Kona K1ETSB

Nice Black finish in cutaway style, grover like tuners that seem to work fine, standard neck. Laminated top. Built in electronics with EQ piezo pickup. Made in 2008 in China for the Kona company in the USQ. For the price this is a real nice looking guitar, has nice unique look and looks to be solid and well built. Set-up was Ok a little high on the higer frets but still palyable, small adjustment will fix this. Came with D'darrio strings which are fine but I think I'll replace them with some Martin phosporbronze lights.

Has really nice warm tone that has its own personality, nice lows and highs, lacks a little of the mids but its a cutaway dreadnaught. First impression is this guitar sounds a lot more expensive than what it cost. It has a quality to the sound that you dont get unless you spend at least a 100 dollars more. I think its up there with the ibanez AW series. I play acoustic rock and blues and seems to suit my style. I have put in open G and its got a nice bluesy sound that responds well with a slide. Intonation was OK. I bought this as a travel guitar really to play while I live overseas and havent been diappointed. I havent plugged it in yet so i cant comment on the pickups and electronics but check out the other reviews. Based on the quality of the sound unplugged I would have no problem playing this live.

Set up was Ok. Can be played out of the box. I will lower the action and put on a decent set of strings. Finish for the price was fine. Some over spray around the sound hole. But overall its a real nice looking axe.

After a good couple of hours of thrashing till the fingers gave way it was still in tune. I think it would stand up for a live performance. Can't speak for the electronics so dont know how reliable they are.

10 year warranty on body 1 year on electronics. They seem to be genuine with respect to producing quality on a budget.

I've been playing for 23 years and have number of guitars. Ibanez performance 6 string and 12 string. Takamine G series acoustic. Se Han acoustic cutaway. Epiphone 56 reissue Goldtop, Fender Squier Telecaster. These are all back in Australia so the comparisons are from memory. Unplugged the Kona doesn't sound as nice as my ibanez or takamine but it comes close. It come close to the SeHan acoustic which was made in Korea in the 80's and this feels to be as solid as this one. The Kona is fantastic value for money, it would siut a beginner as its easy to paly with rewarding sound.
If it were stolen I would buy another. I'm living in the caribbean so I couldnt really try a heap budget guitars and bought this of ebay. Thought I'd never by a guitar of ebay bit really had to take a gamble on this. It payed off and its a nice easy guitar to play. The guys I bought it off at Butler music were sensational. Thanks Andy and Jeff.

Gloss Finish, Tobacco SunBurst with Red Tinge, inside Black border next to binding. Dreadnaught cutaway Body, Tuners are gold and don't have a name but look like Gotoh tuners, just like the ones on my Ovation. Rosewood Neck, standard 20 frets. No accessories were included. Made in 2006, the label inside the guitar, only says hand made by Kona Guitars Ft.Worth, Texas. No where on the guitar can I find the words made in China and it doesn't have the feel of a China made guitar, I've owned several China made guitars in the past. I believe it has a solid spruce top, on their website it specifies that these guitars have a laminated spruce top but this one sounds so good and I can't see the normal plies around the sound hole only the grain of a solid top. It has built in electronics with 3 band EQ and a volume knob and a presence slider control, with a piezo electric pickup under the saddle. No onboard tuner. The body is laminated Nato which is a similar wood to mahogany.

It suits my style of music just fine which is a blend of country, bluegrass and classic and modern fock and last but not least Gospel.
This guitar has a rich full sound with wonderful bass tone and smooth treble tone and the sustain of the notes is great, when I plug this guitar in it sounds just as good electrically as it does acoustically, I was really surprised it sounded so good for a guitar in this price range. I lke the way it looks and the way it plays, I've played high Taylors and Martins and Larrivees that is you close you eyes and had someone play their high dollar guitar alongside this one you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart.

The guitar was very well setup, I've only found one fret that buzzes a little but I'm going to file it down just slightly and that should take care of that. The top is perfectly bookmatched, the bridge is near perfect as far as I can tell, I haven't found any other flaws. Theguitar is put together very well and has a solid kind of heavy feel to it, when I first piced it up in the store that's the thing I noticed right away and then when I picked the first E Bass not and started playing it I was hooked and I said to my wife "My this guitar sounds as good as a Taylor.

This guitar will definitely withstand live playing and the hardware seems like it will last and the finish should last with the proper care and polishing occasionally. The strap buttons are solid and I think I can depend on it for playingg live without a back-up

The warranty is for 5 years, I haven't had to deal with the company yet so I can't comment about them.

I've been playing for 40 years and I've played many different brands and types of guitars. I own several electric guitars, Peavey T-60, Ovation Breadwinner, Samick Telly Copy, Epiphone Acoustic. I think if this guitar was stolen I would try to find another one. My favorite feature is simply the sound and the playability of this guitar. I did compare it to several other guitars, I had gone to 5 different stores the day I found this one and I chose it because it just felt like a well made American Guitar and sounded so good.
I would like to share this though, if you go out to buy one of these guitars and you pick one up and play it and it doesn't sound good, go and try another one just like it. I played another one just like this one, in the same store and it sounded horrible. So since these guitars are handmade, they all are not going to be the same, they must have made this one out of some very good tone wood. But all that I can say is you'd better go and find your self one of these guitars before they figure out that they've a very good product and raise the prices. All it's going to take is for a super star to start playing one of these and endorsing it and the price is going to go up drastically.