Steinberger Spirit GU7R Custom

Korean made headless guitar with a kind of modern super strat body. The body on mine is two piece maple with a really fantastic flame maple top, set off my honey blonde finish...top marks. The pick ups are in H-S-H formation and designed by EMG. The tuners and bridge are in a single 'Steinberger System' trem unit, which appears identical to those on other Steinberger products. One point of note, that others have not picked up on, is that the neck sits further into the body of the guitar and as a result the whole guitar sits further to the right than a traditional instrument; meaning that you don't have to stretch to play chords and runs near the nut. Its a bit weird at first but very very comfortable.

This is the first H-S-H guitar I've owned and I am really impressed with the range of sounds it can generate. Standard humbucker tones are a gimmie, but the middle single coil, particularly in combination with the humbuckers is really sweet. As stated elsewhere the pickups are not overly powerful and the humbuckers on their own are a mite muddy (the neck more so)however the overall combination is pleasing and readily accessable. Both the tone and volume of the pickups are nicely balanced. I play through a little Vox Valvetronics AD 15 VT which generates a whole range of pleasing amp simulations and is a bit of a tone monster. Just the basic guitar and the amp go well together, producing many usable sounds that don't appear false and manufactured as some amp sims can (must be the Vox being part valve amp?). I'm saving my pennies for a Sheldon TT3 (www.sheldonamps.com) boutique A to A/B valve amp and this will be the first of my guitars I rush to play through it.

The best thing about this guitar is its fit, finish and general useability. The finish is flawless, really; the only irksome feature straight out the box was slightly roughly finished 20th and 21st frets. Both my Tele and Parker P38 required extensive setting up by a tech to get them anywhere near this level of usability.

I've had the guitar 3 months now and despite appearances it is reasuringly heavy, feels solid and well screwed together. I've had the back plate off and the soldering and general wire work is increadibly neat and tidily done. The tuning is not as stable as I thought it would be given the headless design and the screw tuners in the bridge. Having said that it's slighly more stable than my other guitars that sit in a centrally heated house, here in the less than sub tropical surroundings of Scotland.

No reason to contact them.

I've been playing 29 years, some of which I got paid for, but mostly these days for my own amusement and relaxation. If this guitar were stolen I would replace it with another, however I got this at a sale with 150 pounds off uk list price, so this particular guitar was something of a bargain. Its best feature is its shear user friendlyness, it hangs and plays delightfully and sounds way better than it should. It also looks a bit strange and interesting in this day and age where everything else looks generic strat or tele.

My other guitars, a Tele with Bareknuckle "Boss Set" Pickups (which sounds very clear and defined), a Parker P38 with a fishman bridge and a fantastiC 1979 Yamaha SC 1200 (a rear routed super strat with 27 way adjustable pickups)dont get anywhere near a much play time since "headless" came along. The Steinberger could do with some coil taps on the humbuckers to interact more with the middle single coil and a case would be nice rather than the cheap gig bag supplied.

Overall I would recommend this guitar to anyone, whether starting off, or to those like me who have been around the block a few times. I bought it on a bit of a whim for its strange looks but really have fallen for it. You will not be dissapointed.

Made in KOREA.<BR>
Flame maple top,Mahogany(?) back.<BR>
HSH,5pos_selecter,24F.<BR>
Thin frets.

---Pickups---<BR>
I think EMG designed passive pickups are...1.Low power,2.A little peaky and bright sound,3.Good for clean tone.<BR>
I think it not so ugly,but I'll modify this to "Fretless guitar",and I will replace pickups to SeymourDuncan "Pararell Axiss".

Considering the price...it's a good deal.<BR><BR>

Quality of installing frets is...BAD.I think it joke by price...ha!I'll modify this to "Fretless guitar",so no problem for me...<BR><BR>

---Be carefull---<BR>
I found and tried 3 guitars in the shop.There were so many differences between them!(1.Quality of fingerboard,2.Quality of fit around joints) Of course I selected the best one.I reccommend you try many ones and choose your best!

No problems.

Technical details as described by the manufacturer. Perfect travel and laying-around-the-living-room guitar. No bigger than a tennis racquet. Fits in overhead bins on planes, leans stablely against the wall without a stand. Stays in tune amazingly well. Highly abusable tremolo!

The EMG Select pickups are lackluster, but decent. Not a lot of character, but no particularly unpleasant characteristics either. Moderate output, clean and quiet. The guitar itself has some nicely resonant qualities. G string has really singing harmonics!

I had to return the first guitar MusicYo shipped. It gets a zero. The 9 applies to it's replacement, which is actually a 9+. The guitar is the transparent blue flame model.

I ordered this guitar almost exactly two years ago from MusicYo. It comes with a marginal gig bag, but I also got the case and the adapter that allows you to use standard strings. More about strings later.

The guitar that arrived, which was shipped in the case, was back in the box and on it?s way back to M.Y. in about 10 minutes. It had actual, glaring fingerprints in the blue stain. I mean, I know it?s just a Korean guitar and all, and I wasn?t expecting a D?Angelico, but there are limits, you know? Not only that, but the case was damaged, and before shipment! The back/bottom was cracked and partly stove in, but the shipping box was intact!

The whole mess went back with a polite but firm note suggesting that maybe they?d do me the courtesy of eyeballing the next one before they shipped it.

It all gets better from here. The replacement guitar and case arrived in separate cartons, and both were perfect. The guitar is just gorgeous, cosmetically. I?m sure the flame maple, ?top? is a veneer about .002? thick, but who cares? Looks fabulous! The body is made of 3 pieces, all of which took the blue stain differently and wound up not quite the same shade, but that?s just a quibble.

Overall, the workmanship is startlingly good. The frets are perfectly dressed and the neck is very comfortable to play. A little round. Narrow fingerboard, though ? OK for me, but something you might personally need to be aware of. Action and intonation adjustment is a bit unusual but straightforward. After setup it plays almost as nicely as my ?61 SG reissue.

Do NOT buy the MusicYo strings! They?re awful. Instead, go to Juststrings.com and buy real LaBella Steinberger strings. Much better strings and a greater variety of gauges and styles. I like the pure nickel wrap myself. As I said, I bought the standard string adapter for $25 and you probably should too, in case Steinberger strings aren?t available after the Apocalypse, but I haven?t used it. And boy, is changing strings ever a piece of cake! Also bought a couple of the elastic string keeper bands for the head. Mostly for my own sense of completeness ? they do wear out and break eventually, but you don?t really need them.

The tremolo is very stiff, but on the other hand can be seriously mashed and comes back in tone admirably.

I find the guitar?s balance excellent and it is very comfortable to play sitting or standing. If you close your eyes you?ll never notice it?s an amputee.

Seems solid enough. Had an iffy switch connection when I got it, but I gave it a few whacks. . . no problem since! :-)

Can?t complain! Had my replacement within a few days, and they got it 100% right.

A dollar cigar for 50 cents. Like expecting a Hyundai and getting a really nice Nissan instead! Bought to be a beater, it immediately became a loved and valued member of the Family. &#61514; Based on my experience, (53 years old, and I?ve been trying to learn to play this damn thing since I was 14) I can?t recommend this guitar enough. Every guitar player owes it to her or himself to have one. And if I am indeed privileged to be addressing any of the regrettably small number of Ladies in our community, I would particularly direct your attention to this guitar ? I suspect it?s small size and relatively light weight (It is heavier than it looks! All maple.) might make it particularly attractive to a physically smaller player. My Tiny Steiny competes for my attention with a Gibson ?61 SG reissue, a Rick 660/12 and an American Standard Strat, among others, and I probably play the Steinberger more than any of them, just because it?s design makes it so unobtrusive and convenient to leave hanging around to be picked up.

I also wound up getting the nicer gig bag - I decided the case would make it harder to travel (fly) with, and the one that comes with it isn?t hardy enough. I?d rather they charged an extra $20 or $30 for the guitar and gave you the good bag in the first place. Well, that?s capitalism.

It's a 2005, Korean made guitar. It has 24 frets, 2 piece flame maple top, Volume and Tone pots, 5 way selector. H/S/H configuration with EMG Select passive pickups. The fretboard is rosewood and the body and neck are maple. It has a transparent Blue finish that shows the beatiful flame top. The body is a strat style one with a cut in the back of the guitar, much like the old Rebb Beach Ibanez body. Features the steinberger R-Trem which is a floating tremolo and no tuners :). Neck is not as thin as an Ibanez but is very comfortable. It included a gigbag but I bought the case just as well.

This guitar sounds good. That's it. I play from thrash to prog metal and my sound is more based on my pre-amp, amp, speaker setup and my fingers than on my guitars. I can play most guitars and end up sounding the same, as long as they are stable and don't go microphonic on me. I'm using a Boss GT-6 as Pre/FX, a Mesa Boogie 2:90 as power amp and two Marshall 1912 1x12" speakers. It's not noisy, not even using the single coil pickup (I think it's due to its reverse polarity). I don't get ppl posting that the pickups are weak.. I have 4 other guitars with Dimarzio and Duncan pickups and I don't notice a big difference. The guitar is very bright sounding so I have to correct my picking hand position to make it sound as I usually do.

Not setup at all. Action, Tremolo tension and intonation was completely off and so was the pickup height. Now for the good part: settting it right was a breeze. The neck relief was right and the fretwork by our fellow koreans was remarkable for a guitar in this price range. I had some trouble with a Fender showmaster (also korean made) with terrible fretwork and warped neck relief and this was the opposite. I lowered the string height in the saddles, set the tremolo tension with a twist of a knob and then set the intonation. 1 hour was enough for this. Regarding the finish... well I have seen much more expensive intruments with worse finishes. I rate it a 8 because the guys at Steinberger should set tremolo, pickups and intonation at factory.

I haven't had it in a long time so I'm still wating to see.

MusicYo ships things extremelly fast and they don't make a fuss about shipping to Portugal. That's what I need from them. If I need tech support on my guitars I have a technician that does just that. :)

First of all the price I indicate is guitar, gigbag, case, 10 sets of doubleball strings, shipping and customs expenses. So anyone buying from Europe know what to expect when they buy this. I have been playing guitar for 6/7 years and I own 2 Ibanez RT650, Fender Showmaster and a Ibanez RG550 (soon to be sold). If someone stole it I would buy another one, definitely. I love the R-Trem, you can abuse it as much as you want and it won't go out of tune. I rehearsed for 3 hours last time, tuned at the beggining and at the end the G string was a coma down! All others were perfect, after 3 hours of thrash metal soloing. I was also looking into Floyd Rose Sppedloader guitars, but they were much more expensive and the brands available are brands I don't like.
If you have the money go for the GM US model, I think that it should prove a fantastic guitar, but for this price this is a very good guitar.

You should know the features by now.
Headless design. Maple body with flamed maple top (looks very nice, not 'cheap'). Hard maple neck with rosewood fingerboard.
3 EMGs (in HB-SC-HB configuration) selected via a 5 way Fender style selector switch. 1 general volume and 1 general tone control for all 3 pickups.
Steinberger standard locking tremolo with integrated tuners.
Pretty standard 'superstrat' features apart from the omission of the headstock.
The guitar is a really nice workhorse guitar. The level of craftmanship is more than acceptable given the price (don't expect PRS type craftmanship, but the guitar feels solid and reliabe). The woods are of good quality, so is the hardware.
It has a nice 'travel guitar' vibe, and is indeed very practical to carry around.
It also comes at a terrific pricing from MusicYo. At this price, you should really check it out.
Not much to complain about feature wise. This guitar has got everything a modern player might look for in a guitar.
I won't put a 10, because it doesn't have 'tons of features'.
An 8 seem appropriate and might stand for 'very usable guitar for beginners, semi-pros and pro-gigging musicians'.
Nuff said!

I play mostly Blues, Rock, Jazz and Fusion.

My main amplifiers are:
- Cornford MK50 Head into 2 x 12" cab with Celestion Vintage 30.
- Tony Bruno Super 100 Custom (Dumble ODS clone) into 4 x 12" Brown cab with Tone Tubbies (AWESOME COMBINATION!!!).
- THD Univalve into 2 x 12" THD cab.
- Mesa Engineering LoneStar 2 x 12" combo.
- Victoria Twin amp clone.
All top boutique handbuilt amplifiers fitted with the best NOS tubes.

My main guitars are:
- PRS Custom 22.
- Gibson Les Paul Standard (2003).
- Gibson ES-335.
- Fender 1954 Custom Shop Strat.
- Bill Nash Relic Strat.
- Bill Nash Relic Tele.
All guitars loaded with BARE KNUCKLE custom wounded pickups (the best handmade pickups in the world!!!)

The only effect I use is a Robert Keeley Compressor for improved overall dynamics.

The Steinberger now review now!
Given the craftmanship of this instrument, it shouldn't be a bad guitar. It plays really nicely, although it might need a few tweakings, but not even PRS can guaranty perfect playability from out of the box. It's something personal and should be done by the musician to his taste.

A few reviewers have mentioned the weakness of the pickups. It's true that they are weak, but this is not necessarily a bad thing! Most players will tell you that high output pickups are awesome! However, experienced and non-metal playerswill tell you that high output pickups GIVE VOLUME, NOT TONE!! I have to say that the latter is sooo true! High output pickups don't have any dynamics, they just have bags of volume. Eventually, they just put a veil on the player. They don't reproduce the players touch and pick attack the way a lower output pickup would.
On the contrary, a low output pickup bring out much more DYNAMICS and RESPOND to your touch and attack. When using lower output pickups, the amp responds differently. You don't get gigadecibels, but you get BAGS OF TONE!!! It's some guy called Jimmy Page who taught me that! And believe me, he is right!! Listen to Van Halen 1. Low output PAF = outstanding tone!
I wanted to make this point clear as this can lead to misunderstandings regarding pickup selections and the overall quality of a guitar in general.

Coming back to our guitar. It's a good thing that the pickups are lowrer output ones, but they really lack in clarity and character! They are actually really DULL and there's NO HARMONICS. As a result, the guitar sounds STERILL!!
With the stock pickups, I will only give a 5 for 'overall good guitar, shame about the pickups!'.

However, you can replace them, and given the original price of the guitar, you can really afford some good ones and still have a bargain!
My advice would be to shop in the 'boutique hand wired' end of the market. It makes all the difference!
I replaced the EMGs with 2 uncovered BARE KNUCKLE 'THE MULE' (classic Les Paul PAF!) and the single coil with a Lindy Fralin Blues!
It made all the difference in the world!! The guitar really came to life! The overall dynamics was a joy to play with. The touch sensitivity was just what you would expect from a high end guitar. THE GUITAR NOW FEELS ALIVE!!! The overall voice of the instrument was really nice too. Pretty bright because of the Maple body and wood, but through a dark sounding amplifier (like the Cornford MK50H), it will sound very balanced and full! The overall sound is quite woody, which is always a nice thing!
Given the absence of the headstock, the guitar will sound and react differently from a 'normal' one. Some people will like it as part of the charm of this instrument, some people will hate it! It's really down to taste. Being a HUGE Allan Holdsworth fan (why I bought a headless Steinberger), I really liked it. In fact, I was able to get a very convincing 'Allan Holdsworth liquid sax-like' tone in my humble opinion (still a lot of work to do on my technique though to match the alien)! Those of you who've heard Allan play will know that this fact speaks volume about the potential of this ins

Like I said, you can't expect a factory setup to faultless. Every guitar needs tweakings to be fully playable.
The guitar came with good working hardware. No complaints here!

So far, so good!!
I'm not expecting it to last a lifetime! But who would atthis price!

Haven't dealt with them at all. Can't say!

I've been playing for over 35 years. I regularly gig and record.
This guitar is in no way a bad one. Just takes some good pickups and some getting used to!
I like it, and I might buy a couple more, just to try other pickup configuration!
At this price, this is an AMAZING deal. Don't hesitate, you'll be glad you bought one. You can't go wrong with it. Just invest some more money in good pickups and you'll have a guitar sounding as good as an American Gibson/PRS/Fender for the price of a Korea Epiphone/Squier!
Really FANTASTIC VALUE!!!

I bought my Translucent Amber Spirit In Jan '04.It was slightly used although the seller said it had never been played. I did look brand new. The first thing I did was a setup. I followed the instructions on MY web sight. It went pretty good. I am always fiddling with my guitars.

I gave this guitar a 7 rating mainly because the single coil pickup is just a little weak considering I really like that Strat sound. I think I will install the Stewart McDonald 'E-Megaswitch'another reviewer was talking about and see what happens.I like the size, the shape and the flame top, even though it didn't come from AAAAA stock.

The guitar was not set up very well, but I can't say it was any one persons fault or the factorys fault. It stays in tune great and is just very comfortable. I love the nect shape. A lot like an early Strat. The frets on mine are perfect and the neck is smoooooth.

I have no doubt that this guitar will hold up very well on a gig.

I love this guitar and wouldn't be too impressed with any guitar that might cost hundreds more. I can make this guitar into anything I want and have money left over to buy food. I've had many guitars 3 Strats, I will keep my Lonestar forever. Rickenbacker, Les Paul, Danelectro, Dean 'Z'. The list will get me into trouble with the wife!

I just bought the GU7R last week but already I have seen a difference in the way I play. I seem to attract attention everywhere I go now, especially at restauraunts when i dont even have the guitar with me.
Like last week I was just sitting at the Village Inn and a cute girl just walks right up and asks me what I want to eat...I was shocked to say the least.Yup, it's pretty safe to say that this guitar has changed my life and changed it for the better.Im going to buy another one next week and go to Denny's and see what happens.
Other than that the Guitar has some serious character,when I plugged it in and hit the strings, sounds could be heard and the harder I hit the strings the louder it seemed to get, I was able to compensate for this by turning the volume knob in one direction or the other. There's another knob but Im not sure what It does because I havent turned it yet. As for the switch, yes, it has one. and Im betting that If I move it back and forth something will happen.

My musical style is best described as indescribable.The effects I use are as follows: Compressor into an Overdrive unit then into a Distortion pedal then into a Fuzz box and then into another Distortion pedal and then into a stereo Chorus that is looped back through two more Overdrive units then all that gets run through a Revereb pedal and then through two seperate Delay units.My amp keeps blowing speakers so I have to use my freinds amps. They dont always like me to use them but I own the garage so they have to do what I say or they cant be in the band anymore.We're on our 19th Bass player.

Mine looks awesome,those guys at the factory left lots of room for stickers and I appreciate that so much.I painted the fretboard plaid and now this thing has so much sustain I have to leave the room sometimes just to hear myself listen.

This Guitar has so far survived everything that Its encountered, its a tough guitar.It is made of mostly wood and steel.It would burn but I wouldnt let it burn very long before I called someone.

All I can say is the girl at Village Inn was very helpful, yes, very helpful indeed.

Ive been playing for about a week now,it seems longer though.My ultimate goal is to play non-stop for several hours in a row.

Erm, for anyone that thinks you can only buy steinbergers from music yo your wrong I went ova to the UK and there was a shop in Chester that sold 'em but i cant remember the name. I also 'ave a spirit gu and think it is great it is so much comfier dan da gt coz of its curvy body. When i bought the guitar i was also able to buy a hard case for 70 cents which the guitar came in but also came with a free gig bag i have since bought a similar bag with more padding.
From QU1NNY
p.s does anyone know of a place in the uk that does paint jobs on steinbergers I am going on tour there and need one doing.

I play alot of punk stuff like bowling for soup, sum 41 and blink 182 etc but i also enjoy songs such as wonderwall by oasis the steinberger copes with all types of music which is good. i also have a bc rich guitar...warlock-which i prefer to play punk and stuff on

Duh...I dunno ?!?!?

there is actually a patch on my steinberger where the paint is so thin you can see the wood underneath which proves the paint isn't thick but i have played live before and it is still great

I owned an encore (fender copy) a while back, when i started playing which was about 10 years ago then 5 years ago i got my beautiful warlock and 2 years ago my steinberger. i have a 100 watt amp...think its marshall i pulled all the stuff off the front (not the cloth) you know...customised it. i also have a behringer v-amp that i love. Altho at the time rounded bodied guitars minus the headstocks sounded like a novelty, after i while i began to missguitars like the warlock with beefy headstocks and wicked bodies

Two piece Flamed Maple top (beautiful). 1 volume 1 tone control. Pickup configuration HSH. EMG elect pickups....which are absolutely the worst pieces of crap I've ever heard. Maple neck with Rosewood fingerboard. Maple body....which I'm not convinced I'm going to like until I get a better set of pickups in this guitar. 24 frets. Steinberger locking double ball "R trem".......which I both love and hate. The real beauty of this system is that you can lock the trem down with a flick of a switch. If it's set up right the tuning doesn't change when you lock/unlock the trem. Also because the trem pushes against the spring (opposite of floyd rose) you can do double string bends without the second string going out of tune. Now the bad news. Unles you buy the $25 string adaptor you MUST use special double ball end strings which are not available at any local music stores, including Guitar Center. You MUST purchase these on-line, so if you are planning on gigging with this guitar you should have a few sets of spare strings with you at all times.

Too hard to grade the sound with the current pickups which are dull and lifeless. I will update this section when I install new pickups. With the current pickups the guitar almost has dull strat like sounds (without the quackiness). Honestly folks, if you play rock or metal, plan on buying a new set of pickups. Actually if you are a gigging musician, plan on changing the pickups. Guys who have said they like these pickups have never played through a decent set of Duncans before. Also, a warning, I understand there is minimal room in the cavity, and batteries for the EMG active picks are a VERY tight fit, so you might want to consider a set of Duncans or Dimarzio's instead.

OK..this is why I am writing this review. I purchase a Sprit GT Pro from Music Yo a few years ago and was EXTREMELY pleased with the fit and finish. Not so with this guitar. Perhaps I just got a lemon. Perhaps, the Quality control is not as good.

The neck: Was the best part. Frets seems fine. No rough edges. All seated very nicely. Action was surprisingly low and their was no buzzing whatsoever.

Body: Flame wasn't as spectacular as the pics on the Music Yo web site. Some bleed of color into the binding....but not too bad. Clear coat was great, no sagging, no marks.

Tremelo: Horrible. At first I couldn't unlock it. Had to use a pair of pliers to do so. Then the next 10 times I tried to unlock/lock it it was so difficult to move that I damn near tore my fingernails off trying. Also, I noticed that when it is in the locked position there is about 1/16th of an inch of play in the bridge when it is locked....causing the tuning to go flat and sharp as mt hand touches the bridge for a palm mute or string mute. TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. Looking under the bridge I can see there is a stud that the lock engages. It appears that this stud is loose....causing the problem. I can't get to it without disasembling the whole damn thig....and quite honestly, even if I could get to it I don't know if it can be tightened. My last Spirit did not have these problems. I understand the Music Yo people are fabulous to deal with. Guess I'm going to find out. Wrote them an email last night on the problem, and will update this review when there has been a resolution to the problem.

Strings: The factory strings on these absolutely SUCK. The high E broke on the guitar on the first note bend I played on it. Buy a few spare sets WITH the guitar or the optional string adaptor (which is currently out of stock on the music yo site) or you will be disappointed.

Overall the guitar appears to be durable. I do wonder about the R trem. When the high E broke I fashioned my on double ball replacement out of a standard super slinky .009. When I loosened the tuner, I loosened it too far, and it came all of the way out of the saddle. As I screwed it back in the tuner threads began to strip a little.....telling me that the steel they used for either the screw or saddle was not hard enough (felt like brass or something else soft....a poor choice for tuner threads). I had to back it out and re-try several times before I got it right. It is VERY difficult to get the tuner screw back into a saddle once it comes out all of the way. For this reason my advice to all of you owning or considering this guitar is to NOT OVERLOOSEN THE TUNERS. Loosen them just enough to get the ball end of the string out. It took NO force at all to slightly strip the threads. The rest of the guitar seems beefy enough.

I'll update this review once Music Yo gets back to me. They seemed very responsive and helpful when I shot some questions off to them via email before the purchase. THERE IS NO PHONE SUPPORT. If you don't like waiting for email support look elsewhere.

Been playing about 20 years. I've owned probably close to 30 guitars in that time. Currently my other guitars are an Ernie Ball Musiman Super Sport, a Gibson Studio Les Paul, and a Yamaha 311MS. If lost or stlen I'd probably buy another. They are easy on your back, and plus they look pretty cool. I looked for a used American made model before buying this one, but they go for about $1k on ebay, and I was only looking for a backup/travel guitar, that I didn't mind beating up a bit. I would like to see it ship with better pickups. I can't beleive EMG would put their name on such bad pickups. It makes a great first guitar/ travel guitar/ backup. Also, a great axe if you can only afford 1 guitar and need the flexibility to switch between locking and floating tremelo. Don't know if I would use it as my primary instrument in gigging situations.....perhaps I will use it more as a primary instrument when my back goes out....which seems to be happening quite a bit as of lately. Us old guys need all the help we can get!! Finally, please consider that I have owned a Spirit Pro and had none of the above mentioned tremelo problems on that guitar. Overall it seems like a fine axe.....I think I just got a little unlucky!

I bought this guitar brand new from Music Yo. The guitar was manufactured in Korea. Check out the MusicYo web site for all the specifcations of thie guitar.

Because everybody on this web site seem to over rate products, I'm judging this guitar compared to a professional setup guitar that would be used to gig on a regular basis. Any guitar will do as long it sound good for live performance and stays in tune. Professional players know what I'm talkikng about.

The transtrem bridge is very poor. MusicYo claims this guitar has excellent tuners, but the fact of the matter is this... the guitar would not stay in tune for more than one song at any gig or rehearsal. Trust me, I gave this guitar every opportunity to do its job. It failed miserably.

The pickups don't have any character and they aren't noisy. The noiseless factor bumps the sound category to 6. I would even go as high as a 7 because this guitar sound good, not great for live performance.

The action is excellent but the factory setup was very poor. The guitar had to be taken to local shop for setup. Even after the setup, the guitar felt "cheap" in my hands. The "elastic thingy" holding the strings in place at the top of the headstock was a very poor engineering design.

I sent back three translucent blue guitars to MusicYo because of horrible finishes. There was obvious paint streaking and the finish was so poor that I couldn't deal with it. I actually waited until the translucent red guitars became available and ordered one of those. The translucent blue guitars were more of a green color than blue. I would give the finish of the blue guitars a 3, and the red guitar would get an 8. I don't why know there was such a big difference between the two colors. The red finish did look very good. Since I received four guitars from the factory, it's a safe bet that their Q/A is very poor when it comes to the finish product. I haven't seen any mention of the poor finish on this web site. Come on guys, lets be honest to save all musicians a little money so they won't make costly mistakes.

I'm rating this a 4 since the factory setup was poor and the finish on three out of four guitars was unacceptable for a new guitar.

I can honestly say that this guitar isn't road worthy for a working musician. I will say that this guitar is ideal for a beginning guitarist who is just learning. The guitar could be used by an intermediate player as a backup guitar for rehearsal.

Since I returned three guitars, I can honestly say that the customer service was fairly quick and responsive. They even paid for the return shipping. This was the best part of the guitar. :-(

I've been playing for about 20 years, about 12 professionally. I would not purchase this guitar again. If you are a pro stay away, if you are a beginner, this would be worth the investment. Intermediate guitar players should also stay away.

This is an honest review from an honest man. Nothing more and nothing less. I hope this helps.

Best of luck!

J-Rocka