Esteban Granada

I had purchased this Esteban Granada Guitar off of HSN. I have to say I was nervous about all the reviews that it had but I could not find one negative thing about the guitar. It arrived excactly as expected with no problems. No dents or glue marks and extremely well built with a great look.

The sound is awesome with no BUZZ. Full and rich with sound. The amp that this guitar comes with just rocks. On overdrive this guitar totally will blow you away. Great sounds!

The guitar is in mint condition.

This guitar will for sure be good to play live. Dont listen to bad reviews, you can for sure rock with this live. I would never play a gig without a backup. However very dependable.

Have never had to deal with CSRS for the company.

Esteban is amazing. Oh yeah and his CDS are totally worth the money. He does a great job at promoting a great product.

Lindenwood body, solid spruce top. Bought it from HSN who claimed it had a plywood top. Esteban site said solid and indeed it is solid wood and sounds great! It's a very solid, pretty guitar, much better than I expecteed for the price.

This guitar is played both electric and without. It has plenty of rich sound even without the amp. I have rearely used the amp because the guitar sounds great without it. I am comparing it to my other guitars which are a Takamine G128s, a Seagull s6 and a Yamaha 45m. I have to tell you that the Esteban is more fun to play than the others and it blows the Yamaha away.

After reading bad reviews on esteban guitars, I did not expect much and really just wanted the lessons so when i opened the box, I was pleasantly shocked to find a very beautiful instrument! The action was perfect for me and requires no tampering.
The wood is very pretty and the grain resembles my Tak only lighter in finish. There was not a blemish anywhere.

I have only had the guitar a month but so far no problems even though I'm playing the hell out of it. The wood seems incredibly solid and so does the sound for what I paid for it.
The case zipper is not good but functions.

Warranty is one year.

I have been playing going on three years.
Not only would I buy another of these if it was stolen, I intend to buy a steel string Esteban soon since this nylon string instrument seems like such a deal!
What I like best about it is the slightly narrow body since it is electric-accoustic. It is much easier to play than my wide body Seagull but that is because I'm a small person. The sound coming out of this classical is outstanding and it seems like this guitar has a special character. It's fun plus I got 10dvds plus amp for the price!
The Fishman electronis sound great without any distortion that I can hear.

No sure when it was made but it was made in China. Features are same as previous entries.

The sound is good. (Not great) I'm running it though the amp that came with it. For practicing it's more than adeqaute. The sound on open chords is full and rich. As you get up the neck it's not as nice.

The finish on mine is very nice. Actually it's flawless. From waht I've read in other revies I'm ver lucky. The action is a bit high for my tastes. As soon as I get a chance to change the strings, I'll lower it slightly.

I would not use this guitar live. It's great to learn on and practice, but it doesn't have the full range of great sound up and down the neck to use it live.

The finish is solid. I've also read complaints about it not staying in tune. Again, I must be lucky because, mine was tuned once and I haven;t touched it since.

I've never dealt with the company.

I've been playing for 25+ years. Mainly rock. I just strated learning classical. I have several really good classical guitars. This one looks great and sounds OK, but it's not the first one I reach for. My little girls are always grabbing from my guitars. I'm not too concerned when they grab this one.

But, for $140US, the 15watt amp and the 2 instructional Esteban DVDs were worth that alone. When you throw in the guitar, strap, stings, picks, cloth, etc. It was a GREAT deal.

Even though it's not my best guitar, it looks better than the rest and frinds and family always gravitate to it.

If I got damaged, I would replace it. It's really growing on me.

I wanted to update my earlier submission as I have bought more of these guitars. Since my last submission, I have subsequently bought 3 more of these guitars. I bought the other three off of EBAY, simply because I liked them so much and I won these EBAY auctions for really good prices and just couldnt resist, also because according to Esteban himself (who I like but am not a huge fan of) has stated that they wont be continuing to make these guitars anymore. He said it was because they were more difficult to make, at an affordable price to offer to folks, while still being profitable enough to be lucrative from a marketing standpoint. So once they are gone they will be gone for good!

I am not a classical player but I am trying to start to be one. But its a really good guitar to begin that style on. The included amp has turned out to be as delightful if not more than the guitar. It has reverb which sounds very nice. I even played my guild 12-string through the amp via a "pop in the soundhole" Seymore Duncan "Woody" pick up. It sounded great. Its plenty loud for a little acoustic amp. I only have used it at home and I still havent turned this little amp past 2!
I am afraid to use any standard electric guitar effects pedals like a gentle, sweeping wah-wah or a chorus pedal into this amp, because this little jewel was made for an acoustic guitar and I dont know if it would hurt it or not. If anyone knows the answer to this I would love to know, please email me at mtacker92@hotmail.com if you can tell me.
Its clean, not noisy and the sound is rich and full; bright or bassy, whichever you dial in. And the on-bard equilizer on the side of the guitar is really good. It uses a 9-volt battery.

The guitar came well set up and with good action. The first three had pretty damn good finishes for a cheap guitar, not perfect, a few tiny bubbles in places, under the finish. The fourth guitar that I bought was the least desirable of all of them. It had some sloppy glue joints like where the fretboard meets the soundboard. And It just didnt seem to be intonated very well. I do realize that its impossible to have perfect intonation on a guitar that has a fixed saddle versus individual adjustable saddles to adjust individual string length. With that said the other 3 guitars were very well intonated. The bridges of all 4 guitars were solidly glued to the soundboard as far as I could see. Also not one of these guitars has a single buzz.

This guitar would not be good for playing a whole live set simply because these mostly plastic tuning keys are just not very good, and dont stay it tune very long. I plan to replace the tuning keys as soon as I can afford to ( Ive spent enough money on guitars for a while and dont want my wife to kill me haha )But tuning machines for this guitar can be found at Stewartmacdonald.com ( or do a google search for Stew-Mac ) for about $50.00 which is still a good deal considering what a cool guitar this is for the price. Keep in mind that a brand new Gibson Les Paul has crap tuning keys that must be replaced....why? Ill never understand.
I think the finish especially on the fretboard will wear off alot faster than on other guitars because it just seems sooo thin.I think I can depend on this guitar to always make me happy to have it. But I wouldnt gig with this guitar and wouldnt play ANY gig without a reliable backup, unless of course I only had one guitar (and Ive been there).

Two of the guitar cases started seperating at this one seam,for about 2 inches in length which is , I think probably gonna turn out to be a common flaw. But the distributer that they use ,Ingenious Designs, who were actually rude jerks on the phone, and I am understating this.......promptly sent me a new case in about 2 weeks!( I have only requested one to date so we will see how the other drop-shipment goes ). Although they're bad reputation for their lousy customer service precedes them from what I have read on other blogs like this.....they really did come through for me. I dont know if it has a warranty but the steel string guitar that Esteban offers has a 1 year warranty, so Im thinking this one might as well. But 3 out of the 4 guitars sre really great. The 4th one is mediocre in my opinion. But 3 out of 4 aint bad. So you be the judge.

I have been playing 30 years and also have a 1992 Gibson Les Paul, 1985 Gibson SG, 1971 Gibson EB-O bass, 2002 Fender Stratocaster, 2000 Guild JF-30/12 12 string jumbo acoustic, an old Sivertone electric circa mid 70's and Esteban American legacy acoustic dreadnought and now four Esteban Granada classical cutaways.

My own guitar was ordered on June 4th,2004 and is made in China,playable to the last,18th fret(at least near the cutaway). It likely has a spruce laminated top wich has its advantages according to a superb article I read in Acoustic Guitar magazine(Oct.2005-"shoptalk"p.74).It also came with built in/factory pickup and equalizer and volume controls that are great with electronic tuners of course. My piece's finish wasn't anywhere near flawless.The side and back finishes look painted or veneered on,on close inspection and there were also a few faint fingerprint(glue?)marks left behind underneath but the top/soundboard finish looks very descent. My tuning machines must be all metal,or appear to be.The nylon strings seem to be of very good quality and this model has a typical wide,classical style fretboard.

My particular guitar really sounds/projects very well unamplified and sounds rich enough and definitely sweet. It actually sounds louder and sweeter to me than most other much more expensive,perfectly made classical guitars that I've handled in stores.This may be partly due to the laminated top. I don't think I'm tone deaf either since I was drafted into the choir of my Orthodox parochial school till end of J.H.S.I mention this in case anyone out there who unfortunately received a "dud" is wondering if any of the Estebans produced sound acceptable. My Granada handles and sounds well enough to be inspiring enough to keep me focused for hours. I also currently own a late model electric Ibanez S470 that I can say I have as a kind of a reference. A friend of mine who is also a better, more experienced player than myself and who happens to play/own a good acoustic Guild model as well as a solidbody electric Gibson tried out the Granada and told me he honestly felt it handled and sounded pretty good.

My Granada originally came with all the strings loose by a couple of octaves. I noticed some obvious glue runoff/mistakes inside the body/bacings.My fretboard and bridge setup seems perfectly aligned and the action height feels normal for a classical model. I was immediately pleasantly impressed by the playability of my guitar but, then again maybe nylon strings are a bit easier to handle. I already mentoned about the finish above.My own fretwire was really nicely finished though,as good as I've ever seen on any other quality guitar(really!) I had been reluctant to post anything positive about an Esteban product since having read so many other scathing negative reviews and thinking those who had already seen bad product wouldn't believe a word but I eventually felt compelled to come forward about my own guitar for industry science's sake if nothing else. In my opinion there are probably people out there who were well pleased with their Granada and not incensed enough to bother with posting a review at all. Some people, like myself might also have mistakenly assumed all the bad "American Legacy" model reviews also pertained to the Grenada but from what I understand quality control of the Esteban line has supposedly much improved across the lines. Is this true? Does this apply to the Granada's production history as well? I can't recall any truly terrible Granada reviews. Am I delusional if it never occured to me to trade in my guitar until I started seeing heavy negative critisism? Was the Granada ever a bad product beyond just cosmetic considerations? I would truly appreciate honest feedback if I'm indeed spending time practicing on a lemon. My own guitar pretty much stays in tune, by the way, even when checked with a Zoom digital tuner. I guess I may have lucked out and received an instrument produced by either one of the better factories and/or more responsible or better trained staff. I can't reasonably imagine the half blind Esteban personally supervising production at a Chinese factory all the time and I personally would rather primarily critisize the manufacturer instead concerning poor quality issues(or am I just soft?).

I think that my own Granada would withstand even unamped live gigs fine. As far as the finish lasting,well, I've only had mine for approx. one and a half year but I think it is prone to dinging due to the apparently somewhat inferior finish work and finish product. The hardware appears sturdy/stable on my piece. I wouldn't use any guitar without a backup if I was a professional musician but I would definitely get a real kick from showing up at a gig with other guitarist/musicians with just my "lousy" Esteban Granada and playing well enough anyway. Somebody there might think I was better than I actually was(a virtuoso even!) if they read half the Esteban guitar reviews online today. I dunno,maybe I'm just easy to please for around $200. I'm not even a fan of Esteban or classical guitar but the Grenada has sure helped me learn to hear and appreciate tonal qualities and relationships much better than I had with any steel string insrument. I very highly...highly, recommend nylon stringed classical guitars to anyone that hasn't tried them. They are truly inspirational and I sincerely believe will have most people practising more often because the sound of the really good ones is fantastic to say the least. One may also find themselves doing some awesome fingerwork they never thought themselves capable of. It's clearly obvious to me why they are still currently widely available.

I bought the Granada on a whim off TV and would really buy it again only hoping the next one is as good as the one I have now. I really do like the way mine sounds and that it's lightweight. I like the entire fretboard and setup just fine(I also own an electric Ibanez S470 as a reference). See above sections also.

I have to say......I have been playing guitar for 30 years and have quite a few of the "high end" expensive guitars. I saw an Esteban informercial about the Granada cutaway classical guitar, and just had to get it, as it looked like such a good deal, but it seemed to be to good to be true. I was pretty nervous waiting for it to arrive. But it was just great. Better than I expected! It looked and played great, and sounded pretty good too. And with the amp, it really sounded nice. In my opinion this guitar is better appreciated though an acoustic guitar amp( like the one included). It has a (laminated) spruce top which makes it sound a bit muffled, unplugged. But the amp is really pretty nice , as is the case. The case is more than tough enough for carrying out and the enevitable hard knocks that happen. Not only would I recomend that you buy one, but I am gonna but my second one.Good luck .....Mark T.

Instrument has typical wide classical fingerboard, not rosewood, cutaway makes 12th fret access easy. Body is mahogany, top is spruce?....hard to tell. Tuners are plastic knobs (lots of plastic flashing = poor quality control of the mold), gear threads are plastic, mounting is metal plated. Gloss finish, fret work was great for a $120 guitar. Electronics with EQ included (not tested). Nice case, cut above a gig-bag.

Tone was good, high E & B nice with sharp attack! Good overall balance. Body felt stiff, with very little vibration.

Finish had many gloss defects, fretwork excellent, several spots where glue smear from under components. G string had a buzz when plucked open. Action was on the high side,and did not meet advertised 3/32 specs

Tuners were plastic and will not last. Held tune good (classical strings need several days to stabilize). Seemed to have sturdy construction.

HSN let me return it no questions asked.

I have been playing 30 years and was looking for a cheap guitar for the summer house. There are better alternatives out there such as the single cutaway classical from Carlo Robelli (Sam Ash). Had both for 5 days of playing and picked the Robelli. Same features, same shape, flawless finish, built in electonics, AND GREAT ACTION. Robelli E &B not as crisp, but guitar had that "need to be played" quality. Sorry Esteban, there is at least one better choice for an entry level classical guitar. I would rate the Robelli 9 based on price of $129. ( I also own a classical purchased in Spain from a Madrid luthier fpr an ultimate comparison)