Antoniotsai Dreadnaught

Having one guitar for about a year and purchased a second Antoniotsai dreadnaught, I am posting some general comments -
Both have spruce tops, very attractive wood grain or figuring and beautiful abundant inlay work.

The rosewood-backed guitar sounded very constricted at first, like a decent $2-300 guitar. It has opened up considerably over the year and now produces truly high-quality sound as one might expect of a good guitar made of these woods.
The maple-backed one sounded surprisingly good right from the start, with unusual resonance and richness of tone for an instrument made of this wood.

The rosewood guitar developed a few cracks in various locations within a couple months. I stabilized them with cyanoacrylate and they did not develop further, nor did new cracks occur. The maple guitar has be crack-free in the couple months I have had it.
Yes, there are several craftsmanship defects that have been noted in other reviews, such as sloppy glue, etc., but I do not find these troublesome for the price and overall value of the instrument. One had poor nut placement and intonation issues that required carefull adjustment; the other was good in that respect. Fretwork is not the slickest, but playable and usable and can be touched-up. It would be nice if larger frets were used, to make refinishing easier.
Based on these two, you can probably count on some degree of setup work.
One strange thing is the variations in size and shape - both in the ones I received and the advertised dimensions. It's not really a problem, just a curiosity.
The inlay work, if fitted with great precision, would be worth many times the price of the guitars. It is not fitted with great precision, but is certainly quite beautiful anyway and still an excellent value.

Aside from the possible cracking mentioned above, the guitars seem solidly constructed.

One of the guitars arrive with damage that was obviously incurred during shipping. I quickly found out that the 'shipping insurance' does not really cover anything much - don't count on it. Return is still at the buyer's (considerable) expense. However Antoniotsai did credit back a small amount toward repair costs.

You can certainly complain about relatively minor workmanship defects. The cosmetic ones personally did not bother me too much; the fretwork and intonation ones are indeed troublesome. The inlay work and selected wood appearance are very atractive, especially for the price. The two I have developed 'high-quality guitar' tone (I have had several outstanding guitars over several decades for comparison). They seem to vary a lot in many ways, so you take a bit of a chance on the defects. You can probably count on adjsutments by a luthier or skilled technician. You can probably not count on shipping insurance protecting you from much.
Overall - a bit chancy, but they look very nice, can sound quite good indeed, and can be adjusted to play quite well. If the intonation is not too wacky, these guitars can be an excellent value.

Standard 20 fret deadnought (14 to the neck), solid top and all solid woods - Mekong rosewood and Canadian spruce top. Beautiful inlay work on the back, fretboard, headstock and rosette. Good tuners. These are sold as Taiwanese guitars but I believe the guitars are made in Vietnam under Taiwanese management. The woods used are beautiful but have a tendency to crack because of (i) poor humidity control in the factory - so they dry out in non-tropical climates and (ii) heavy inlay adds to cracking in some models, a problem which may be bogged up at the factory with wood filler (as with this dradnought).

Good medium quality guitar which needs some modifications and setup (see below). Balanced sound.

Poor setup and (other than the inlay work) some rough finishing (eg nut, fretboard). I have had several of these guitars and they all share this problem - the fretboards (while attractive with their inlay) and frets need a good dressing AND the bridge needs to be lowered about 2 or 3mm. The nut and saddle also need filing. Then they become playable. (Intonation is usually good, but on one 00 model I needed to re-rout the saddle slot.)

Very solid guitar - but see note above about cracking in wood.

Not good - guitars generally delivered reliably but poor communications in dealing with problems.

This review applies to an Antonio Tsai deadnought, but draws on experinece with other Antonio Tsai models (Parlor and 00) I have purchased. I was fascinated by the woods and inlay work, bought a few but am now rationalising my collection. Basically these are very nice show guitars, but they need some work (see above) for playability. Once modified and setup properly they play as a nice mid range guitar. The woods are often subject to cracking. Nice to hang on the wall, but will not replace your Larrivee / Martin /Taylor.

This is an update, one year later, of the guitar I ordered. The 9 rating reflects my overall estimation of value; not necessarily because I think it is a 9 out of 10 in the universe of all guitars. That being said, it is certainly worth the $450 shipped price that I paid. Initially, I did not think much of the sound. The inlay work is stunning and of high quality, making it a very good value if guitar was just reasonably playable, which it was. The woods (solid rosewood and spruce) are also nicely grained and of high quality. The overall construction and design are solid and well-made. However, the fine-finishing (the laquer is OK) leaves a bit to be desired. The glue is sloppy, but it is strong and does not affect much besides minor appearance issues. The fret and intonation finishing on mine was poor, but I read that it was good on others. It took a bit of work on the action (frets, saddle and nut placement) to get the intonation right.

My guitar developed a few hairline cracks during the first 2 months. Since I maintain proper humidity, I don't know if this was from inadequate curing or from climatic differences. The cracking was promptly arrested and did not develop further. After a few months the sound began to develop very well. Overall sound changed from constricted to one with a very nice balance, tone like a higher-quality guitar.

In summary I would say that it has the materials and construction of a nice-quality guitar with outstanding, if not outrageous, appearance. Having only one of these guitars, I can not attest to their consistency. You may have to repair a few minor cracks (no big deal if you catch them early) and do an overhaul of action an intonation. The sound quality has developed very well. It is a very good value and worth a bit of tweaking if you need to do it.

Made in Taiwan 2004 I think. Spruce top, rosewood back and sides. 14 fret full sized dreadnaught. I bought it new.

Not bad sound but not great. I think I was expecting a bit more.

The action was surprisingly good and was easy to play.

I had it for 4 days and the back developed 6 long cracks in the finish. I contacted Tony Tsai(the manufacterer) and he said it was the climate where I live.I've been playing guitar for 43 years.What kind of BULL is that.

After numberous emails to the manufacterer he finally told me to send it to his service depot in the USA.After the guitar arrived there the reciever said it was damaged by the shipper and did not qualify for warranty that had "so told to me", 1 year. After much delay I finally got it back. I saw that there was a large crack on both sides of the end pin. It looks like to me that the guitar was smashed on the floor using heavy force, deliberately damaging the guitar. The case was in perfect condition. I am confident the shipper did not do this. You don't have to be a CSI to figure this out. I emailed the USA service depot and that guy was really nasty with me. Anyway, the shipping company would not pay for the damage after they had inspected it. The warranty is not worth anything....It is totally fraud. My emails were never replied to after this.

I have been playing for 43 years. I also have a D28, a Fender Strat (USA made)and a Washburn D10S

Taiwanese-made. All solid Rosewood and spruce woods. Wonderful inlay work. Fairly heavy gloss finish, appears not be be nitrocellulose. Decent cheap hardware. Apparantly handmade with adequate workmanship, but not what you would expect from a good luthier.

Plusses: General sound quality is pretty good - almost what you would expect from a basic rosewood and spruce guitar. Despite heavy feel (which may be due to all that MOP and wood thick enough to set it into) the guitar has good resonance and sustain. Minuses: Intonation is poor, even after custom-compensating the saddle. Dead of off-sounding notes. Overall fret job is not bad, but will need leveling. A good $300 guitar will probably sound better.

See above. Overall finish impression is pretty good. You won't have to be too picky to find flaws, but I did not find them too abjectionable on my instrument.

Will probably remain stable and looks like it will be solid. Mine developed minor (so far) cracks after a few weeks in local climate (Spring, New England).

They seem to be helpful, however repair/return incurs $160 round-trip costs for transportation alone.

I've been playing about 40 years, mostly steel-string acoustic. Over the years, I have owned and/or played most of the better known fine guitars, including those that sell for several thousand dollars. This is an art object that is also a playable (see intonation comments) decent-sounding guitar. If that's what you would like, it is a very good value. If the artwork is not you chief priority, you can most certianly find better playing and sounding instruments under $500.