Freshman FA1CEM

Dreadnought cutaway electro-acoustic, solid Canadian sitka spruce top, gorgeous maple back & sides, maple neck (3 piece)with cream binding, rosewood fingerboard and bridge, tortoise shell binding, gold machine heads, 4 band pre-amp, lovely satin finish. Looks fabulous, especially the back (shame nobody sees it). One strap button fitted where the jack socket is, but sadly no second strap button. And no built-in tuner either.

The pick-up does its job well enough, but I have heard better. It can feedback when chords ring out at max volume (likely to be a PA/set-up problem). However, the unplugged sound is wonderful, just like my aging 1970s Yamaha FG-140. It's beefy when you hit it (nice palm muting), but is also responsive with delicate arpeggios. It has a lovely natural reverb. I can't praise the sound enough. Purrrfect!

Smooth satin finish all over the guitar, NICE!. The intonation is perfect way up past the twelfth fret!! One fret has a slight rough edge which occasionally snags the top E string when I grab the guitar of the stand (a minor issue). The neck joint is seamless and the cream binding is very nicely done. The action is perfect for me, not too high, not too low, no buzzing frets (I play blues mostly, so bending a lot). I often play it like an electric and the response from hammer-ons and pull-offs is very good.

Fells very solid and stays in tune, even throughout a lengthy gig in a hot room. The only thing I would say here is the pre-amp volume knob feels like it would snap off if you banged it, but hey, just be careful!

Never needed it.

I love this guitar, especially for the price. I shall keep it for life, and would buy another if it got smashed/stolen. As an unplugged acoustic, it sounds fabulous. And the wood is sumptuous to look at. I use it every week, plugged in, at an open-mic event with many different styles of music. It's just a great guitar that does the lot, strumming & picking, soloing.