Ashton D-65SCEQ

Everything's in to what I needed from an electric acoustics guitar.

The price is comparable to an acoustics guitar for beginners but I'm telling you now that what the best acoustics guitar out there can do - this guitar can do!

This guitar really sounds great! Shall I say with the sound of excellence. I compared this one against that of Yamaha's acoustic guitar and I really felt the big difference.

The sound is crisp. That's attributed to design and wood used in the body.

Using amp really exposes the rich resonance produced by body.

Perfect.

Excellent.

You won't be ashamed to put along side with Maton or Martin.

But except the gold plated tuning pegs; which I would love had it been in silver.

Hmmmmm... Reliabilty is excellent as it delivers sound beyond your expectation.

Durability is a matter of how you take care of your guitar - don't smash it.

Warrant is for one year; good enough. Customer support pretty much available locally. I haven't got any reasons to knock their doors yet.

It is a measure of pleasure that I get from this guitar that I would rate this model and brand with a 9.

This cutaway dreadnought was made in China in 2005. Ashton is an Australian company and they claim the guitars are designed in Australia. It has a solid spruce top and laminated rosewood back and sides. The neck is mahogany. The neck is a nice piece of rosewood, as is the bridge. The neck radius is a bit larger than standard.
It has a pickup, and the output offers a balanced canon connection as well as the usual 1/4 inch jack.

I should mention price. This was $100 off retail price but even at $500 Australian this guitar is amazing value, as it has a pickup and imho a pretty good acoustic sound. Rosewood, even laminated is a premium wood for back and sides.

I liked the sound of this guitar compared to my mahogany back and side Cort acoustic. It produces a strong bottom end. The top end is a little thin, but not harsh. It has a mellow tone overall, does not sound cheap or harsh. The sound is resonant and harmonic. I was impressed enough to buy one! I was after something with rosewood back, and this guitar seems to confirm the stronger bassier response from rosewood. The pickup sounds good, and recreates the tonal response of the guitar well, however not as complex and resonant as the fishman prefix plus pickup on the Cort. The Cort by comparison has no bottom end and is overly bright through the pickup, however acoustically is stronger in the mid range and tops, perhaps because it has a solid mahogany back.

I bought this guitar because it was really well set up and the neck is a real pleasure to play. The thicker radius is really nice and makes the neck feel rock solid. It made me realise how much I was struggling with the Cort neck, which is skinnier, felt unstable and has a tough action.

The rosewood on this guitar is beautiful, as is the coffee coloured maple binding on neck and sides. The soundhole has a very attractive timber patterned inlay. I guess this is what you get from cheap labour in China. The quality of the rosewood neck timber is excellent, the dot inlays are maple. The top is not as fine as the Cort, it is rather course grained and not so attractive. However with age this top will get better looking (and sounding).

The gold tuners work fine but are definitely a step down from, say, grovers. The pickup panel has fiddly little sliders for the graphic and a tiny volume knob. Time will tell how the electronics stand up. The guitar is still a new purchase so can't comment on reliablility. It does seem very well put together, lovely dovetail joint on the solid mahogany neck.

Ashton market their guitars with this bearded luthier dude looking like he carves every instrument himself by hand. I didn't even check the warranty!

I have been playing bass and guitar for over 20 year. I own several other acoustics, a squier strat and musicman stingray bass.

Love the action and playability of this guitar. It has a great neck. The rosewood looks beautiful and imparts a strong bass response. A little thin on the top end. Would love to see a smaller body model with same timber.

The price is incredible and I prefer this guitar to my $1000 Cort MR730FX.