Encore W255

Standard western style dreadnought acoustic, laminated spruce top, nato back and sides, radiused rosewood fingerboard, enclosed tuners. Decent neck, same profile as my ageing 40 year old Yamaha dreadnought. The finish is good.

Good enough for a budget guitar and quite a lot better than guitars with basswood soundboards. Bright with reasonable bass. I'm quite happy taking this into the garden or on Caravan trips to play around the campfire. Goes nice with mandolin.

Action fit and finish are good to very good. The action on this one is very good. I can play barre's for as long as I can on my other guitars. I bought this in a boot sale in England for ??3 (about $6) with no strings, 1 broken tuner and one broken string peg. Restrung and refitted from spare parts (tuner was a good match) altogether cost about ??6 ($12) with new strings. So for that sort of money, well, take it out in the drizzle and play.

Seems good and solid, same construction as any other dreadnought, and much better than some of the really cheap ones off of ebay. This one had been bashed around through being chucked into the boot and obviously well used but everything is solid and good.

I am my own customer support.

Looked at the price new and I'd say good value for money. A good starter guitar, good for rough and ready sessions outside or just jamming about. I would take this anywhere.

Presuming this is the only w255 i know of, acoustic. feaures wise, its got all i could ever need for practising and playing. though an easy way to find my pick would be nice after it drops into the guitar but that happens.

This guitar sounds as any acoustic should. My style is, play it by ear nice and simple, no amps, no equalizers. the only complaint i could make is that the high (6th) string sounds like a cat being shot or eaten alive, but that might be my fault.

This is my first guitar so i don't have alot to compare too, aparently the pegs pop out but thats never happened yet, and i don't play gently that much

I don't know about this one, i've had it three months, its been in tune for the last two weeks wihtout me having to tweek it, so so far its geat, but i'll have to see

From the shop, exelent customer service, no warranty though i made that so.

overall this is a good guitar, great for learners, cheap . .ish fairly easy to use, i would definatly buy another one. i love its simplicity. I hate its bad press and its electric brother

Beginner-standard acoustic, made in China. I got it with gig bag, strap, and plectrums for ?80.

For a beginner, this will sound pretty good. However, during a single practice session, you may have to tune it multiple times. After you progress onto other guitars, you'll notice how bad this guitar really sounds.

This guitar is made of probably the cheapest materials known to man. I think the tuning pegs could be a little tighter. For a cheap guitar, it has quite a nice finish.

It seems to be a pretty solid guitar. Beginners can depend on it, but I would recommend upgrading it before playing gigs.

Customer support was very good. The staff were very helpful. Ignore the 1-year warranty though. If it breaks, just buy a better guitar.

This is a perfect choice for a beginner, but when I buy a new guitar, I'm going to set fire to this one and smash it to pieces. But seriously, it's more than adequate for someone just starting to learn.

see others for features

has a full sound, not particularly bright, compared to my epiphone which I feel is too bright

all the other reviews have been written by beginners, so part of their problems lie in their ignorance of guitars - i.e. everyone should change their strings regularly, if a bright consistent tone if that is what you want - how many of them have tried this guitar, side by side with another, with new strings on both???

high action when bought, but have taken out the extra 'shims' under the bridge, and now is fine, probably still higher than a top of the range, but that me you gets a good clear tone

excellent finish, good machine heads etc

pretty heavy, well made

no idea, but JHS are a pretty big, well known company, so if you really had p[roblems then I'm sure you could get in touch

do a search on the net for reviews from more experienced reviewers - at the time I bought mine I read a review from Guitarist magazine, which basically said that this guitar had a great sound, but the action was pretty high (which is something, along with a change of strings is something that can be altered fairly easily)

dreadnought spruce laminated top, 20 frets, nato body.. not bad..

sounds fine for an absolute beginner.. but two months into this thing and youll notice that there is something seriously wrong with it. like everythin! after a while it loses its touch and the sound becomes dull, strumming with your fingers is definitely not an option! without a pick, it sounds like strumming elastic bands fitted on a shoe box.

action was too high. too much fret buzz even after i've fitted all the strings i could possibly think of.. ive fitted martins and elixirs into this thing and even though i dont play it a lot, i have to change my strings every month. for some reason, my 3rd string just goes out of tune every hour or so. the scratch plate looks so cheap with that whole encore thing written all over it that i had to take mine off as soon as i laid my hands on it.

i'd give it a 9 for durability. its fallen off of my bed and been knocked about and kicked a few times and its still good.. a few dings here and there but nothing serious. everythin seems to be intact.. i havent dared [and never will] play this in front of people apart from my family though!

there is supposed to be a one year warranty for this thing but if mine broke down during that period, id just buy another guitar and use the old one as firewood

i bought mine about 18 months ago when i decided that i wanted a guitar. at that time i was just lookin for something that i can play with and didnt really want to waste my money on a guitar which would probably end up hidden in the loft. for an absolute beginner it sounded fine, but as i was progressing and given a chance to play other guitars i have noticed that everythin seems to be wrong with this one. i lost interest for a couple of months, and only went back to playin when i got a yammy. i wouldnt recommend this to anyone who's starting out. there's a lot more guitars out there that sound better at about this price range.

This guitar is composed of the cheapest materials known to man. The tuning pegs are awful and need adjusting every 5 to 6 minutes, and the electronic pick-up is a joke.

It sounds shit! Don't buy this guitar unless you need to smash it for whatever reason you may have. When you first put new strings on it, it sounds okay for about a day, after that it loses it and will give you a headache.

I seriously doubt that this guitar was put together by someone who knew what they were doing and if they actually did, then they weren't putting any god damn effort into it. The intonation is poor and some of the frets don't really give you a note at all. The thing is bloody difficult to play which is the only reason I ever use it (a training method. I think that this guitar is a flaw in itself and the only reason anyone ever buys one is because they just want a cheap acoustic and don't care about what its gonna sound like.

I've had this thing for 3 years now and its beginning to age. Its still in one piece but has gradually lost all of its cheap sheen. I wouldn't use this live unless I was drunk and didn't care. And it WILL go out of tune after you hit the strings with a respectable force.

N/A

I've played for 5 years now and need a new acoustic badly, this thing just won't do anymore! I also own an American fender strat which makes this thing seem ultra bad. I wish I had actually played this pile of shit before I brought it (although I do remember being happy with it initially). Every component on this guitar is bellow standard the entire body just feels cheap when playing it.

Bought this for #65, it has a standard large dreadnought style body with a largish neck/frets. Fairly simple to pick up and nothing complicated about.

Sounds ok to an absolute beginner but after a couple of months you will wish you bought something better. It has no character and you'll soon start to notice its faults if your a beginner.

Very solid adn can probably throw it around some. However the strings are awfull, its like playing with razor blades for strings. Change them! It will even make it sounds a bit better. Go for some soft to medium steel strings. Did find my first one to be misaligned and had to take it back. Guess that is what you get for mass produced cheapos like this

pretty durable and certainly heavy.
You wouldn't want to play live with it tho

customer support! just took the first one back and got it replaced no problems.

Even if your buying your first go to a guitar shop and spend a little more or you risk being put off before you even get going. Second hand and even ebay is a good place to look.

The laminated top is all shiney n nice at first, but it really doesnt last 4 long. all goodies r pretty crap n useless especially the strap n the pitch pipe. The pitch pipe is an absolute joke, it is no way a beginner can tune a guitar with that shit!!! however the pick is the best ever, nice soft n very grip. The whole guitar is absolutely solid, it is probably the most durable guitar in the world. It will simply with-stand ne hittin n droppin, even though we r suppose to look after our guitar. All the use of materials r from the cheapest form, i guess there is no compaint about that as it is the nearly cheapest full size guitar out there. N oh yeah the gig bag fit the guitar pretty well, n is somethin that is ok.

it is a traditional western guitar, the strings provide r the shittiest strings i have ever seen. No joke! The string gauge is extreme hard, it is above the hardest standard strings sell in ne music shop. with those shit strings, it is absolutely impossible for a newbie to enjoy playing n learn to play well in those shat, it will numb your fingers in no time or may even damage them permanently if playin with the pain for long time(if u r passionate). I know i am very negative, but i am just tellin the truth n my experience. The only way to over come the prob is to change those strings to a lighter gauge, ulta soft or soft. The sound is not particularly great, not much things i can say about it. oh yeah, also as the strings r already so hard n the bridge is high, the first fret is nearly impossible to fully access if u wanna play power chord.

not much action u can gain with those strings, change them before start playin.

Best durability u will ever find! dont even think about compare durability with this baby, it is solid as a rock.

who will so stupid get customer support, if a guitar fucked up u bound to get a new, their terms n condition have so much contraints it doesnt cover most of the damages u do neway. so bad huh, but it is ture, if u dont believe n brought one, u know i am tellin the truth

get it if u want have a bit of fun n u dont think your interest will last for long. if u r a beginner u will defininately need to prepare to change those rock hard strings, otherwise not much fun to play n learn. I suggest if u want a similar guitar, probably be better off gettin the yamaha F-310 it is around the same price with nicer sound n overall. in case i dont warn u it is a folky guitar, but it is still really cool. apart from that read other people review they also say pretty much about this guitar, take these review as a advice u may see it in a different way. (Many r really true in case i dont warn u)

This is the classic starter guitar from cheap warehouse type store which sells thousands of products including this.
Its a thick, hard, laminated top made in the far east probably last year, I am not sure of the wood but I will call it cheap as it is very thin, the dreadnought style is standard but the action and fret board are BIG!.
It came with a starter video, a pick (Which as a 1.0 was way too thick and it had encore on it) a cheap strap and a little pamphlet, oh and a nice one bottom zip gig bag, (Or hiding it bag)
It came with D'aggrio string which were shit but is easily replaceable

I bought this in January when I first started learning to play, I am a lefty but naturally play right so I thought this would do as a beginner, when you start most people do not have a great musical ear so any old crap will do.
To be honest I started with the standard Major chords, then Minor then so on and for the first few months it sounded great, altough I had to change strings every month or so as I was using it every day for three to four hours for six months.
With new strings, Big bright nice sound, good for rhythm, absoultely shit for fingerpicking, okay for bass.
It sounded fine for about four months, but as soon as your ear develops it sounds really dead and toneless, and is very very off putting.

It is made to last, it will withstand a LOT of shit and grime and mess, I've never put a pick up on it but the capo held well and it stays in tune pretty well for it's cheapo price.
The main obvious problem is barre chords, now i started barring after about two months and through sheer persistance i got to the point where it's now a piece of piss, yes the action is awful and after the fifth fret at A the sound is fucking terrible and tone and sustainless but the bet thing is if you learn to barre with this I Guarantee as soon as you find a better guitar with a better action and neck Barring will seem like playing Happy Birthday with B and E strings.
It's a bit like learning to drive a really shit manual car, after learning that anything else is a doodle.

Never play live, or to anyone, man it ain't that good.
It will last, but that is not suck a good thing, I mean turds also last if you know what i mean, The strap falls off all the bloody time, it really is a 100 percent first timers guitar.
It's off putting to play.

Come on, If I called this number I'd probably get a jap at my door an hour later with some 'flied lice'.

Play for five months, then the sound went slowly, I thought I had lost it musically, but no this is a pure as can be starter guitar.
I love it's price, I hate it's sound and durabilty.
Basically Buy it, try it, you will like it, as soon as you get a musical ear you will gooddamn hate the barstad.
An average to Shit guitar.
Get a 150-200 pound solid top with better action and better sound, you will know where that 200 pounds went.
And oh, yeah this is the same with every Encore, and come to think of it. any brand new guitar from japan under 100 samolians.
Ciaou.

Nothing special, standard dreadnought, laminate top, no cutaway, medium gauge strings i think. Mine came with a leaflet of guitar tutors which would be useful as it's a learner's guitar and also a leaflet which tells you generally about the guitar and how to change strings. Also useful for a beginner. It loses points though for the thickness of the neck and a couple of other things that i'll come to later.

This has a decent sound for a first guitar, quite alot of bass. Problem is, if you play a better guitar this sounds very muffled and some chords grate a bit after playing for a while (A and D especially). When barring the open A up to chords higher on the neck it sounds pretty bad. But if you are learnin rhythm guitar it should be ok for a few months to a year depending on how much you play.

This guitar comes with a pretty thick neck, so if you have small hands it can cause problems. For many people this will make learning barre chords very difficult. It's best to change the strings to 9 or 10 gauge otherwise the action is too high to play higher than fret 5. The build quality is very good, i can prove it by the kicking ive given it while i was trying to learn barre chords! there has been no cracking as far as i can see, or any braces or binding coming loose

This guitar seems to be able to take almost any amount of kicking or throwing that ive given it, although i haven't really tried to break it properly. The strap button is solid but id rather have had another near the neck because the strap keeps slipping. I wouldn't play live with this because it doesn't sound good enough, but ignoring that it would last.

I can't really say, i havent phoned or emailed the customer support and i think i had somekind of warranty but ive lost it.

I've been playing for about 20 months, this was the first guitar i bought when i wasn't really sure how well i'd do. I have better guitars now such as the Taylor Big Baby and Ibanez JX70 so i don't use this much any more. If you play alot like i do you may get above its level in about 3 or 4 months. If you have small hands it can hold you back, especially learning barre chords and if you stay with the same gauge as the original strings you might do your hand some damage if you play higher than fret 5. If you're only just starting and you're not sure guitar is your right instrument then this would be a good buy though, with a good low price.

It's a bog standard dreadnought acoustic. Not sure when made, probably in the 1990's, in somewhere like China and distributed in the UK. Laminated top with Mahogany neck etc. For a cheap guitar the finish is excellent, lacquered in gloss.

Sounds good, until you play a better quality guitar.

I'm not an expert, but a couple of good guitar player friends have had a go on it and spoke well of it.

A good guitar for carrying around because it plays well and is not expensive to replace if lost or damaged.

This is s 'starters' acoustic guitar at the lower end of the price range.
I've only been playing about 18 months but I'm beginning to appreciate what make s a good guitar. Although at the stage where I'm looking for something better than particular guitar, as a starter guitar, I can't speak well enough of it. It's well made, easy to play, looks nice and cheap enough to get you started.
My advice to anyone wishing to take up playing the guitar, would be to buy this one, change the strings to 9's (softer on the fingers) and just keep practicing with it.

laminate top acoustic made in china, 21 frets i think, dreadnought.
this is my first guitar and ive only been playin on and off for 6 months. no frills. bog standard everything.

sounds cheap, nothing special, played on a friends guitar slightly more expensive, sounded much better. it does make a noise though so i suppose that counts. sounded a bit too bright, probably cos it had cheap light strings on it.

well, as it was my first guitar i didnt have a clue about "action" so i just started playin. i must say that barre chords have not been fun, and tryin to do little solo bits is not easy either. my friends guitar was another fairly cheap one, cost him about #120 but the action on it was so much lower and it felt much nicer to play. so mine was, well, shite. finish? well, laminate. every so often you pick the guitar up and bits of wood fall from the sound hole, not good. currently the bridge is cracked and heavily chipped after trying to change the strings, the guitar is now unusable as a bridgepin snapped inside the bridge and is now jammed. the fact that i had to apply so much pressure to the pins to get them out just shows the "quality" of this instrument

well, if you decide to change your strings as soon as you buy it you will probably destroy it. i dont think it is built to last, the only warranty i have on it is from the store i bought it from sayin that they will give refunds on faulty equipment if returned within a year of purchase. oh yeah, i would gig with this guitar and have no backup.

never used em, it would probably be an untrained monkey.

useless peice of crap, good for learning what the chords look like on the frets, but that's about it. if you are a begginer, like me, pay a little more and get something decent. im off to the shop to get my new martin.