Epiphone C-40

Unsure of year made, bought new in January 2004. Made in Korea. Not sure of woods used. No electronics. Paid $220. Typical classical set up, fat neck, no fret markers. Heavy gloss finish, tuners are weak, factory strings suck - replace them with high end string ASAP. It has no features to speak of so I guess it gets an average rating.

I work for a company that requires it's employees to take a hour lunch everyday. That leaves me 45 minutes after I eat and crap to practice my guitar. So I kinda wanted a cheap guitar since I leave it at work everyday. If it were to get stolden or damaged I would not be too upset. The sound of this guitar is descent for practicing and for the begining student, it's a cheap guitar so I'm not sure what to say. When you put better strings on it - the sounds is fairly good. This guitar has helped me open the door to finger picking, I like the nylon string sound and feel.

The fit and finish on this guitar is solid, can't really complain for the price. The action was good from the factory. The finish is a thick gloss so it should protect it well. No flaws to speak of. It's a rather nice looking guitar for the money.

This is as basic a guitar as you can get, I can't imagine how it could let me down. Solid construction, good all the way around. This guitar is great for practice and taking to lesson.

Never used them

I've been playing for 2 years. I can not brag about myself because I'm not that great of a player. Still learning the basics. My other guitar is a Taylor 410 Dreadnought. I've owned a couple others guitars aswell. This guitar is a solid buy, no regrets at all, very nice to play. If you want to start learning guitar, this is all you really need. Also this guitar is a nice addition for somebody that a steel string and wants to try the classical set up for a change.

This classical acoustic guitar was made in Korea, in 1998. The top appears to be spruce, with rosewood fingerboard and mahogany neck and sides. Scale length is at 25.5". Hardware is gold plated. The guitar came with a gig bag and an Allen key for the truss rod.

Nice price/performance. Sounds good for classical music and fingerstyle jazz. Best sound with high tension D'Addario Pro Arte strings, but I use the medium tension to reduce bridge strain in Indian climatic conditions. Not very loud though. I've stuck a Shadow passive piezo pickup on the soundboard and this sounds quite nice for gigs through a solid state amp with a reverb. Tone is fairly consistent all over the fingerboard.

The action needed a little adjustment, easy with the truss rod. The higher frets needed some work with a mallet. The finish is bumpy at points, but the guitar is quite robust. Tuners are not up to par, one knob fragmented in a few months. The wood selection is good, and te bracing is nicely done.

The truss rod, rare on a classical instrument, is useful in India, even though it adds to the neck weight. It should withstand live playing if handled carefully, and not exposed to the weather.

Nice guitar for its intended purpose: as a reasonable practice guitar for classical music and a second guitar for live jazz gigs. Would recommend it as a good student guitar for anyone learning classical music, as the neck is full-sized without being difficult to play.