Kona K1 L

It's a $100 guitar, what do you expect? Could be better.

I also have a Taylor guitar. This guitar is very close to the sound of my taylor. The trick is to take off the stock strings and throw on some Martin lights (the blue package). It sounds absolutely phenomenal for a cheap laminated guitar. But the top is laminated spruce. I think that's why it sounds so good.

The action sucks. Plain and simple. I've done some tweaking and still can't get it just right. But again....100 bucks.

Solid guitar, solid tuners. Stays tuned about 3 or 4 days. No big deal.

If you are looking in this price range..... DO IT! Nothing else will compare to the sound of this guitar for that price range. I guarantee you.

All the stuff advertised. $85 ,,,, $103 with shipping. By the way this is my first low-budget guitar and am surprised that the sound is so good. Heres my story. I needed a electric acoustic and went with an Ibanez AEL10 (i know.. this is supposed to be a low budget guitar but the best part of $400 isn't low budget to me!). If your considering the AEL10 guitar.. DON'T. It totally blows. Sounds like a cigar box and could definately use better string management applied to it. Plugged in, the Fishman preamp makes it sing like a bird BUT unplugged - forget about it!

anyway after the Ibanez fiasco I was beat down and broke. Went with this Kona because I figured anything could be made to sound better the the AEL10. I didn't buy the Kona K1 electric because I wanted to outfit it with a preamp myself and so I chose to cut my own holes. This guitar was a good choice.

Here we go! This is what we're really paying for right? The Kona fits my style perfectly; Christian pop, texas country, red dirt and some rock! The sound is very full... much more than I expected. I expected a bright, tinny sound but what I got was full rich. I've played this live already and got few "hey that sounds great... what is it?". Even my buddies were taken off guard by the fullness. Totally surprised me for a guitar in this price range.

I cut a hole into it to set a preamp and realized that the wood, although laminate, is thicker than I seen on other guitars. This probably attributes to the deep sound it produces.

The action wasn't bad but difinately wasn't perfect. I'm very critical on this and more so than most people so out of the box I immediately tore the crappy strings off and went to work. I filed down the saddle to lower the action to 3/32. I also had to adjust the truss to take a little bow out. The satin finish on this guitar looks great - Not a 10 but I didn't pay 1k for it either.

It seems like it will take a beating but only time will tell. The tuners.. I won't be able to testify to. I'm ditching those and going with a more reliable name. The tuners are the only feature I would change on the guitar.
The finish seems like it should be tuff enough to take normal abuse. Strap buttons are metal and sturdy. I keep a backup in case a string breaks but other than that this thing already has my confidence.

I've called them a two time:
to suggest a reseller -- the suggested P-Hill (Good responsive guys)
to get the deminsions of the tuner holes.. 10mm by the way.

both times I got through without wait and they seemed pleasant enough.

I own a Seagull (my overall favorite.. I don't gig with it), the Ibanez (my backup until somebody offers me $250 for it), and about 5 other electrics. If stolen I would buy another. I'm seriously surprised that these guys haven't developed a strategy to increase the sell price of this guitar. I can see people paying $250 - $300 for this guitar and being very happy about it. the sound of this guitar is the best feature. The 2nd best feature is the neck and feel of the guitar. If the K1E had a better preamp then I would have bought it. But hey.. I had fun making this a totally inexpensive project. I bought the Artec Edge BT (mic and piezo) preamp $60 and now I have one HELL of a guitar for under $200.