Farida SA 16 MP WR

Brand spanking new guitar, made in China. Tag dates it 030530 -may 30, 2003. Bought in 2005 as a wedding present for my wife (how many of you get away with giving her a guitar for the wedding? I did! It helped that this guitar lierally has her name on it!)
Standard oriental copy in the 335-vein (actually more 330, sustainblock does not run entire length of the body) neck attached w/ two screws, otherwise standard features: 2Hb, 2 volumes, 2tones, 3wayswitch, closed tuners. Everything you'd expect is here, and most of it is of pretty good quality, considering the very decent price! nice shallow neck profile, firm hardware, good fretjob, decent tuners. very nice wine red high gloss finish, double binding and bindig in the F-holes. She's got the looks!

I do this review mainly because this thing surprises me - in a good way. For a $200 guitar it is pretty good thinline semi, much better than I expected. The open Humbuckers give a very nice round ton and the pots& switch do a good job. It has a very nice, warm tone, and sounds very even all over the neck.

the setup is very well, I left it original until the original (chinese?) strings lost their tone. plays well, sounds well, intonation and pickup adjustment leaves very little to be desired. Goof fret job, excellent playability.
BUT it is a cheap chinese guitar. it is let down by a very cheap and badly cut plastic nut. Any attempt to bend the B and G string results in me having to tune the thing again... Besides that, the 2screw-neckattachment is a very big NO. the slightest pressure makes the neck bend and gives even more tuning trouble. It is okay at home, when I play seated - and remain very quiet. But these two snags are a major problem that spoil the fun of this instrument. Especially so since these guitars are aimed at the entry level market, kids will have a hard time playing this -Even I have a hard time, after 35 yrs of playing.

I will certainly stick to my regular dependable gear onstage. At least until I get the problems fixed. You need a stable guitar onstage, one that stays in tune. Pity, because otherwise it is very nicely made. hardware seems of good quality.

www.faridaguitars.com . I think they are just a brandname, with guitars coming out of one of theb very big chinese factories that bring us 1000's of guitars nowadays.
Haven't cantacted them. I believe a have a year warranty - not sure. But I bought it at the shop that closed it's doors and do not wish to send it to china to get the nut filed. I will do that myself and see if i can do something about that neck joint, I'' prabably glue it.

I play guitar for 35 yrs now and own lotsa great - mainly vintage stuff (gibson, fender, marshal etc). I do not like new guitars and dispise cheap copies! But I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of guitarmaking in China! Sounds good, plays very well and is very nice to look at. Real pity that they did not get the last details well. a better neck joint and better nut would improve this guitar a million miles. I did take off enough points for that and want to make clear that i'm very inpressed, so it's pretty high scoires here