Esteban Unknown Guitar

Beautifull sparks in the fire, truly. This guitar was left brand new at my house, dude just got it. now that says it all.

You will find that this guitar sounded GREAT.....when I SMASHED that bastard into a 1000 pieces. If I were the maker of this guitar, I would stab myself in the eyes w/ my chopsticks. Also sounded great in my firepit.

All I can say is that it truely does feel like crap, tweeked it out a bit then hammered it as loud as I could so I couldnt hear the buzzing. In every way this is a poor design.

I can say that that bastard lasted for a short while w/ me hammerin that sob. What little spirit it had did break in 5-10 sec.

wouldnt know but id guess no speaka.

Im not trying to be rude, its my nature, took the time to write so if you didnt know, you do now. go spend the money on a martin, youll have it the rest of your life. man youll be buried w/ that btch.

Finish (Krylon black, nice n' chunky. I'm tempted to wetsand this dog)
Body style (dread not)
Bridge style (suspension)
Tuners (Ping stayslack)
Neck/Scale (rubber/plywood board)
Any included accessories? (a tuner which died on me)
What year was it made? (2006) Where was is made? (China, land of junk [no pun])
How many frets? tight ones or loose ones?
Solid-Top? Laminated top? Cardboard top?
Which controls are given (volume, tone, 5-way selector, 3-way, tap, etc...)? the ones that don't work
Pickup configuration? (Piezoe)
Body and neck woods? (Plywood)

Love that silkscreened herringbone in the back beyond the paint drip, fine quality craftsmanship ladies and gentlemen.

Loud & tinny. poor sustain due to the plasic bridge. This douche says this "was modeled after his 2 grand hand made acoustic". Who was his luthier? "Jay Turser", "Oscar Schmidt", Michael Kelly", Carlo Robelli".

It looks, feels, and plays like a $99 dollar cheap-ass acoustic. Like all QVC products, these are turning up at Goodwills by the armfull. My wife bought a Esteban amp for $25 for her keyboard, it's a NOISY sounding little piece of crap. The Goodwill down the road has one with the case, 2 DVD, poster, pile of books, and tuner for $125. It was even autographed in the soundhole. That Mylar sticker on the soundhole is UBERCHEESE! Goodwill is where all Infomercial/QVC products go to die, I predict that a year from now, all Goodwills will be overun with them.

Don't get it close to humidity, it may unravel. I also hear that the necks are set in with dowels instead of a dovetail joint. No wonder why these are becoming unplayable. I've tried out $75 Epiphones that play much better than this.

Do you know the Burswood acoustics that Esteban sells can be purchased at Target for $99 and this knucklehead is trying to pawn them off for $200 with books and videos. QVC? What support! wait all day on hold.

My Dad's friends all know how to play "House Of The Rising Sun", it's not a hard song to learn. Steven "Esteban" Paul is a total cheesemeister if he has to devote a part of a DVD on how to play it.
Besides......I've just saved some money by switching to Geico.

The dude HIDES his features, man. Looks like Zorro with sunglasses instead of a mask.

He stinks. Claims he was trained by Segovia, was in a car accident and couldn't play for ten years. If you've seen his infomercial, you can tell he still can't play. I've never heard of him before, he's that famous. CAUTION: Mystery man in black resorts to "House of the Rising Sun" for suckers.

Apparently, as expected, what he plays on TV and what you get are not the same thing. And I'm not impressed with what he plays on TV, either. Note how elusively he really talks around the guitar's features.

People say they wouldn't play this guitar on a gig without a backup. A backup? For an acoustic guitar? Uh-oh...

Whatever the opposite word for support is, that's what this company has for its customers.

Been playing for decades and know junk the moment someone's trying to sell it. Esteban is an artist, all right--a CON artist. A sheister, and a transparent one at that. You don't even have to listen to him all that carefully to realize he's giving that fact away himself. This is no "gift." It's something you get for someone you hate, someone that you want to DISCOURAGE from playing the guitar. The inventor of the guitar is rolling over in his grave at this painted piece of cardboard with strings on it being passed off as a guitar. Of course I didn't buy one. Just check the other reviews, which only confirm my suspicions. Why am I here? I hate seeing people get ripped off. There are so many other better options.

I dont kow if this is the guitar that i have but mine has no "name" so this must be it. It was made it china, probably by slaves. The neck meets the body at the 14th fret and the rest are to difficult to use because of the high action. The woods are cheap and the esteb an guy tell you that it is "real wood" but arn't most guitars? This is the kind of wood we used to use in school during year 7 woodwork classes(cheap and rubbish). The bridge is made from what looks and feels like plastic and you cant adjust the action. The neck is very fat especially as i am used to playing my strat and it has a lovely narrow comfortable neck, whereas the esteban errr...doesnt.

I like playing nirvana. Despite looking eerily like the guitar kurt is using on the front cover of the live in new york album, it doesnt sound like it at all. But I suppose the sound isnt too bad although it doesnt suit my style.

This is the WORST part of this guitar. It wasn't set up by the factory as far as i can tell. This action is way too high. This fretboard is covered in horrible black paint that is rubbing off even though i have only used it 1 or 2 times as i dislike it so much. After reading ather peoples reviews of this product i think i got lucky with the frets bridge and knut as they are in the right place but i can see the glue. I found a couple of chips on the body. but that doesnt bother me too much.

I dont think this guitar would withstand any kind of playing.

Ive been playing for about a year. Im so glad this wasnt my first guitar because i whould have given up after the first week because the high action and poor fret job together with a wide neck make it extremely hard to use. I got it as a christmas present and my heart sank as soon as i saw the box labelled thane direct because i have always thought the shopping channels are a scam and it ruined my christmas when i has to tell my mum i didnt like it. I think esteban is a prick and it should be illegal to sell these "guitars" if you can call it that.

The finish on this guitar is horrible. There's glue down the whole one side of it & it's disgusting.

It buzzed all of the time & I can't stand it!! It's soo annoying & everytime you take it out to play you have to tune it because the thing never stays in tune & I barely play it!

I have to say I love my guitar because it's my first one, but really it's a piece of crap. Sure, I hit it off a couple things & it has a few scratches in it, but theres a huge scratch going down the back of it & i have no idea what it's from. The notes sound horrible i cant even play the 1st string because my frets are all screwed up!

Will this guitar withstand live playing? no!
Does the hardware seem like it will last? no its a piece of crap!
Is the finish good enough to last, or does it seem thin and easy to wear off
with lots of playing? yes very

Can you depend on it? no
Would you use it on a gig without a backup? no

I wrote to the company 2 days ago & they seemed very rude. I explained my problem to them & they responded very poorly by telling me about their $9000 guitars & how they need "set up". My cousin who plays guitar said that "setting up" is bs & that theres something actually wrong with my guitar.

A friend of mine bought this "thing" hoping to learn guitar. After giving up out of frustration, he asked me if I wanted it, knowing that I play. It was free, so I took it home. I've seen Esteban's infomercials and I always figured him for a fraud, so I decided to see just how accurate his claims were. The first thing I noticed was that the ... I hate to call it an instrument ... was indeed made of "real wood" as he claimed. Notice he never says spruce or mahogony, just "real wood". The top was spruce - I think - but very thin, not a typical soundboard by any stretch of the imagination. The body was of some other unidentifiable type of wood - I dunno - whatever grows in China. The neck may be maple, again I can't really tell. The fingerboard is a disgrace. Painted plywood with frets that stick out in places.

This is an acoustic only without the electronics that he's advertising now. It does buzz quite a bit. Reminds me of the cigar box guitars I made as a kid. Certainly doesn't have any kind of richness to it. My $100 Yamaha sounds 100 times better.

Uh, let's see. It's hard to judge the action because the neck has a significant bow that cannot be fixed by adjusting the truss rod. The tuners slip so you can't keep the thing in tune and the bridge is misaligned.

Aside from the fact that it looks like it would break with any kind of wear and tear at all, remarkably it's still in one piece.

Since I got it gratis from a friend the CS doesn't figure in.

Gosh, I don't know if I've ever seen anything this dreadful before. I've seen Esteban compare it to his Martin and I just have to laugh. Of course, traditionally touring musicians have their guitars ghost made elsewhere. It's highly unlikely, for example that the Fender Stratocaster played by Eric Clapton was made in a Fender factory. So, I can only assume that the guitar played by Esteban on his infomercial was ghost-made (although I can't imagine why a gutiarist with this little name recognition - despite claims that he's "world famous" - would rate a ghost-made instrument). By the way, David Hasselhof is world famous too, but I digress. Why anyone would buy something from such an obvious huckster is a mystery to me - I guess they see the ponytail, sunglasses and black hat and assume that he is someone. And for someone to say that this is a good guitar for the price just doesn't know what they are talking about. There are tons of guitars out there in the $100 - $200 range that are quite acceptable instruments, and they can be purchased from just about anywhere including big box instrument retailers and e-bay. My Yamaha FG-75 is a nice guitar to putter around on and it would run you about $100 today - used. I also own an Ovation Balladeer. Nice guitar, I love the trebley sound, but I don't pull it out much anymore. Bottom line, don't spend your money on this, it's not worth it.

Bought my Esteban in 2004. I think the quality must have improved by then because I have very few complaints. Plays well, strings a little raised, but otherwise seems worth the money.

For strumming or picking, it's versatile. Don't expect concert hall sound, it only cost $140 for gosh sakes! I use it as my second at the cottage. It does the trick.

Arrived completely untuned, but otherwise there was no glue marks or scratches or warps. It was fine.

Case provides good protection. Replaced most strings with minimal fuss.

Didn't need any.

The "features" on this guitar are a joke. The only thing good about them is the mother-of- pearl inlay. The rest is crap. It's not real wood and it's basically glued together.

It sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard. This guitar buzzes everytime you pluck a string. It's one of the acoustic-electric ones and you can't hear anything out of the amp unless it is on overdrive.

The strings are extremely high off the fretboard. It was very hard to play. After a while every note below the fourth fret on the B and High E string was the same. When I removed the strings to see what caused this, the bridge fell off. I'm not kidding you. The bridge wasn't even glued to the damn guitar.

The price is high because it was a full package, but now I wouldn't let them give it to me for free. This guitar is a piece of crap. No one in their right mind should ever consider buing this guitar. Never buy anything that says "Estabon" on it. The best part of this package was the hardshell case, which I put my Takamine in.

The guitar is crap. I cannot stress this enough. If I could give it a zero I would.

DO NOT BUY IT.

Friend brought this to me after purchausing it from some late night TV scam. I don't even know if you could consider this pylwood. particle board?

The neck was warped and the bridge is not even centered on the guitar body. ALL of the strings buzz. You cannot change the action unless you installed a new bridge nut that would be at least 1cm higher

There was no set up. Probably made buy a cardboard box company.
Three of the frets were sticking out enough to tear off a knuckle.
The fretboard is covered with some kind of goo. I tried to play the thing for a couple of minutes and the ends of my fingers were black from this stuff. One of the tuning pegs had this same sticky goo all over it. When I tried to remove it I noticed that it had melted part of the plastic peg. The finish looks like flooring varnish.

This is not a guitar. It is a dangerous play toy. (the frets stuck out and were very sharp)
It was unplayable because of the twist in the neck and the offset of the bridge, the buzzing strings and the general poor construction of the whole toy.
I told my friend to send it back to the company.

He had a difficult time trying to find out how to send this 'thing' back.

I have played classical guitar for 35 years. I wish my friend had come to me. There are many great little guitars on the market for well under 200 CND. They are good working - repairable musical instruments.

Please pass this information on because people are getting totally ripped off.

Oh yeah. I actually saw the TV ad for it. This estiban character must have lost every last bit of technique that he had with all the 'classical' training he says he has.

aisan made, bought in 2001, nylon classical. i played this guitar as a beginning guitar to cut my teeth on. three years later i decided to refinish it, what the hell it cost me $113- here's what i found: the top, i suppose is spruce. solid? i really could'nt tell. the fret board is painted plywood. back and sides? i could'nt get stain to penetrate at all, so i did a faux finish of koa. neck? would'nt accept stain and it is not mahogany like estefraud says it is. i noticed long after the warranty of 30 days that the head was twisted and warped and i know it came this way because i've taken very good care of it. strings buzzed since day one. i was simply dissapointed with its performance.

sound is thin and strings buzz. what you would expect from a basswood plywood back and sides. remember neck came twisted and cannot be fixed, worst warranty in the business.

action would be fine if THE NECK WAS'NT TWISTED,STRINGS BUZZ and defeats the purpose of producing any notes properly. finish is painted on back and sides to resemble um, shall i even say wood? thin lacquer used as finish. tuning machines are cheap but have held up.

this guitar is not able to satisfy any type of playing or player.

30 day warranty, then they don't know you.

when i started playing i did'nt know much about guitars. i urge anyone to purchase a Blueridge guitar. these are the finest guitars for the money. i have two now and am flawlessly learning to play on guitars that are so easy to play. they have an array of models to choose with solid wood back and sides and sound very, very close to Martin guitars in their own class. choose mahogany or rosewood either way you can't go wrong. go to ebay or centsible sound.com or do a google search. these are truly the only way to learn and play guitar on a budget. dreadnought or ooo styles, dreadnoughts are easier to play and sound more full, ooo's sit easy in the lap.