Olympia AE 15

This is a 2001 guitar from tacoma but put together in Korea. It is a thinline acoustic electric cutaway guitar with a beautiful sunburst gloss finnish. The top is solid spruce and the sides and back are solid ash. The neck looks to be either ash or mahogany, rosewood finger board with abalone inlayed rosesette and dots on the fret board. Also has a nice olympia inlayed in abalone in the head stock. It has a nice on board EQ with Volume, bass, mid, treble and presence controls. Tuners seem to be of very good quailty and work well. It seems to stay in tune very well. It came with Elixer strings

The sound is VERY VERY good and it has great tone. It is a little on the bright sounding side but even unpluged it projects very well and it has great substain. I use it for finger picking and it does a great job, I also flat pick it and it does well in this area as well. Wish it had more natural bass unpluged though.

It came fresh out of the box with a great action, and it was in tune!!!!!!!!!!!! The guitar has a great sunburst finnish and has a gloss finnish. Very attractive guitar. The guitar seems to be very very well made and of a high quailty for such a low price. I bought it to use as a beater guitar for road trips and camping. (I get nervous traveling with my Martin)

This guitar seems very well made and I will bet that it will be around long enough to pass down to my son some day.

Have not had to deal with them yet

I would cry if this guitar was lost or stolen and I would go buy another one ASAP. I have been playing for only 4 years but this guitar is very easy to play with great action.....you can sit down and start playing and hours pass by. I also have a Martin D-28 and a Banjo. It does not have the bass of my Martin, but then again it cost $1400.00 less then it.

Korean made for Tacoma (hence "Olympia", as in Washington). Florentine cutaway electric acoustic with active pickup: bass, mid, treble, volume. Under bridge I believe. Gloss finish. Natural finish top, nice stain on sides. 3 1/4" deep body. Good no name tuners (gotoh?). Bound neck,20 frets.

This guitar has incredible sustain and intonation. Play a note, go have coffee, return and it's still going. Can almost be too much of a good thing (shows your mistakes in all their glory). It's a small guitar, so doesn't have as much bass as the big boys, but very playable. Songs seem to pop out of it. Very bright sound. Seems to be designed for flat pick/finger styling, to take some of the edge off of the treble. I use a Vox cambridge and a Tech 21 trademark 60 amp. I just got a Boss ge7 eq, which helps alot when using it with the Vox, which is already pretty bright anyway. It can make all sorts of sounds. Very good for jazzing around, notes are distinct, doesnt do that sort of folkish rhythm all that well because the definition is so great. Not for a wall of sound. Dislikes are typical with a bridge pickup: over the top treble. EQ helps alot.

Action was high for me when I got it, required more finger work than I care for. Seems fine since I adusted that and the neck. Finish was perfect. No glue or any of that sort of stuff. Insides are same as Tacoma: great bracing, attention to detail. My complaints are that the cord socket nut keeps coming off, which is a pain to keep re-doing. Tried nail polish, now glue... Also one of the abalone dots in the bridge pins fell out soon after I got it. But overall very handsome well put together guitar.

In spite of it's lightness and brace shaving, etc to increase sustain, I see no reason for it disassembling on me. Tuners are good, bridge is Tacoma style (which I like), no loose joints or anything to crap out. Finish is that urethane that is so popular on Asian builts. I wouldn't chop sushi on it, but fairly bulletproof. Once I get the plug socket to stay, I'd use it without backup. Tends to shut things down when the cords flops off and parts rattle about in the body. Kinda blows the image.

I wrote to Tacoma just after I got it about the plug socket and asked them to mail me a new dot for the pin. Not a squeak from them. Hello? So this is the "cheap" version of your US ones.. so what? Had the action set by Portland Music, so that wasn't Tacoma/Olympia. It does have a lifetime TRANSFERRABLE warranty (cool, pass it on to a grandson from my death bed..?)

I took up guitar after many years of not... Needed a guitar that doesn't irritate this rotator cuff injury I got hauling "portable" computer back from Japan in '85. This is why I got a thin one. I have the 2 amps listed, plus Vox & Epiphone mini's. Nanoverb and Boss pedal. Guild Starfire IV, Gretsch '58 6120, Oscar Schmidt a/e. I don't know if I'd get this or this neat little Dean A/E I saw. But had to go with this because of the intonation and sustain. Like I said, the notes seem to flow out of it. The string pressure is still a bit of groove making (on the fingers, that is). It does have the best sound of the small a/e's that I've tried; and the best neck. So what more do you need?