Dean Guitars Espana CSR

Simple clean classical guitar, very light, with nice tone. It has solid cedar top and laminate rosewood back and sides. The tuners look good, but a couple of them creak a little while tuning, but I have had no issues with them. The guitar stays in tune. There is a wooden ring around the underside of hole which is rather unique. The guitar has good balance between treble and bass, with plenty of resonance until you get past high C or so on the 1st string, then the treble dies out some. I suppose this could be corrected with experimentation with different strings. For a begginner classical, it is extremely good, much closer to an intermediate level instrument. It is well set up, and plays easy, with neck being wide like most classicals, but a little thinner.

1st string treble above high C begins to fade out to quickly. Overall balance is excellent, with a very nice and smooth base.
It is not overly bright, but it is not as mellow as you'd expect with cedar. The top is very good, and taps well, providing plenty of resonance. I can play rock on it, not just classical, and get a very nice sound. It's not a high end instrument, being a $299 dollar guitar new, but it has an exceptionally nice tone, and I suspect it is as good as much more expensive guitars.

Action is perfect. Fihish is excellent.

Seems reliable to me. I purchased it used, and it has a few dents, but no structural damage. It feels solid. I doubt it was properly humidified, as I got it from a pawn shop, yet is suffered no ill effects.

No idea.

Very good investment for an on the go player. I would play this for an audience in any typical non classical professional setting. Perfect for acoustic folk and light rock and very good for classical as well. Professional classical is another level of playing, and I don't know that the sound of this instrument is up to that level. I really cant' say. I'm not up to that level :)

Classical guitar, solid cedar top, laminate rosewood b/s, bound rosewood fingerboard, nicely finished frets, inlaid rosette, mahogany neck, nicely finished pro-grade tuners (that work), body boud in mahogany with maple purfling. Has 19 frets, with 19th going all the way across fingerboard. Gloss finish. The bracing is unusual: it has a circular shaped brace, slightly wider that the arc of the rosette, under the soundhole rather that the usual side braces running parallel to the strings, and the grain of this circualr brace is perpendicualr to the grain of the soundboard. There is a slight bit of glue residue visible on the inside of the back, but nothing at all alarming. Overall appearance and finish is excellent. No logo on headstock, which is to my taste. Was purchased as a "B" stock guitar on ebay. The only real flaws are two slight (very slight) chips in the finish on the backside edges. Bought it for about half usual retail price.

Nice warm cedar sound. Lots of resonance and projection. The initial treble strings were disappointing. I put on Oasis GPX Carbon treble strings along with high tension D'Addario Pro Arte bass strings, and the thing sounds wonderful. It is always hard to compare sounds, so I also bought a "B" stock Washburn C80S on ebay for comparison. The Washburn (with logo on headstock, not to my taste) is a nice guitar (see the reviews here on Harmony). The Washburn is thinner in projection, but more "focused" in treble and bass sound. The bass of the Dean is more reverberant and resonant, with the trebles being slightly softer or less crystalline-like--thus the advantage of using the carbon treble strings. Overall, I like the Dean better: it has a richer, fuller, more resonant tone/timbre. I am glad I bought both guitars for comparison. Now I can see why the Washburn got such glowing reviews (especially for the price), but my own comparison has made me wonder why there are no reviews here at all (much less glowing ones) for the Dean. It is an excellent guitar. Both guitars have truss rods for adjustments, but I found the string height to be fine on both, with no buzz at all on either.
I can see why the owners of the Washburn are happy with their purchase, and I now wonder if, for $100 more (retail), they wouldn't be even happier with a Dean CSR. Actually, my Dean only cost me $77 more, including shipping, than the Washburn, and I'm very happy with my purchase. It's the one I'll keep. I may pass the Washburn along to a friend who wants/needs a nice classical guitar.

As I mentioned above, the setup was fine on this guitar. Easy to play all the way up the neck with no buzz at all. Finish on woods is nice. Purfling and binding on body look great, with woods used for the binding and back strip (unlike the plastic in the Washburn C80S).

It seems quite sturdy. I have only had it a couple of weeks, and since it was bought as a "B" stock on ebay, I don't imagine I'll be worrying about any warranty issues. But as I said earlier, it is a nicely made and finished guitar, another of the fine pieces coming out of China (along with Walden guitars and many others).

Bought as "B" stock on ebay, so this is a bit irrelevant.

I've given grades of "9" in all the other categories simply because this is not a Ramirez or Romanillos guitar. As if! However, for the price/value ratio, I would give it a 10 without hesitation. It's a beautiful guitar to look at. It handles and plays easily, up and down the neck. It is very lightweight. It sounds wonderful, rich, inviting, resonant. What more could you ask for at this price?
I started playing classical guitar while in high school (decades ago) and learned Carcassi pieces. I've just now decided to take it up again. I also own a Walden G570 steel string, Hohner EA65ceq steel string (A/E), Samick SAN-450 semi-hollowbody electric, Jay Turser JT-LT Custom Deluxe electric.