Product: Lakewood J-14
Price Paid: US $1323
Submitted
08/24/2001
at
02:36pm
by
Chun
Email: chunyu<dot>yang at skynet<dot>be
Features
:
8
Made Germany, year 2000. It is a magnificient all solid wood guitar. Solid Spruce Top with mahogany back and sides. The guitar has a satin finish, a beautiful ring of mahogany with abalone as a rosette. This piece is just a very elegant and classical guitar. I love it !
The Hiscox deluxe case was included, far ahead of the SKB cases, these are for real world :-)
The tuners are Schaller tuners and it just seem that they don't go out of tune.
Sound
:
10
The sound is the amazing part of the guitar. Bass are very loud due to the jumbo size but the mediums and the trebles are wonderful, they sing and have this bell like tone that I was looking for years. It ranges in the Taylor category. It is very polyvalent, good for flat and finger picking, also good for hard strumming. I was really impressed when I tried it and immediatly fell in love with it :-)
This guitar is definitly a must have !
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
8
The neck is a bit more larger than the Taylor's necks but it is as easy to play with. The action was well set up and I didn't have any problems. They are just some buzzes when I strum very hard but that's normal :-)
Reliability/Durability
:
10
I only have it for 4 days but it'll stay a long time with me, I'm sure. The only concern I have is regarding the top, I'm still hesitating on putting or not a pickguard...
Customer Support
:
10
The Lakewood company is well known for it's amability and the kindness. The masterluthier Martin Seeliger answers personnaly to the mails you send and they do it often in two or three days max. Pretty Good !
Overall Rating
:
10
This is really a beautiful guitar and a very good option to consider for the ones who grew tired of having this too prefect sound that the Taylors have. It sometimes seems that whatever you do or play it just sound the same. With the Lakewood you got an incredible instrument with a lot of character, a beautiful one with perfect craftmanship, and an instrument that will last for a long time. I only paid 1323$ instead of the 2048$ asked but that's because I bought it from a very comprehensive and kind shop in Paris, thank you again for providing me such a good instrument !
I own a Takamine En-20C but the Lakewood sounds far better. I only use it for the live play. I also have a Gibson Smartwood Cancharana ( another wonderful instrument), a flying V Epiphone, a Contreras Spanish guitar (exceptionnal one !) and a Sigma 12 strings. The Lakewood J-14 is my favourite. Now you know what you have to do, I'm sure that if you try a Lakewood (M or J model) you'll be so overwhelmed by the quality and the price asked for it, you won't even looking back to all thoses same looking Taylors !
Lakewood is rising fast and well !
