Esteban Steel String Acoustic Bundle

For novice's that we were it looked beautiful, but looks can be deceiving...we were awstruck and failed to see the problems...

It sounded great in the beginning but loses it's tune after awhile...the amp was cool!

The first night we got it the E string broke, not knowing anything about guitars I had to take it to the local music store. The guy was impressed with it, but I think he was being nice. He replaced the string and then told me that the neck was badly warped, he fixed it and we went on happily...until recently when we took it in they said it was UNFIXABLE! Can you say duped? I feel like an idiot because I bought into the commercial!! I told everyone to get one, too! Now I am upset and my poor daughter is left without her guitar!

Bought it and from day one it was warped! Now, 2 years later, it is UNFIXABLE!!!

You only get 30 days to return it, and 1 year for "workmanship"...It lasted us exactly a year! But that was with lots of tuning up and neck fixing!

Don't buy online! Go to a Music Store and ask lots of questions, it may be true that you get what you pay for! Will we buy another Esteban to replace the lemon we had? I am not sure...I don't want to pay alot but I also don't want to go through this ordeal any longer!!! I am a huge Esteban fan and I am sincerely crushed! Please don't buy one if you can help it!! Go to a store...

Well, after being told about the infomercial by a friend, my fiance decided he REALLY wanted one of these "Estaban American Legacy" steel string guitars. It seemed like a great price, so how could we say no? Well, now we know that a "great price" comes at a price. The day he got it, after paying extra for it to be rush shipped, he picked it up and noticed the sound of something rattling inside of it. Upon closer inspection, he discovered a brace board was broken. It would have warped and/or fallen apart in a matter of months. Niiicccceee. And so the saga of attempting to return it begins.

Despite the thing being broken upon delivery, he wanted to hear what it sounded like while we waited the week for them to send the return shipping label. He began to tune it up, and what happens? The E string snaps from here to oblivion. So THAT'S why they throw an extra set of strings into the deal! You're really gonna need them! On top of that, the 10 watt amp that ALSO comes along with this "fantastic" deal is made of rubber or something? Interesting.....

The guitar was broken! Broken Broken Broken! You don't pay to get something rushed shipped because you want to send it back as soon as it gets there!

Esteban can be seen in the DVDs playing a similar, but for some reason, DIFFERENT guitar from the one we purchased. Could it be because his is a real musical instrument and ours is a Wal-Mart Christmas rip-off?

Okay, this is where I attempt to right this load of crap. I call the number that the woman who took my order cheerfully told me was the "Customer Service" number. This process is worse than waiting for water to boil. It's like WATCHING HAIR GROW. I must have called at LEAST ten to twelve times. Sometimes I would wait for an hour and a half and then hang up. Sometimes I would wait for TWO hours, only to have the automated system finally say "Exiting the System" and hang up on ME. At some point after my phone battery needing replaced (seriously) I talked to someone and the bitch acted like it was my fault but said I could send it back and they would replace it. Now, over a month after originally getting the thing in the mail, we got the replacement with- awwww- Esteban's $30.00 signature on it for free. I feel like I've been paid off to keep my mouth shut.

Basically, go to a music store and buy a real guitar. It may cost some money, but I've learned that it is an investment to pay more to get something worthwhile.

The guitar was made in 2004 in China (cough, cough) You can check out the hsn website or whatever if you actually want to see it.
My 13 year old wanted to learn how to play guitar. My wife... kind of got hooked on the idea of buying the Estaban Legacy Guitar package. I wanted to go to my local music store and buy him a real guitar. Anyway
my wife ordered the guitar as a Christmas gift while I was out. My son
opened it up for Christmas, he was a happy camper, I didn't want to burst his bubble.. I knew the strings were far too high, for even an experienced guitarist. Well... the first day the 6th string broke. I looked at the neck and the neck appeared to be bent, this meant the strings were farr too high on the frets. So this is what broke the strings. If we were to replace the string his finger would more than likely be bleeding by now. Here'e a note of caution. It's Jan 21, 2004, I returned the guitar December 29th and we still have not been reimbursed. So what do I plan to do??? They ruined a 13 year olds Christmas, I'm going to get him an Applause guitar with an acoustic pickup because the neck is the same size as an electic... just in case he wants to go electric later.

Leson to everyone.. Do not buy anything you see on an infomercial.
The reason why the product isn't sold in a Music Store is because it's
poor quality. Estaban should be ahamed of himslef.

Hmmm Sound? How about the sound of strings snapping?

Strings were too high on the frets, chances are someone is going to cut thier fingers up pretty bad. The Neck is slanted back (bent) so the strings are high enough for even an experienced guitarist to snap a string pretty fast. The finish.. high gloss with scratches, dents, and creases.

Guitar is basically a low quality guitar...

Customer Support is poor. I made a call to ingenious Designs and an
automated system answers, and then you wait hours and hours if you get through, no one ever picks up, and after 2 hrs you get disconected.
BEWARE, Stay away! Find Estaban's email address and tell him
the guitar he decided to represent sucks.

The guitar was bought for my 13 year old son, he's going to have lessons
I hated to bent neck, the string riding a whole 1/4" over the frets! How's my kid going to learn on that?
I wishmy wife waited for me to bring her to the local music store where my son is signed up for lessons.

Don't buy guitars online or from an infomerical. Check out the action on the guitar first, make sure you are comfortable with it. Make sure the neck isn't bent and the strings ride correctly across the frets.

Made in 2004 in China. Esteban has finally improved the quality a bit on his HSN guitars. I bought one of his first guitars 2 years ago, the nylon classical guitar, and it was utter crap. It had horrible intonation above the 5 fret, the fretboard was some soft light wood with black paint on it, and the bridge was black plastic. It sounded OK but was really not good enough to play anywhere.
This guitar is a big improvement. I will get to that later, first the features; Rosewood fretboard, mother of pearl inlays and white binding. The good stuff- built in bridge pickup and battery powered preamp with 3 band EQ and volume, plus a 10W practice amp, plus a hardshell case. It also came with DVD instuction video's that were so cheap, they were on DVD-R disks without any lable.
The guitar looks quite nice but for some poor binding/paint along the fretboard.

This guitar sounds actually quite good. I was really surprised since I had the other earlier Burswood guitar that was Junk. Both guitars were gifts so I had no real say in the purchase. I had just told my wife I needed a steel string guitar with a pickup for some recordings I was finishing, but I did not want to spend alot of money. I was going to borrow my Dads old Gibson, but my wife got me this. I tell you it sounds very nice and plays pretty good. The intonation is spot on, which totally amazed me! I may have just been lucky. The action is low and playable, and the sound is warm, bright, rich, and loud. The built-in pickup and preamp are very nice as well. I can get good tones quite easy with the EQ. DI'd into my recorded It sounds very good, although I am using a condenser mic as well to bring out more of the warmth and chime.
OK, one of the big pluses of this deal was the little 10W amp. I figured I would just sell it on ebay and not use it. I tried it with the guitar and it was way underpowered and did not impress me. On a whim I hooked up my Tele and pushed the little OD button on the amp. Holy crap, this amp has a wonderful blues tone to it. Especially with my neck PU, it just sounds amazing. Very responsive to playing dynamics and just chock full of blues. I could not put down my guitar for over an hour because it sounded so good. On clean setting the amp sounds just like any other practice amp, but with the OD ingaged it is just sweet. If I end up selling the guitar I will keep the amp.

As I said above, the action is very good and the guitar is very playable. The Finish looks really good with the mother of pearl inlays and edge binding. If you look really close you can find flaws in the finish, but most people would not even notice. the Rosewood fretboard was a great improvement as was the rosewood bridge. The guitar is very playable all the way up the neck without any intonation problems.

I don't know yet. I just hope they let the wood age before they built it. The last few models had big warpage issues. I hope mine does not warp, I really like this guitar and I want it to last.

I have been playing for over 15 years, mostly on electrics and classical guitars. I really needed a bright steel string acoustic for a few things and this baby fit the bill.