am absolutely shure that it will last very long. It feels solid.
I also have a Crafter GAE-36. It is a Tank!!

I am playing guitar for about 18 years. I had a lot guitars. Mostly Takamines. I also had a Taylor a year ago. It was not my guitar. When I feld the DE-7 (in holland this means 'The Seven') I knew that this was My guitar. After that I bought the GAE-36 and trade my Takamine. Al those 10's I give are real!!!

Dreadnought-model with cut-away. Solid cedar top, mahogany back & sides. Built-in pick-up made by Shadow and Crafter-manufactured pre-amp. Satin finish. Unspecified tuners. Taylor-style bridge (no pins!). Very innovative acces to the battery-compartiment, which makes changing the battery easier than picking your nose....

This guitar sounds unamplified a bit thin and low on volume, probably due to the thick top en heavy polyester-finish (I don't know if Crafter intended it this way, but it helps reduce feedback a great deal!), but the sound itself is sweet and balanced and, to my ears, pleasantly "woody". To my opinion it's more suited for finger-picking and playing chords than for playing with a plectrum. I use very light strings though, for an acoustic guitar (0.010), with heavier strings the result may differ. Amped up this guitar turns into a different instrument! Nice, strong tones that, if a proper amp is used, sound very acoustic and bright but never sharp (more round an rich with lots of harmonics). It has a tendency to the bass-side, which is easily corrected with the pre-amp (that works very accurate). Plugged in, I mostly use a plectrum when playing. I like the sound very much and it sounds much more expensive than it is. When I tried in the music store, it sounded way better than other budget modells from Washburn, Ibanez, Cort, Epiphone and ohers, so I choose this Crafter. Plugged or unplugged, the individual strings are always nicely audible, and it has a pleasant 'ring', no blurr at all. This is my first serious acoustic guitar after owning a cheap, secondhand Fender. Which wasn't bad at all, but can't compare to this Crafter! (Different price category of course..). I rate it an 8 because it doesn't have the sound-quality of a high-end top-guitar, but the price is 1/5th of a quality Takamine. Compared to other models in it's price-range, I could rate it a 10!

It has a satin-finish which feels good. Actually I prefer the looks of a gloss-finish, but what the heck. Action was good, although with heavy strings it requires hard work! I loosened the truss-rod just a little, which made the guitar play lighter and use very light strings (0.010), since I play it plugged in or just to practice, so I don't mind the loss in acoustic volume. Changing to lighter strings didn't audibly deteriorate the sound, I think. It still sounds very sweet.

This guitar stays perpectly in tune, even when submitted to temperature changes (spotlights!). The unspecified tuners work very well. It has a very thick layer of lacquer, seems sturdy enough. Building quality seems okay, never had no problems after two years heavy playing and gigging and dragging it around in the trunk of my car.

I dunno..... never had to deal with them

This is my first serious acoustic guitar and I'm pretty pleased with it. If I had the money I would probably have bought an expensive Takamine or a Gibson, but this Crafter did not dissapoint me and it offers a lot for less money. I play mostly jazz, blues and country-like stuff on this guitar and it works quite well with that. Due to the high-quality pre-amp and the heavy top and thick finish, it's an ideal live-performer. If I was a studio-artist, I would probably invest more in a top-of-the-line guitar, but that's no fair comparison. I was very suprised thoough when I used it once to do a studio-recording of "Purple Rain" with it and it was miked through a single high-quality microphone. Sounded fantastic!