Samick D-7CE

made in indonesia. it has a way too thick high gloss polyurethane finish[almost like a plastic coating]. 20 frets[14 to the body], solid cedar top, cutaway, mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard and bridge, laminated indian rosewood back and sides. beautiful abalone rosette. this particular guitar was stripped of electronics/nut/saddle/tuners because of a broken neck. it has been redone without the electronics after fixing the neck. grover nickel rotomatic tuners, bone nut and saddle, and brass bridge pins fitted into freshly reamed bridge pin tapers. these replaced the almost certain plastic ones that the guitar originally came with.

this guitar sounded ok at best when i got her going again. and that was being pretty generous! it perked up considerably after reaming tapers in the bridge pin holes[these were drilled straight by Samick???], and installing the brass pins. really a worthwhile $9.00 investment. still not all that crazy about it. the guitar doesn't project that well[for a dreadnaught], and the low end is missing something. it almost sounds muted. it does however have solid mids/highs and harmonics are above average. the sustain is very impressive. these improved with the installation of the brass bridge pins. this also brought out the low end a little. overall though the guitar is lacking. i mostly play blues, and without a pick, and this guitar sounds better when played with a pick. at least when strumming chords. the top is noticably thick. it is about 0.150-inch thick. i have read that cedar tops should be thicker as cedar is not as strong as spruce, but i cant help wonder if the top is too thick. most of the tops on my other guitars are 0.100-inch to 0.130-inch[at most], but they are also spruce or mahogany. the braces inside this thing are also very tall and thick. they are scalloped, but not that much. they are also unusually tall on the ends. on most of the other guitars i have looked inside of these top braces gradually arc to almost nothing at the sides. these are about .200 at the kerfing. which seems excessive to me.

guitar was stripped upon reciept. i installed new bone nut and saddle, action is great. intonation is 100% dead on all the way up the neck. i do not like the thick polyurethane finish, but thats me. the finish is remarkably sticky. i do not like the neck either. it is very thin, and strangely enough i have a hard time with it. it does have nicely spaced strings though. the guitar looks nice enough, but looks arent everything.

broken neck. cant imagine that was a design/manufacturing flaw. the rest looks solid enough.

never dealt with them, i do all of my own repair/setup. guitar had s/n cut out of label anyway, so warranty was no doubt voided by this anyway.

bought this guitar because it represented an inexpensive option for a cutaway. it was a nice project, but unless i do something else to improve the sound, i am unimpressed at best. i wouldnt be heartbroken if someone sat on it. i would just strip as much of it as possible and move on. no way i would ever get another. no way i would ever pay full price for it either! i toyed with the idea of replacing the electronics, but the guitar doesnt do it for me so i figured why bother.

Made in 2003 in Indonesia. Dreadnaught cutaway acoustic with 20 frets. Solid spruce top. Has a preamp with 4 band EQ and tuner. The piezo pickup and preamp are no names. Grover tuners. Has a very nice rosewood fretboard. Neck is normal acoustic width. Body consists of a solid spruce top and rosewood sides and two peice rosewood back.

I play a whole bunch of styles. I bought this guitar to lead the worship team at the church I attend. I only bought the thing a few days ago and was excited to try it out in a live music setting. In the store I was very impressed with the acoustic sound, having tested numerous (and I really mean NUMEROUS) brands and designs. This guitar truly has it all as far as sound goes. A shimmering high end, full mids and a good, solid low end. For the price I can easily say you will never find a better sounding instrument. The onboard EQ is not the best in the world, though it does enough to make it worth while. I am using my Peavy Special 150 electric guitar amp as a monitor and also going through the house system. In addition I also have a multi-affects processor which works nicely to add a tiny bit of reverb and chorus. Even completely clean, this guitar is very, very nice sounding.

The factory setup was not exactly to my liking (after 20 some odd years of playing I have a well defined idea of what I like). A simple adjustment to the truss rod has made the difference there. There is a tiny bit of ringing around the ninth and tenth frets (if I'm playing hard), but so what? We're not talking about some $2000 Martin here!! The strings from the factory were not my favourite either. I have just finished changing over to Martin Marquis lite guage strings. It plays much more smoothly now. I gotta say it again: This is one really nice sounding instrument. The top is bookmatched very nicely. There are a couple of very small flaws in the wood. You have to be looking for them or you'll miss them completely. My biggest concern right now is making sure I don't scuff the beautifully finished head-stock. If you're wondering whether or not to get a cut-away, just get it!! You will not be sorry!!
For the price, FRANKLY UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Seems well built. I've only had the thing five days, so who really knows. I have no fear of this thing falling apart, though, and have already played it for over an hour in a church service without even thinking of a backup.

Couldn't tell ya.

I've been playing for over 20 years now and own a Fender Gemini II acoustic and a Lado Hawk (strat style) electric. I've always liked the full sound of the dreadnaught body but figured that, since I was looking for an electric acoustic, the body stlye would matter. I was wrong. I played Ovations, Taylors, Normans, Seaguls, Fenders, Gibsons, Takamines ... litereally anything I could get my hands on. Nothing sounded as good as my $395 Samick. I was truely dumb-founded! If this thing was stolen, or someone sat on it or accidently used it as fire wood, or any other such terrible thing, at this point I gotta say I would run out and get another one.
The reason I bought this instrument was to praise my God and Maker. I'm excited that I have the opportunity to play such a beautiful instrument to the honour of Jesus Christ. He created music, and man, am I glad He did!!!