Morgan Monroe M25FE

Finish gloss but not treacle dreadnought cutaway, grover open tuners 'V' section neck, solid cedar top, solid mahogany body fishman pickup/equaliser/tuner

Unbelievable, deep, rich full bell like quality. Perfect intonation.

Excellent finish of body but slight buzz mid fingerboard when it arrived.

I do not play live (I have too much sympathy for humanity) but have no doubt it would handle it well and it stays in tune pretty well, there is nothing about the construction which seems questionable.

No opinion

I have been attempting to play guitar for 51 years and have had many instruments, currently a PRS, Yamaki Performer 1979 and old Spanish. I have never owned a jumbo before but have looked long and hard visiting many music shops seeing many attractive guitars, for me the importance is TONE, INTONATION and APPEARANCE in that order but usually just had to try the top and bottom E strings while still on the display rack to find out the sound was dead. In 1980 I had a go of an old Hohner jumbo which had a magic sound and was looking for with a similar tone, the sort that you just don't want to put down. I have to say that this Morgan Monroe is even better, the intonation is perfect and the looks, well great. I have a friend who has an old Martin which he values at over $3000 and it sounds dead compared to this guitar. I live in France but bought it on ebay USA after it had been used for an hour on a recording session, when it arrived it could have been sold as new. There was a slight buzz on the fingerboard when it arrived but I am aware of the effect of humidity changes on jumbo's so I didn't touch the truss rod and after three weeks settling down the buzz went on it's own. I have never played a guitar before with the 'V' section neck but I find it to be an excellent idea. I will never sell this guitar.

Gloss finish over solid rosewood and very nice peice of spruce on the top. Ebony fingerbord fitts my hand perfectly. No finish flaws,no extra glue inside and great attention to detail.

Rich full wide range of sound. Great balanced sound. Great,Great,Great.Better sounding than my Taylor,Tacoma,D18 martin,Washburn.I love this thing.

No Issues at all.

very sturdy, I woulld prefer closed tuners but these open ones work fine.Finish is deep but not what I would call thick.

I have been playing since I was 13 and I am now 58 so I have had a few guitars this is my all time favorite.I used to play in a Bluegrass group but have not for 20 years or so but see no issues in using this on a gig. It is also a great guitar for my finger pickin.

Nice China-made D-28ish Dreadnaught cutaway, gloss finish, SOLID rosewood back/sides, SOLID 3mm Sitka Spruce top, EBONY fingerboard & bridge, pearl dot inlays, Japanese Ivoroid binding on body, neck, & headstock, inlaid "Morgan Monroe" shield (looks like maple) on black headstock, open-type GROVER STA-TITES, BONE nut and compensated saddle, seem to be stainless steel frets, equipped with FISHMAN Classic 4-T (with digital tuner built-in), foward-shifted X-braced top, scalloped "Vintage Voiced" bracing pattern, coarse herringbone top inlay. Came with a very nice "faux gator" brown case w/ hygrometer and double neck support, pretty snazzy if I do say so.

The sound is pretty decent for a cutaway, and darn good for a new guitar. The solid rosewood helps the sound, and will probably get richer and even louder as time goes on. Bright, with plenty of punch, decent bass, and (the best part) TONS of sustain. The Fishman Classic 4-T worked very well, as was expected, with plenty of variety in settings. Plenty of volume, good controls, though 2nd string seemed to be slightly louder than the rest through the piezo. The built-in tuner was a nice extra, and a handy thing to have in noisy rooms. Stays in tune pretty good. HOWEVER - - a couple of frets buzzed significantly, near the middle of the scale. More on that later.

Fit and finish was not the best on this guitar. Apparently there is NO factory set-up with Morgan Monroe's, or there wasn't in this case! Some irritating sharpness on edge of fingerboard, and several frets were sharp on ends. Even after adjusting truss rod, the action was uncomfortable after a while, and there was some fret buzz even with a medium-high action. After sighting down fingerboard, I noticed several high or poorly-seated frets, which explained the fret buzz problem. And (this is BAD) the intonation between chords around 1st, 2nd, and 3rd frets was screwy. After a visit to my luthier, he measured the scale and found that the bridge saddle was cut in 1/16" too short on the treble end!!, which meant the bridge slot was cut at too much of an angle! This type of thing is inexcusable for a guitar of this caliber and price (poor quality control). I also noticed a couple of finish flaws in the rosewood back (touch-up spots), a small 1/2" check in the top finish near the soundhole, and a white cloudy patch on a long section of the herringbone binding (underneath the clear varnish!) Inside braces and interior was clean and neat, showing no traces of glue or splinters. The outlet jack/strap button assembly was loose. Varnish job and polishing was decent and generally smooth, but some lumpy unpolished spots on neck binding.

After a quick saddle re-slot job and fret-seating (and glueing) by my luthier, this guitar now plays much better, and I expect that it will open up in time and be somewhat of a cannon, as soon as the solid woods have time to settle in. The finish is pretty thick, and should stand up to knocks and dings. It's a fairly well-made and sturdy instrument, and rather heavy unfortunately, which means it will be fairly durable in the long run. Too bad it had so many defects when I first received it, and I'm probably going to just sell it and let someone else enjoy it from now on. The urge to keep it is has been compromised at this point I'm afraid, and I don't know if I can trust it from now on. I never play without a backup.

I have no idea about the customer support. I got my luthier to fix the problems I discovered in intonation (bridge saddle slot) and frets being high. It is brand new, and under warranty I suppose, but I figured it would be simpler to have my luthier fix it here since these weren't fatal flaws, and save me the trouble of sending it back and possibly getting a replacement which may be worse. It's a lifetime warranty, but I have never dealt with them before. It seems to be a smaller import outfit not associated with a bigger musical distributor. I had a local dealer order this one for me (mistake) without playing one in the store first. Hate to admit it, but that was just plain stupid, and after all these years I should have known better.

I've been playing for 40 years, the past 20 semi-professionally, and have had many guitars. I recently needed a decent-sounding solid wood acoustic-electric guitar to use in a singer-songwriter duo, and figured this would be good after hearing and reading good things about this line. Suppose I may have gotten a lemon here, but sure wish I could have had one to try out in the store before I ordered one purely from heresay. If it were lost or stolen, I'd cry for the money invested, but I wouldn't buy another Morgan Monroe for any reason. There are clearly much better choices out there for the money, even MUCH better choices for LESS money! I like the sustain this guitar has, and it's clarity, but not much else. Intonations still isn't perfect, after all the work I've had done to it, and I'm really to the point I'm ready to sell it and move on. Most garden-variety pickers wouldn't notice the intonation issues, but I sure do and it's very irritating. Many imports in most categories blow this one away, i.e., Blue Ridge, Takamine, Alvarez, Guild, the list goes on. I simply cannot recommend this guitar to anyone unless you don't mind to have it worked on to get it right. Life's too short, and there are many other better (and cheaper) guitars out there.

Basically it is a very good chinese copy of a Martin D28 with a cutaway and an OK piezo pickup. Mine came with Arctec - now the use a Fishman Classic 4. So here is the good news. Beautiful Rosewood back and sides - solid no laminate anywhere. Decent Spruce Top, Mahogony neck, bone nut and saddle - pre-war bracing. I think this is made in the same factory that makes the lower end guilds and martins. So killer wood - very nice construction - decent pickup.

This is a virtual copy of a martin D28. Same wood, same bracing, same everything they could copy. The sound on this thing is perfect. Very clean highs nice lows from the rosewood. The pre-war bracing is great - very responsive to finger picking or heavy strumming. The sound is excellent.

There are no flaws on this guitar. The action was too low so I tweaked the truss rod and now it is perfect. I got the V neck version - so it is very easy to play. The tuners are vintage open back -prefer closed tuners - but they work fine. The bookmatch on the top is a 9 and on the back it is a 10 - very nice.

Again - its a copy of a D28. Is it as good as a D28. No - is it 90% of a D28 - Yes. Hey - I had $700 - which included the case and shipping, guitar strap, tuner and some other stuff from Instument alley. Played it a lot and no problems. Always have two guitars if I am working - strings break more than guitars do.

I have no idea. It is from China - but it is well made. Lifetime warranty - have no idea on how to use the warranty. Probably never need to be repaired - it is well maid. Keep the humidity up for all wooden guitars and don't do anything stupid like put them in a hot/cold car or next to a heater in your home.

I have been playing since I was 7 - am just over 50. I can't count that high - have lots of guitars. Always wanted a rosewood martin - can't afford one - well actually I can - but over 2 grand is a lot of money. So bought this for fun - like a lot. I have a taylor and 3 guilds. There all good - this one plays and sounds like a martin. Check out instument alley - all kinds of stuff - morgan monroe makes nice guitars and decent banjos.