Donner DST-400 (& What's Wrong With Guitar Reviews)
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- Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
- Today it's the Donner DST-400 and what's wrong with guitar reviews on UA-cam. I bought this guitar with high hopes having watched a very positive review on it, and...well...you'll see.
Enjoy!
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is the Cort g250 and Ibanez azes40 better?
@@PhuongNguyen-qw8xy Second time lucky for me with the Cort G260CS.
The first one had a carpentry problem - skunk stripe below flush, a faulty pot AND an ugly finish flaw.
The second was Almost right but stilla small finish flaw in the matt lacquer in the same spot as the first (factory handling problem ?).
I kept that and it Is a nice guitar.
The seller comnpany later gave me a discount for the finish flaw, after I said that I was keeping it. 👍
@@PhuongNguyen-qw8xy Yes.
One of the reasons why I, personally, subscribed to your channel is the integrity of your reviews. Always honest, upfront and helpful. Your playing is another reason and the fact you like footy😁😁. I also watch The Guitaristas and Foxy's Guitar Show. Honest folk, one and all. Cheers EJK
Same🔥🔥🔥
Honesty and accuracy are not the same thing.
100% agree with this, buying and reviewing is a much more authentic and trustworthy way to do it.
Much appreciated!
What a crazy concept. Honest reviews and a person who actually buys the product they review rather than have it sent it. Thanks Elmo!
Cheers! 😊
I bought this guitar about 8 months ago. I paid $160 US. It was a great learning experience with guitar setup. I’ve been an acoustic player for 20 yrs, but finally decided to try out electric.
I have had a ball! I filed and lubed the nut. After setting up a floating trem, I haven’t had any issues with tuning. The only other thing I did was replace the humbucker with a hotter chrome covered one. (Didn’t like the look of the zebra) We’ll see how well the dime sized pots hold up.
For what I spent and the experience I gained learning how to adjust the truss rod, set the string action, set the trem, file and lube the nut, solder in a new pickup, etc. I feel like it was worth it. For what it’s worth, the guitar shipped to me has a 10.5” neck. Not my favorite. I’m used to a Taylor acoustic with close to 14” neck. Will probably give this one away and buy something else. It’s been fun though! Keep up the good work, This Guy!
Cool bananas 😊
Thank you Elmo. Wonderful playing again & a genuinely honest review. The tuning issue could also be due to a badly cut nut, probably made from cheap plastic.
I recently purchased the Jet 350 & I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised at the incredible quality & specification for the price. It also came well set up & in tune! I think you will be pleasantly surprised too when you test one of Jets range.
Keep up the awesome work my friend.
Great review, after finished watching I immediately ordered it for my disabled son. Thank you ❤
Cheers!
@@MrPolevaulter my son has no arms so it won't matter much. Why buy him an expensive guitar? It's like buying porn for a blind person
@@reneotten7376are you okay ?
For a while I started getting interested in some of these so called budget friendly guitars but the more I explored the more i got worried. Which brings me to my original thought that you get what you pay for and I’d rather spend more money on something better!! Rock on!! 🤘🏻
Actually my wife & I each have The Donner 152 Seeker Series... We each had an issue with guitars being scratched. Donner sent out 2 new guitars. So They stand behind the product. Now That model comes with gig bag nice, amp, cable that is nice not typical.. Also had a bag with capo, Strap, tuner, picks & even a FREE Class if needed for beginners & intermediate Players.. We Purchased Them On Sale For $158 !! Each Reg $200 FREE Shipping... ON SALE.. Now The Issue they have IMO is that they come with them needing to be adjusted at the BRIDGE Saddles although nothing major.. I don't believe that a beginner could do it that easy.. ALTHOUGH THERE ARE A Ton Of You-Tube videos on This .. IMO Berkley has a GREAT one. The Fret markers are painted on. I Think That were a BARGIN ... So If You know What you are doing you can mod them.. Whammy Bars with out FLYOD ROSE DOUBLE LOCKING SYSTEM FLAOATING BRIDGE is not a good Idea IMO.. The difference between the one you have 400 is the Body is Alder vs Bass Wood for the 152 Seeker S ... IMO I Like Light Guitars.. So Bass wood is better & its Cheaper.. Our Frets were Flawless. I checked out the whole Guitar.. For a beginner I would not see any mods Necessary. For an Advanced Player Yes. NEW Electronics. The ones it comes with are decent. The set up is all that is necessary. Which IMO is not a big Deal.. I just think if you pay for it than NO... If you have basic tools Fret Rocker, String height gauge, Fret Board Level Notched Straight Edge, a radius gauge. Fret Leveling files etc... Nut files You are good.. That is NECESSARY IMO For Any Guitar Player See Alie express TEMU Amazon etc... The Truss Rod is actually done well especially at this price plastic tube lined... The Nut Could be replaced once the beginner is intermediate level... We also have the donner Folded 88 Key Key Boards .They are good especially for what you pay. I don't compare a $10,000 Violin to a $300 one..
I have this guitar and agree that there are some issues. 1) Default strings sound and feel wimpy. 2) The coil split humbucker sounds weak when split. 3) The trem arm screw was challenging to access for tightening. 4) The strings (same gauge as default) bind in the nut on the D, G and B strings. 5) My fretboard was really dry. 6) My frets had some need for polishing due to some coarseness. Opinion: The neck shape feel was not as comfortable as I was hoping. I find that I like a vintage C better. Playing felt better after polishing the frets and changing the strings. I believe tuning stability will be improved if I slightly widen and confirm the angle for the nut slots. Also, I have yet to open the back cavity, so I may put in some foam for string vibration dampening, and I like someone suggesting for possibly installing a more robust spring claw. Or, maybe I'll just sell it and get a better husk to use for a dual P90 s-type guitar.
As a follow up, I played this guitar again yesterday since my high E string broke on my #1. I just don’t think I have a place for this instrument in my arsenal. That makes a second Donner guitar I own that I don’t want to play. I really need to put these things on the market. I would like to try a Harley Benton or SX strat, or maybe just put the money towards a Classic Vibe. On a positive note, the broken string gave me an opportunity to order some mods for my #1. 🤘🎸
Very good and objective review by a trusted UA-camr. I recently bought a Jet JS400 and had a few problems getting the whammy to stay in tune. After some adjustments to the nut and floating trem it was not perfect but much better. Overall I felt it still represented good value and was better than I expected at that price point. I'd be really interested to see what you think of this model!
I already have one, and might film a part of the review today.
I've found with lower priced strat style guitars, a poorly cut nut and cheap string trees are usually a big culprit. Maybe change those out? Love the channel, man. Keep up the great work.
Cheers!
Once i got comfortable with taking things apart on guitars, fret dress file, fret polishing sheets, doing setup intonation / action / truss rod and basic soldering then all my cheap guitars got much better. Also just got to the part where you said that guitar is 300 euros! I thought it WAS the cheaper one lol.
I bought an Eart CP1 stratocaster based on your honoust review(s), and I'm totally happy about that great guitar! So, keep up the good work!
Glad to be of help :)
I bought one of these last year during Amazon's Black Friday event. I paid $144 knowing full well that this was a modding platform for me. After doing a setup (setting truss rod, action height, intonation, pickup height, oiling fretboard), it played fairly well and didn't sound bad either. Biggest problem was the tremolo. Had the same experience as you. What I figured out was that if I did a dive bomb then pulled back on the tremolo (increasing the pitch), it popped right back into tune nearly perfectly. So it's either the trem system and/or the nut. I think it's both.
I swapped out the tremolo for a Vega Trem. That made a HUGE improvement in the tuning stability, but it's still not perfect. I'm pretty sure the nut grooves are too tight and weren't filed correctly. I have to push the guitar strings into the nut slots. I'm planning on having a bone or TUSQ nut installed.
I've also replaced the pickguard with a loaded pickguard from Fluence and I added the Strat battery pack as well, since these are active pickups. I swapped out the terrible tuners for Gotoh vintage locking tuners which retain the same look as the vintage (they don't have the spinning locking thing underneath), but are locking.
After doing all that, I really like the way the guitar sounds. It plays nice enough, but I have some high frets that need to be sorted out by my luthier. I'm actually tempted to put a Fender Player Plus Strat neck on with medium jumbo frets and 12" radius.
I'm also guessing it's both trem and nut.
Watched a couple of your practice amps videos, bought a dirt cheap original Micro Cube, loving it! Pad yourself on the shoulder dear Sir ;)
Not sure if you saw my comment on an earlier video and decided to get it. But i do like my Donner DST-400 (not a shill). I think it plays fine for the price and pickups are okay. It need a setup as the action was a bit high but other than that it's been fine as a backup guitar.
I did get mine for $140 USD tho when it was on sale. I might go with a different budget brand if it was full price.
Cool 😊
Thanks so much for this. I was considering this one but waiting/hoping you did a review on it first.
Glad it was helpful!
Actually it helped ALOT. I gave up on this one and actually found an Eart Strat! on Amazon of all places from the EART store. very happy with that - thanks again!
Nice review
Thanks!
Tell you what, I do that to a $200 Squier Sonic Strat, and it does NOT get outta tune. I was considering it.... Thanks Elmo! You saved me the pain!
Nice job! 😎👌 Jet JS400 is my No.1 - even over my Fender US Strat. (The Jet is modded now tho 😁)
I'd have to disagree about the cherry picking after my recent experience. I'm sure it does happen, but... Bax Music sent myself, John Robson, Budget Guitar Show and The Lamb, a load of their new Fazley Range to review. A few of them we're/are quite problematic/defective (phasing, seized truss rods, grounding issues etc)
These were most definitely NOT cherry picked 🙈
I bought one of the original series Donner strats. I replaced everything on the guitar. It's a great guitar if you enjoy tearing them apart. I still don't play it because its as heavy a truck and the neck is very wide or something I don't like about it. My trem still doesn't work because the cavity is too small for the big block on the Wilkinson bridge. If I change to the smaller block it might work but it does have a nice sustain and ring with a heavy block, so I probably won't waste anymore time or money on it. I'm sure there are much better alternatives to Donner guitars. Their pedals are not bad at all for the price. By the way, it won't take full size pots either without a router or chisel to the body.
That's a fair few issues.
I love your reviews because you are 100% transparent and honest, and right : when youtubers are receiving guitars from the brands as to make reviews, it is obvious these brands will send them their best guitars/gears as to make sure the reviews will be positive. It's been some years now that I do not trust anymore the objectivity (I am not doubting of their honesty for most of them although) of the youtubers who receive gears from brands for reviews (I am not talking about sponsorship where in that case they have to say positive things) ... in a way or another, because they have close relationships with these brands, their reviews lose automatically a big part of their objectivity... You should try the Guild Newark St. Collection Surfliner it is an amazing and quite original guitar (around 400 euros) ... I would be interested to have your opinion on it ...
Thanks! I've actually not even heard of that guitar. Might need to check it out.
Honest reviews and great playing.. Elmo, you risk breaking the internet! :)
Thanks 😊
"…but then again a plank with strings would be better…" Now that's an honest assessment of the one that you bought, I'm sure! Thanks for this video and BTW, your playing is AWESOME!
Cheers :)
It's funny cause we learned a couple of weeks ago that the biggest guitar channel on UA-cam had been hiding the fact that they were investors in the Victory guitar amp company 😅
It's very hard to find trustworthy gear demos or reviews, but I believe this channel is part of that category of honest reviewers that are actually passionate about music and helping people learn in good conditions.
They're also a huge shop trying to sell you gear - at all times. Their videos are not 'for funsies', even if they can be entertaining. The Victory Amps thing is just a sideshow, really. I watch their content, because it is well done and usually entertaining (and their featured guitarist can legit play), but I also never forget they're a retailer selling this stuff, and at the end of the day that's why those videos are getting made. To sell stuff.
What guitar channel is this??
@@edlicari3909 Andertons
It's not a big scandal, cause it's a market channel anyway. And everybody understand, that they want to sell stuff.
I have a feeling Nico from Licks of The Beast is who you were referring to. He’s honest but he was sent the guitar, so your point is fully valid! The one he got could’ve been amazing but that was most likely the most perfected and cherry picked one.
Thanks for the honest review as always! Having built or rebuilt 6 or so Strat style guitars the tremolos are very prone to problems if not really well aligned and setup correctly. But most of us know this already. Unfortunately, apparently nobody told Donner or their Chinese operations. If I lived closer I’d say send it over before you give it away and I’d be happy to fix it up. Thanks again for your help and advice to improve our collective guitar playing - very helpful and very much appreciated!
Thanks!
Cheer up my friend you are providing us a wonderful, wonderful service and we are thankful. Maybe we could do a video showing what it would take dollarwise to make their guitar playable with whammy bar.
When I say we I mean you 😅
Thanks as always Elmo
Another great review sir. Donner is still new to this industry but they might change with these kind of reviews lol
And this is the trouble with reviews especially with Fazely, Jet and Glarry .I bought a Fazely Rickenbacker copy and the frets were awful lots of high frets luckily I know how to fix with a fret dress but if your starting out then this could put you off playing. I don't trust any review that has had a guitar sent out to them by the manufacturer. Thank you for your honest review it really does help those players with less experience.
Cheers!
Thank you so much I was waiting for so long
I love Vintage brand guitars the last review you made it was unfortunate but as an owner of their Les Paul and Strat type V6P with3 P90's they've been brilliant guitars good on you for purchasing guitars , I still take the Vintage V6 , that's my choice you should look at Vintage Pro Shop Models , as for these guitars just another Chinese mass produced guitar , I would love another Stratocaster , I would take out the pickups , throw in a Wilkinson's with Wilkinson tuners, but the good thing about these guitars if your looking to learn to upgrade set a guitar up these would be fine, but would I purchase one new nope, I love your channel Elmo I always loved your honesty cheers
Thanks so much for your honest feedback.
Any time!
I always enjoyed my Donner pedals, but when I suggested, and subsequently received a donner DST-200 for Christmas, it's been rough. Initially, the middle pick-up didn't work. Their response was to give AUS$30 towards getting it repaired...
The local music store advised the pickup and selector needed replacing, and that would cost the guitar again. I went back and pushed, they offered either $80 back, or send it for a full refund. They couldn't replace, as they were "out of stock at the warehouse". However they were still available to purchase online, and actively promoting it.
When I questioned this, they apologised, decided to send me a new guitar, after being "carefully inspected by QA".
I received my new guitar, and while the pickups all worked, I got a shock through my arm from touching the bridge; It wasn't correctly grounded.
This is where I'm up to, after chasing since January. We'll see what they say now...
Love the honest review Elmo. I was actually never in the market for a Donner, although the one you have there looks nice. Hopefully, whoever you gift this guitar to, replaces the bridge and ends up with a nice axe. Also, I thought the PU's sounded really weak but serviceable. Again, love the way you present your videos, forthright every time.
Thanks 👍
I wish I had seen this review before I bought the Donner DST-400. It's a crappy guitar. I saw several reviews saying the guitar was fantastic and it is not! Mine needs a lot of work to make it fun to play. Thank you for your honesty.
can yo make a review of donner dst 152, maybe you'll have better luck this time
Thx for turning up the treble
I will say this. This guitar is $140. I have no clue why he paid that much. I tightened and locked the trem just because i dont use them anyway. If you plan on doing this, this is a killer deal at $140. The fretwork is very good. The finish was basically perfect. The pickups are very usable and the humbucker is coil split. Great deal. This is my experience. You are not guaranteed my experience but I will tell you that there is a very good chance that you will have a similar experience. I cannot vouch for the trem because I blocked within an hour of unboxing it without even testing it. So if you plan on doing that give it a shot. 140 on shein
Here it's just a bit more than $140: m.donnermusic.com/buy/7510694068362
I aligned the screws, the guitar also had an excessive slope on the string lowering system. Once these problems have been fixed, the guitar works fine. Consider that a year ago I paid less than €150 for it
When I was a young man (a long, long time ago) the guitar player's rule was Never Buy A Guitar Without Playing It First. Although the first thing I did was violate that rule (I bought a guitar from a catalog company in the mid 60's because it was what I could afford) I tried to take it to heart for most of my life. In this day and age most people don't, understandably. Reviews are essentially opinions and you know what they say about opinions. So "play before you buy" still seems to be the only guaranteed policy.
Absolutely. Try before you buy.
Good Review - I looked at the shirt and wondered what that was about. Monty Python - great stuff.
Monty Python is brilliant :)
Thank you for the quality of your work, as always ! Another great educational video on the subject of honesty in guitar gear reviews was the andertons Mesa Boogie's cab clone review ...and it's "remake"... When you read under the lines, it's just incredible to see them review something so bad, that it cracks the varnish of their editorial lines !
Oh and by the way :
"I mean, if I went 'round saying I was an emperor, just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!"
PS : maybe the springs were caught on the wood of the of the vibrato cavity ? Anyway, wilkinson trems are under 40€, and are better than the ones fender installs on their guitars under 1500€, and a graph tech nut costs a tad over 10€. So... for someone who's ready to get his hands dirty, has a screwdriver and a bit of super glue, for 50€, this guitar can be good ! But for a guitar over 250€ it's horrendous. Plus most of the people who spend this amount of money on a guitar are beginners, so they would have no clue at all what's happening, and won't have any idea how to figure it out !
Love your content ❤
Thanks!
😀 I am about to build a guitar - this might have been a great starting-point! :) Take care Elmo! -Arnt from Norway!
Tack ska du ha 😊
I doubt many people are outright lying about the products, but once you've had any kind of an interaction with the company (even if it's one of those reviews where the UA-camr has to send the product back after reviewing it), it's going to be at least a little awkward socially if you tell everyone the product sucks. Thus, we get reviewers perhaps mentioning all the flaws in that particular copy of the product but downplaying their impact while overhyping all the things that are fine and then they tell their audience that the company has no influence on what's being said about the product.
Yeah.
Had one in the transparent green. It was nice looking but a total buzz factory.l, weak pickups and a cheap trem. It was cheap but the cost to fix it made it no longer cheap. So returned it.
Wow, how you are able to say your name so fast! Incredible! OK, you have known it quite for a while!
😁
Any Donner instruments I've reviewed have come from their Amazon warehouse, so there's no chance for a company rep to cherry pick a good guitar. In fact, they can't...they're not going to hire someone just to unbox, unwrap, and test every guitar they have in their mass market pile, then re-wrap them all and just send the one they like. They're not shipping direct from the "good guitars only warehouse" in China lol.
And I have sent some back, saying flat out "this isn't good enough to review." Their quality response is excellent. Anything that is decent but needs a setup out of the box I also point out.
I was considering this guitar just to mod as a complete novice. I know so many of these budget guitars are hit or miss. I will probably stick with one of my first two choices. The Fender stratocaster player series or the PRS Se silver sky. Thanks for your honest review.
Yikes, that’s scary. I just wanted to say that I’ve never bought a Donner guitar, but I have checked them out online and noticed a few things. The main suggestion I have is to NOT buy them from the company website. For some reason they really jack up the prices there. This very same guitar sells for only $188 from the company’s eBay store. They even have a 20% off sale going on now. That brings it down to around $150 (with free shipping). And they throw in a gig bag, strap and cable. They also sell “Certified - Refurbished” guitars for even less.
Despite this review, I’m still thinking of getting one of their 335-style guitars (available refurbished through their eBay store for around $210). At least there’s no whammy bar to complicate things.😉 Keep up the good work, Elmo!👊
Edit: It looks like they’re sold out of the 335-style guitars on eBay, so I missed out there. Maybe that’s a good thing.😂
I bought one of those guitars, and mine works perfectly. The whammy bar never goes out of tune. I check it with a tuner after playing a long and hard and it stays in tune. Maybe you just got a bad one, which is also unacceptable but Donner does make a pretty darn good guitar for the money. And I only paid $150 for mine off of eBay direct from Donner.
One of the important things to be aware of in interviews is that opinions are objective and even honest reviews only offer an opinion of what they review!
That trem issue is probably just a poorly cut nut. Not great for a new player but if you’re experienced hopefully that would be a fairly easy fix.
I GOT THE TELE DONNER UPGRADED THE TUNER AND PICK UPS AND LOVE IT THESE CHEAP GUITAR GIVE YOU A GREAT FOUNDATION TO BUILD A GUITAR TO YOUR LIKING
From a construction standpoint the guitar seems well put together. But soon enough that notion falls apart due to blatant oversights. Sadly, and just as you say, the over-hype does little justice to those influenced by spurious reviews bent on generating income. Even though I would never invest in any of the gear you review, since I build high end guitars which I play through expensive custom-built amps, I find your videos captivating. Thanks for exposing those untruths, Elmo!
Thanks 😊👍
I totally agree. This is why I'm subscribed to your channel. You cut the bull crap and say it like it is.
Thank you 😊
Whau Elmo Welmo Malmsteen Karjalainen 😊
This review is why I keep coming back here. Facts 🤘🏽 I hope that guitar gets an owner who will give it what it needs.
Vibrato bridges are a system and rely on setup relative to how you use it. Even if it was a titanium $1000 bridge it will still have the same inherent design flaws.
It's a big thumbs up for me 👍 why because you took the back off you showed the block in the back. I'm in the middle of my comments earlier. So we'll see if you say anything about the pickups and stuff like that
I made the mistake of buying a DST200 in the new year sales.
It arrived in only it's thin flimsy damaged box not double boxed as it should have been.
My heart sank, the only protection was a thin gig bag with about 5mm of padding.
Thankfully there was no damage, but just strumming a few chords made me cringe.
so the fret rocker was used, the frets were like a cobbled street, all the ends were sharp
the trem was solid to the body, not a good sample.
So as it was the dreaded week before the new year i attempted to make it playable
this took many hours, and it was still a pile of poo!
My advice, don't buy a Donner unless you can do your own setup and fret leveling
I gave the guitar away, the sight of it made me angry.
Nice Guitar! The Headstock looks like a Harley Benton Headstock!
I had these same problems, I actually built acoustic guitars and sucked it up and refretted. Changing to 10's helped me too, veneered board likes to chip out, Same problem with whammy, I had to remove some wood from the cavity , and weird way to tension whammy Bar, you have to remove the whole thing to tighten a set screw, since I went that far, I carved the neck profile a little and did some other things, and this video sounds just like how the character is, sort of too tight sounding. I was really disappointed I bought it, but figured I would stick with it because I could, and could only go to the dumpster if not, wouldn't give it to someone learning, or anyone really, I don't think players could do all that, or should if they could. I will say though, since I did it all, the humbucker has coil splitting, I pry the push pull pot with my pick, and the sound has warmed a little and I actually got a little addicted to the tone, it's like "almost there" have come around to prefer alder decidedly, so I kept it and it is the one I keep in the house and I practice on it and my real guitar and gear are in my shop. I like the tuners, but you are right, it was not a reasonable guitar as it came, the small frets and light strings were terrible, tone mediocre, trem just didn't work, sound was too tight, but it did develop. I mean, I made it work but this is a good video so people like me don't just think they have gone crazy or some thing, because all I saw before was good reviews, and if it had come like I made it, I would have been happy, but "can't get there from here" unless you already build guitars or want a new career learning Lastly offwhite pick guard is nice, it actually has a lot of good, but pure deal breakers too
Enjoy your reviews, but the continual change of focal length makes me dizzy.
I purchased the Donnor DST-152R T considerably cheaper. 2023 I paid 157 Eur with intention of modifying it. I swapped out the bridge and tremolo block with a New Standard vintage Fender bridge and block. Fit right on even the 6 screws all lined up. I also swapped out all the springs with a 5 pack of Fender spring. Replaced the turners with Guyker vintage locking turners again fit right on no scares, set it all up myself. I was lucky the frets and neck were all good. I got 222 Eur into it. I'm guessing very little difference in these models. Why? I was always going to modify it and I may not have if it was a Fender. The Fender Squire isn't the end all either, they can have issues as well and there several model in different price ranges.
If you wanna see how much work a donner takes to get to playable, you should watch
GCH guitar academy.
There is a reviewer that used to say that guitars are units but I won't tell who because his name is tricky to pronounce.
😀
Thx
I got one of these when they were doing a big "discount" on ebay. Something like 120 USD delivered from memory. I have a handful of dirt cheap guitars I experiment with different kinds of pickups and tunings, these are the standard pattern so its easy to swap parts.
The trem sucks, but I don't like trems anyway (bought a nicer wilkinson for it). Plastic nut was cut fine but threw out for a graphtech. Stock pickups needed adjustment and don't sound great, maybe the pot values weren't ideal (currently a single HB JB clone), the fretboard is super dry before oiling and the neck slightly flimsy but with a nice enough profile.
Maybe I was lucky but the frets were fine on mine. Out of the cheap guitars I have bought it probably needed the most minor work to be playable. Good for the price I paid. 300 Euro for a new player just wanting to plug and play? I'd buy something more established from a store with a setup.
Nice discount :)
I've seen other reviews that noticed that issue with the trem on these, and they were all ones where the guitar was bought, not sent. Huh. Funny how that works, lol.
Yeah, really strange 😀
Nice played again..I don't understand why guitarbrands put a useless trem on a guitar...If it doesn't work,it's just a problem and a lump of metal....
Indeed
Great, I have this guitar from 1 years
This is perfect example of why anybody would spend hard earned money on a Donner rather than most any Fender Squire is beyond my comprehension.
Same goes for jet, and mono Price
I don’t really know of anyone who pays 300 for these tho?? I block the whammy anyways myself but i do agree, these have full size block, alnico pickups alder body etc etc that your not getting with a lot of guitars in its range. I have one, I’ve had three all of which were set up and came with gig bags and cables under 125 dollars
I actually traded it for a Yamaha Pacifica
OK, I won't buy the Donner, but I most definitely will buy the shirt. :)
😀
It's a bit like any reviewer (video-game reviewers being the obvious category) : you have to trust their integrity, honesty, and opinion for their reviews to be relevant to YOU.
But all reviews are subjective, and it's always a huge gamble buying anything sight-unseen.
Seems from the reviews that the quality control of these budgets is very uneven and inconsistent. Even the hallowed Jet and Monoprice have had Terrifying bad reviews
A common problem I find with cheap whammy bars are actually the spring claw being made of soft metal, which makes the whammy bar useless! So I guess a new spring claw would probably cure the whammy issues, and of course new springs. Relatively inexpensive and very much worth it!
You can change everything apart from the wood. For a beginner is important the set up. For experienced guitarists all that matters is the wood. Is the body alder ( or mahogany for gibson), is it thick enough, is the neck maple (or mahogany for gibson) and is it thick enough? It doesn't make sense to buy a guitar with great set up, great hardware, but the body is poplar, and the neck is too thin. I wouldn't buy a guitar with a double action truss rod, it adds too much metal inside the neck, compared to a single action truss rod.
I agree with you .
I am not in Europe So I cannot ask for it. Otherwise I would love to have it and work on it to make it as good as possible.
I know a reviewer(I wont name the channel) they reviewed 5 Harley bentons in a row across several videos....now, I like the HB guitars, I own one and I think, for the price, are one of the best brands out there...but this reviewer made th emistake of flashing the "inspected by" ticket in all of his videos(he unboxed them on camera)...and they all had the same inspector..
I thought...that's odd...so when I asked him about it he said that he always deals with the same HB rep....this means his guitars had extra attention given to them...and that's...unethical to suggest people to buy something that 1) he got basically as a promo and 2) had extra QC and were cherry picked for his reviews....horrible.
EDIT: Ha, use the same term as I "cherry picked"...carry on..
I don't like the nut width...looks thin.
hearing fret buzz immediately...not a lot, but that action seems pretty low....
then intonation...when you make that weird face to the camera...or it was you?
that humbucker is ass, neck pickup not too bad...
OMG...the whammy bar....makes it easy to tune down a half step :)
So a new bridge replacement? And the guitar is ok
Still only OK, and there are so many better options.
In general I try to avoid guitars that are "magically cheap yet amazing", they are usually not amazing at all. To be fair, if you are really good at setting up a guitar and you have all the necessary luthier tools, you can possibly even make this guitar play like a $1000 one, but personally I don't have the time to spend on that, I much prefer to spend $500-600 on a used Esp Ltd 1000 series or something whichh I know for a fact is going to slap.
Is it possible that the bridge screws just need to be lubricated? It's wild that it's as bad as it is.
I don't think that will solve it.
Since there are even pharmacists who dilute a dose of chemotherapy to make 10 out of 1 dose in order to enrich themselves, it doesn't surprise me in the least that one or the other turns a very bad guitar into a very good one for a fee of whatever kind. Or as you say that the testers get selected guitars that have nothing to do with the ones that can be bought over the counter.
Greetings
Could it be that certain companies are passing off B-Stock items as A-Stock ?
Could it also be that makers are '"slipping in" QC fails into larger consignments, knowing that the Online Retailers Won't be opening the boxes ?
OR
That retailers are negotiating bulk order prices on the understanding that the QC will not be quite as diligent as it might normally be ?
Angled claw screws make no difference. They're not moving in there. Or are they?
I would like to look at this guitar and see what the problem really is but I'm not near Turku, so I won't be dropping by. Maybe the best way of reviewing cheap guitars is to show what needs to be done to make them good. Elmo's "What would make this guitar great" series. Now, that would really help people.
Hi from Germany.
Guten tag :)
OMG! Zero point in having trem that bad. Like you say, only option is to tighten it down/pseudo hardtail it. For that price, this is unacceptable! 😳
Indeed.
So, the DST-152 is better than the 400? Because everybody is reviewing that one
Out of the two I tried, I liked the 152 more.
@@MrPolevaulter Bro you made my decision easy! I was in the market for a good cheap guitar to tune down, of course I sub'd to you! And I agree, if I were to review a guitar, I don't want my vote to be rocked by a top-choice from manufacturer, I want what the normal buyer would get!
You could easily replace with a Wilkinson ,but,nowadays,why should you? Plenty of decent strat copies at the price point.
unless we get lucky , fretwork is expected to be poor in this price range so add another US$100 to stated price for a luthier to fix frets and intonate guitar. that whammy bar issue is unforgivable though.
Thank you for the video. The constant zooming in and out makes me feel sick and couldn't finish watching the video.
I had the donner tele and it was meh. It wasn't terrible but not good at all
Fair enough.
Interesting…. You clearly don’t like the guitar, but if I understand correctly the guitar is very playable with not a bad tone and with your standard of playing the guitar sounds very presentable. but the whammy bar is useless due to the detuning (which can I say my Ibanez GSA60 and GRX70 are exactly the same. A gallon of nut sauce solves the problem for about a week but then your back to out of tune again) where you tubers such as yourself really help is you make us consider guitars we would have never thought of (due to brand loyalty) that will offer a greater value and better quality. yet again thanks for the review.
Nice review, thank you. I have a 200, it has tiny frets too. Is it a big job to re fret with taller frets? I feel like I'm squeezing super hard to get a note, or is that just me being a noob?
Refret takes a lot of time yes.
If you're squeezing too hard, the action needs lowering.
Are you still giving away that guitar in this video I would really like to get it if it’s still available?
It's gone.
@@MrPolevaulter oh that’s cool I knew it would be it’s cool I enjoyed the video I wanna play electric guitar Can’t wait to get one I’m gonna practice EVERY chance I get.
Hello Elmo! Is the Harley Benton SC 550 ll really as good as many people say it is?