Esteban D-100 American Legacy

The finish is great! There are no streaking or bumps on the paint that you might expect from a hand-painted product. It is satiny smooth and "lustrous" as they say. I got a polishing cloth included when I bought it and I love polishing it up until it just glistens. I play with a band, just small mostly local gigs a couple nights a week, and it's great the way the guitar catches the light on stage.

I use the guitar in electric mode when I play on stage. The amp is more than powerful enough for a small venue (around 100-200 people) and if you crank it in overdrive mode you can rattle the windows. The cable it comes with is a bit short for me because I like to move around on stage do some moves like windmills etc. when I'm playing so I had to pick up a longer cable. You can get some pretty good feedback out of the amp if you like to work with that. Besides that I would like a few more channels on the built-in equalizer on the guitar, especially in the lower frequencies where I play a lot.

This guitar is beautifully made. I have had no trouble with loose pegs - tune it before your set and you're good to go. I play two hours and barely touch the tuning. The frets are well glued in. I never had one come loose. They are a bit sharp when you first get it, but after a couple months of playing they smooth out.

This guitar is solid. I don't know the kind of wood they use, but who cares? It's covered in paint and laquer. This baby can take a beating. I've had it for two years and played it every day and nothing has broken. In a gig, I play hard too. With the windmills, I smack it around pretty good. Actually this is pretty embarassing, but one time I did a spin on stage, and the cable wrapped around my leg and I fell right on top of the guitar. No damage, except to my pride.

Never had to call customer support.

I would have gladly paid ten times what I paid for this guitar. It's kept a roof over my head and food on my table for two years. If I had to pick between this guitar and my girlfriend, she'd be packing her bags!

2005 made in China (i think) 22 Jumbo frets this guitar reminds me of
a very expensive guitar
BODY STYLE Electric kind of archtopery about (16" width, 3" depth)
The TOP is Laminated select spruce I think
BRACING Parallel spruce
BACK AND SIDES Laminated select flamed maple back with matching sides
NECK One-piece mahogany
FINGERBOARD 12" radius, ebony, with abalone floral inlay at 12th fret
WIDTH AT NUT 2 1/16", Roscoe's bone
WIDTH AT 14th Fret: 2 1/2"
SCALE LENGTH 25"
NUMBER OF FRETS 22
TUNING MACHINES are like Schaller? Mini with ebony buttons
BRIDGE isn't Adjustable ebony
nor are the piuckups like the ones used on a B-7
HARDWARE PLATING looked ok
Gold looking tuning machines, with a black powder coated finish to them and tailpiece was the same
FINISH Great!
Gloss nitrocellulose lacquer, by the taste
COLOR is a Honey Blonde sort of midnight black shine to it
STRINGS looked to be custom pure nickel (.012 -.072)

How does it suit your music style?
Great!

Roscoe tells me that this baby was well made by a guitar factory somewhere in the rain forest. I think it was made in a REAL guitar factory, its not even wet...

I play this guitar at all my shows. Great for banging around, NEVER goes out of tune.
It didn't come with a strap button on it (maybe it fell off?)
It arrived with a small crack above the bridge, but that hasn't increased a bit in size for over a year

never dealt with the company but I bet they would be very helpful if I did.

I've been playing for over 3 years. This guitar, a banjo and a saw.
If it were stolen I would buy another one. I love the price but hate myself for it. I didn't shop around I just won the bid and never looked back. I think these are a fantastic value if you just want to play and you don't give a phuck what anyone else thinks of your talent.

Features:
Esteban Acoustic Elecrtic made China. Standard frets. Solid top, piezo pickup with active electronics. The active preamp is on the top side of the guitar and has bass, mid, treble, volume. There is a "low battery" led that lights up only when battery is low. The tone sliders and volume knob are solid and precise. Spruce top and mahogany sides, glossy finish. Dreadnought style body, sealed tuners. Neck is standard size with thin frets, rosewood fingerboard. This included a sturdy hardsell nylon case , extra strings(junk), strap, picks, instrument cable, two dvd's, two instruction manuals, chord chart, and 10 watt Esteban amplifier(basically only adequate for home practice - at best - I gave it away for nothing). All this for about $200.00 U.S. (much info here borrowed from another review - I had same package).

Sound: After changing to D'addario strings it is a very rich, full sounding guitar. No buzzing. Actually just a very sweet sound even for an inexpensive guitar. Sounds great plugged or unplugged.

Action: Nice low action, no buzz. Larger "C" type neck might be hard to play with smaller hands, otherwise very smooth. Tuners hold well, I check but do not have to retune guitar much even if I have not picked it up for a couple of days.
Finish: Gloss Black, not perfect but very nice. No dings, no exposed glue, really no problems. Would have liked a strap button at base of neck (I added one myself) just a preference to reduce stress on neck.

I belive with proper care this will be a long lasting guitar. Surface and paint holding well after 6 months. Everything on my particular guitar seems very solid. Maybe mine came out of a "Good Production Day" at the factory.

American Legacy customer service about as good as Cell Phone customer service - terrible!!!! I had wanted the black, but they sent natural. After a lot of "holding" on the phone, guitar finally went back and I got my gloss black. If I could give them less than a "zero" here, I would.

I have seen some of the other reviews and feel that I must have had good luck with my guitar as it has no problems to speak of. I've had it for about 6 months, and it still sounds as good as it did from the start (after changing strings). This is absolutely a good guitar for the price. Would I buy another one if lost or stolen? Probably not based on the horror stories from the other reviews, but I am very happy with my particular guitar.

hey guys been playin guitar since i was a kid. my hole familey plays.my friend brought his estban over and it looked great no flaws it was a limited edition cut away neck chrome tunners and a amp with over drive .you know so you can have a little fun.i was supper impressed.it sounded like the high dollar guitars and ive played them all martins, takkakimie,wash burn .

it sounds top shelf i play all styles of music country, rock and of course some suthern rock!!!

it has tons of great toys cords amps and cleaning clothes extra strings and a tuner and some great instructional dvds. also has a pretty nice case not top of the line but its will protect it from the elimants even has a strap for your axe and your case!!

yeah only played for a few hours . it sure sounded sweet and i only tuned it when i picked it up but thats a habbit for every guitar i pick up the guy who brought it over played for a while with it too. when we were done it still was in tune because i picked it back amazed at how good this guitar sounded the amp was okay two not top notch but look at the price it sure sounded better than eny carry on amp ive played and that over ride gives you that extra kick to do a lttle hard rock hello ozzy!!!

no never delt with them let but i can promise you that im gonna call to buy one of these guitars i travel and do some camopin i know it will be with me .

i own a martin and a ovation they sound great and play grat but this guitar sound just as well or even better but i paid a pretty penny for those!!

Don't know when it was made, I only used it at a camp my sister went to. It appeared to be made from particle board at best. Honestly, I have seen toy guitars that were made better (that is if this is anything more than a toy guitar). The inlays are actually decals and on the one I played were half peeled off. The tuners can only be described using words I cannot utter in this review. Basically, its some strings on a cardbard box with some hazardous chemicals the likes of which are only legal in China sprayed onto it. On yeah, and the thing had a really nasty smell, like some sort of chemicals.

It sounded like rubber bands on a cardboard box. The action was so high that even I could hardly play it, and I am an experienced guitarist and active musician who has unusually large hands. Really though, just because it has six strings does not mean it actually sounds like a guitar.

I would prefer not to go there, but I will say that this thing is probably a bio-hazard of some type as far as the finish. The fretboard appears to be junkwood covered with black die which rubs off on your hands as you play.

Hardware is horrible. Tuners slip. Does not hold a tune. It appears to be assembled with common wood glue and on the one I used the bridge was ready to pop of (lifting severely). The frets can hurt you, as in make you bleed due to their sharpness. Actually playing this in front of people would be about as good an idea as walking into a pre-school wearing plastic rap (at least that's what its owner told me, and I agree).

They speak a different language. Enough said.

I have been playing for about 8 years. I have taught lessons to various beginning guitarists. I own Guild, Yamaha, Larrivee, and Martin acoustics and Fender, Washburn, and Gibson electrics. This is absolutely the worst excuse for a guitar I have ever seen. It is even worse than those K-mart specials. You would be better off attaching strings to a cereal box (at least it that might be more durable). If you want to learn to play guitar, I would hope that you have enough sense not to order anything, expecially a musical instrument from a TV commercial. Here's my advice. If you want a guitar don't mail order one and don't buy one at K-mart or any other department store. Find an actual music store where you walk in and see keyboards and drums all over the room and guitar hanging from the walls and ask them what might be a good beginner guitar. Before you buy a guitar you should always play it, know where it's made and with what materials, and look it over thoroughly for any faulty workmanship. The absolute best thing to do is to find yourself a guitar teacher or an experienced musician and have them come with you to pick out a guitar. You'll probably end up with an Ibanez, an Alvarez, a Yamaha, or something similar. It will play well, sound good, and hold up reasonably well if you take care of it. It may not have electronics or fake inlays, but it will be a real musical instrument, and it will sound like one.

came with a lot of stuff, but it all broke within like a month. The amplifier broke very easily (all the buttons fell off), and even when it worked it sounded terrible.

-good case though!

the sound is actually not bad, if you can keep it in tune (a very difficult achievement)

well, the nut was held onto the neck with wood glue, and that just fell off once when i was playing. overall it seams to be poorly built, but miraculously it makes a fairly good sound.

?
not reliable at all, not durable at all. i give mine two years before it's in the trash. parts keep falling off, and i have to super glue them back on, since that's all they were held on with to begin with.

havn't called.

Acoustic sound- good
overall consturction- very bad
tuning- awful
amp- awful

Year of Mfg.= about 2 minutes ago, based on the smell of fresh glue
Frets?= I thought the is was wire used for spike strips 22 of them.
Laminated ten-ply paper thin ratwood. Solid Piece of S*(#.
Pre-Amp, Claims to be "Powerful" Powerful all right all I got was an incredible hum similar to a b-1 bomber flying at 200 ft.
Make and model of pickups. No fool would put there name on this crap but Esteban.
Electronics Passive or active, how about bi-polar.
Body= seasoned ratwood or somthing from the forests of the wal-mart trash bin. Neck was bowed so badly I could use it for archry. Should have come with a set of arrows. Come to think of it, now I know what I can do with it.
Finish= Don't even go there. This thing is a bio-hazard. It should be picked up by EPA. I'm sure the paints and stains used on the piece of crap are illegal in the USA. In China they can get away with exposing their 7-year old slave workers to death traps like this. The powers of universe should sentence Esteban to play one his guitars for eternity in the fires of hell!
Bridge=The bridge broke off the minute I tried to tune it. It flew across the room and I still can't find it. No loss it was made of freek'n plywood, just like the neck.
Tuners= Mr. Grover would roll over in his grave. They slip so badly it would not stay in tune for more than 30 seconds.

Neck,Frets= Warning... the finish stains your hands after playing it, the frets stick out past the neck with shap edges similar to razor blade. This POS is an enviromental hazard!
Accesories= Crappy strap, shotty case, stupid video of an idiot in a zoro hat. Should have come with a hammer to smash the thing the minute it came out of the box. Could not be recycled, due the bio-hazard. The thing smells like a enviromental waste dump. I'm not kidding!!

I guess if is was deaf it would sound good. It tins sound is similar to a cat trying to get out of garbage can.
Rattles everywhere.
Rich/full sound= You have to be joking. FU ESTEBAN
What sounds does it make? Sounds like a dull thud or buzz like a bee hive. Pick your option.

There was not set-up in the factory unless it was done by a brain damaged worked on drugs. Action is so high you could drive a truck between the strings and fretboard.
Did it contain any flaws? Finish was running, bracing looks like cardboard, fretwire is really razor wire, it stinks inside the sound hole like a dirty diaper, or some other kind of hole I can't mention here.

Reliabilty= The bridge blew off in about 2 minutes, strings snapped and the body began to crack.

Can I depend on it? I can't even depend on the local charity gift shop to take it. Te guy there said he had well over 100 Estebans, and could not give them away. He refused any more!

Support? Your joking right. Support implies help. All I got was three hours on the phone and no results. The guy on the phone did not speak english, nor did he give a damn. Esteban calls himself a recording artist. The only artist he is a con-artist. BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!

Just learning now I want to quit.
What could I have asked before buying? How long was Esteban in jail during his last stay for selling such crap and calling it a guitar.
My favorite feature was the beautiful colors it gave off when I torched it. Must be all the "exotic" paints and glues. Nice fireworks display. Best feature of the guitar.

Esteban should take off the fake Zoro hat and face the people he sold this crap to. Must be about 20,000 of us that would love to meet this con in person FU ESTEBAN! You thief

2005 model. It came with strings... six of them... I guess they think that makes this a guitar. Some people will believe anything. This stuff isn't even plywood.

Not playable with terrible action. Sound would be improved if we kept the strings and replaced the rest of the guitar.

Poor quality, poorly built of poor materials.

You are joking right? This is an esteban. Do you really think the poeple that wrote that this is a good guitar don't work for the company?

No idea. Maybe Estaban will come to my house and collect this piece of $%^&.

Playing 25 years.
Wish I know it was not really a guitar before the purchase.
Replace it? I just hope not to be charged to dump it. Goodwill turned it down. They said they have had several of them but THEY GET RETURNED!

Purchased the Legacy guitar online about eight months ago.

It arrived quickly with no delay.

The guitar "package" comes complete with a ten watt amp,chord, strap and a bunch of other goodies. It has an onboard equalizer of sorts.
The padded cas is actually quite nice.

The sound is amazing in that it sounds better than my $1500.00 Martin!!! The sound is bright and the tomnal quality really good. It rings like a piano with impressive resonance.

However, it sounds crappy played through the supplied amp.

All real good and looks great. In fact as good as near any I have seen anywhere close to this price or even guitars priced hundreds of dollars higher.

Tha action is a bit uncomfortable for me, but, may not be for others. However, how can you complain at this price.

Hav enot had it long enough

Have not been able to contact

Ok, now down to the nitty gritty!

The tuners slip constantly making it impossible to keep in tune for more than ten minutes of playing. Also, the intonation seem to be way out. The chord sounds good here and then out of tune there..it's crazy! Maybe the neck is warped even though a new guitar.

If it was stollen I would pay the guy to take it far, far away!!

No kidding. I play the guitar to relieve stress, not induce it.

It's a beginner's guitar in my book. Estaban would be better dumping the amp and putting in better tuners in it's place.

Lots of features, but not all worked!! Bad EQ

Actually sounds better than a $200 guitar should

Action was just fine, Fit and Finish was absolutely pitiful... Guitar 1 had a bad EQ so it was sent back. Guitar 2 is going back for the same reason and I'm getting a Yamaha tomorrow. BOTH guitars had LOTS of glue, nicks, etc. and the second guitar had some wood missing where the EQ goes, pretty crappy.

Both guitars had bad EQ, customer service is horrible (left their system set up on Christmas so you thought you were in queue but of course noone ever answered... you are number 9 in line, etc. etc. 8 other suckers apparently when I called.

Long hold times, etc.

Lastly, hows this... AMERICAN LEGACY...made in Communist China.. RRRRRrrrrr

Look elsewhere (Takamine's entry and yamaha's gigmaker deluxe comes to mind)