I'm not sure it's ever been a better time to be a beginner guitarist. You can pick up an entire rig for £500 these days and get decent stuff. A guitar like this, a little multi fx unit and an amp! You've got loads of UA-camrs teaching free lessons, free backing tracks, a slowdown feature on UA-cam AND apps that can remove instruments from songs. Honestly, I'm kinda jealous to be 15 years in at this point. Wouldn't mind being a teenager figuring out how to play again right now! They've got so many genuinely great options available it's crazy!! ✌️
I'm 48 and 2 years back in after 13 years of not playing once...only 20 years of occasionally playing acoustic basically open chords and barre chords.. always had a talent for it and a good ear but never dove in seriously and put the work in...I play nearly every day now and have a great collection of killer guitars and gear...so I'm living it all over again and have the advantage of all the technology..it's overwhelming and can cause paralysis if your not focused..lol...best of luck to you my friend. Have a great day today 🤘😁🎸
Yes theres a plethora if cheap instruments, amps and effects that are all great for the money. There were some nightmare instruments when I started playing. Funnily these days, they're now considered "vintage" and people wanting top dollar for them second hand - They still garbage! You're much better off picking up some of the current cheap gear as the quality vs price is amazing.
That's why so many kids under 16 can play so well these days. In the 80s and 90s we had to figure things out for ourselves. I know so many players that are stuck in the one position pentatonic and can't break out of it or sound different.
Donner & blizzen for the holiday's? LOL! Really nice for the $ Steve compared to HB which brand overall play, feel, sound, HW/pups would you say is better? Thanks! Happy Holiday's!
I just bought 2 of these for £85 posted in the UK. Brand new in boxes with cases and extras. One is sunburst rhe other black. Not £85 each, but £85 for both!!! The black one has 2 dings that I'm going to relic anyway. I think I got a good deal though
It also has 6 saddles so you can adjust intonation. That's better than what I started with in 1968, I'm sure others have said something similar. Cnc, gotta love it! 8) That cost about 40% of what I just paid for a set of pickups. 8( --gary
The guitars today are miles ahead of what we had to endure back in the day, today a Squier or Epi, Donner and such with a Boss Katana & you are ready to go including effects.
Alot of quality guitars for the start up guitarist. My first was a 59 Gibson melodymaker. And while all those Sears, Wards, or others would be unplayable. Mine stayed perfect.
The budget market is totally kicking the brand name guitars arse, it's come to the point where the name on the headstock doesn't matter,these aren't the guitars we use to get in the budget market, CNCs can plek out exact replicas of the most iconic guitars,and you don't have to close your eyes to compare them to more expensive guitars,they look just as good and may even play better.
It's $99.99 on Amazon through Dec 20th. I have a few of these -- it's a ridiculous deal. You'll probably want to swap out the saddles, and you may want to swap out the tuners, but that's all relatively cheap and easy.
$95 on eBone for a sunburst. The neck is poplar tho, not maple,which is odd. Hope it lives long! Musiclily has "ultra" deluxe locking tuners for $40. I got a set of open box Fender Drive Deluxe pups for $50, super close to '59s plus they hoover gain, so. And a set of Artec big poles for $25. But the best budget tele on the high side of budget is the Jet JT 350 BTS butterscotch blackguard. If I were a parent buying something for my kid to learn I would sail right past Squier, past all these marketing challenged chinese brands and buy her a Jet JT 300, or the 350 if I wanted her to get to the dusty end easy. Handshake neck joint, spooned lower bout, and a belly cut on the neck humbucker models. Solid.
I bought one a few months ago, in a beautiful sunburst finish, with the bag etc for £65 (currently 82USD). I challenge anyone to beat that for value, it's a superb guitar for very little money.
Laurel wood fretboard isn't treated. : Varies from light brown to dark brown with darker, nearly black streaks. Sapwood is pale pinkish. So Donnor is selecting the very dark color.
Hey you guys! Donner has a sale on at Amazon. The DST 400 strat is $144 bucks. Use the $100 off coupon when you check out. I got mine for $200 bucks a few months ago and I feel like I got a good deal. For $144 bucks it is a steal.
I have this model. It's awesome. Only issues were that with high gain the pickups were a little microphonic, easy fix to wax pot them. One of the saddles stripped, but I replaced them with a set of GFS steel saddles. Not deal breakers by far. As one of the commenters said, there's no better time to learn to play guitar. Donner is putting out a fantastic product. I have the DST-152R and DST-400 on the way..I'm a believer. Great demo Steve, as always. Please demo the 400 some day?
I don’t know how they do it but it’s for sale on the Donner UK site for £79 today! Bonkers. I bought the Strat version (DST-100) in March. After a bit of usual setting up and string change it’s a peach… and was only £95 in a sale. If I wasn’t saving for stuff for the nippers I’d get one of these Teles too.
I picked one up after I bought a power supply for my pedals. The adverts just kept coming. So I ordered the black version. The price as you say was £79 delivered......think they have sold out!
Last year on prime day, I got a Donner "jazz guitar" (looks just like a Fender deluxe thinline telecaster). It's a winner! Changed strings and wiped it down, that's it! Didn't even have to adjust it.
Affordable guitars like this usually look good but weight too much however for beginners its a bargain! Its an awesome looking platform for modding that doesnt sound bad!
They make sure it weighs a lot so you can feel that it has a quality build whether it has it or not. My Harley Benton PRS copy is gorgeous with its carved top that my real PRS SE Custom doesn’t have and is really good but the weight bugs me. The Harley looks more like an American PRS than the SE does but the SE is lighter so more comfortable.
Sadly...not much is "drop in" for a Donner. You would need to plug the holes and start with a new bridge. The cheap Chinese pock metal is way too soft! The sadles stripped out adjusting the string height....this is even after I loosened the strings because I knew what the obstacle would be. The easiest thing I found was to just change the saddles on the bridge. The neck I love! These guitars play great...especially for the price.
Actually, I found a bridge that's really close and much better. I did a video on it. New bridge, pickups, and electronics were $72 on Amazon. The improvement was huge. Check my channel for the video, it was fairly recent. I'd post a link, but UA-cam has been blocking links.
...Sir,...why "MUST" a nice-playing guitar "ALWAYS-COST-BIG-MONEY"?......Satisfaction is priceless!......"I" have played "Very-Expensive-Guitar's" that played-like-SHIT!!!...So what-does-that-mean???....Help-me,Steve!!!........."It pays-to-be-poor;...I can't AFFORD an over-priced guitar"!!!....Peace,my Brother & much-love from Southern Illinois...
I have this exact same model and color; got it on cyber Monday for $120. I also bought the sunburst version, which was only $100. Mine does have an issue, but I sent a request to Donner to see if it can be resolved before having to send it back. The toggle switch on my white model appears to be non-functional (all solders seem to be intact). I am hoping it is just a matter of a bad switch as I really love this guitar, and the price was ridiculously good. They did go a bit overboard with the protective wrap though; I probably spent about an hour with an exacto knife getting it all peeled off the hardware and from around the volume/tone knobs. It's almost like they heat-gunned it on, heh.
Yeah they should dye all rosewood substitutes . I played a real nice epiphone gold top lp standard and I loved it but the finger board made it look cheap. If Yamaha can put Rosewood on a 400 dollar guitar why can’t everyone else ?
I dont get how a brand like Donner can have through ferrules that all line up perfect but the squier CV Indonesian guitars they are always off and a bit wonky which is what has stopped me buying the newer cv T guitar.
For new strings, check out the String Stretcha from Stewmac. 13 bucks and you use it to stretch your strings easily when you first put them on. No more break-in time.
most pick guards today have 2 films the second is a protective layer that typically stays until you scrach the shyt out of then you remove it, by then you should have learned how to play some... :-)
I was just noticing they seem to include a decent cable and bag compared to some of the other cheap guitar companies, so thought I'd scoot over to their website. The prices on the website have gone up quite a bit ($299AU for this particular model). But if you get on ebay, they're still relatively cheap - $160AU for the same thing. Seems weird? Anyway, as for the spec's it seems to depend where you get it from as the specs are different on each of the sites. - The US site, it's a canadian maple neck, purple heart fretboard, poplar body - Amazon US poplar neck and body, laurel fretboard - AU site it's poplar body and neck, perilla fretboard (which is an Asian mint species??) Donner seem nothing but consistent 😳 Either way, I think when you're buying any cheap guitar it doesn't matter so much about what timber is used as lets face it, they'll use whatever' is the cheapest at the time and will substitute just as quick if they run out. The main thing is whether it's a good bare bones instrument.
I'd love to see a followup video like you mentioned, where you do some upgrades. I added Jin Ho locking tuners ($38 on Amazon, drop-in), and swaped out the crappy saddles for solid brass/chromed modern style (Musiclily Ultra, < $20 on Amazon). I haven't touched the pickups yet, but I have a really solid, well-playing, nice-sounding T-style for about $160 all-in. I really like the necks on these DTC-100's.
I was looking at the EMG T pickups as well! What's nice is that it replaces all the electronics with their modular stuff. So not just new pickups, but also new pots, switch and input jack.
@@SFBGuitar So much better, I hate soldering. If you go that route you will have to open both the pickguard and bridge plate with a dremmel as the EMG's are bigger
![The Perfect Stratocaster Trem / Vibrato Setup [Floating, Flat Or Blocked?]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PjVXWyUGpwc/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm not sure it's ever been a better time to be a beginner guitarist. You can pick up an entire rig for £500 these days and get decent stuff. A guitar like this, a little multi fx unit and an amp! You've got loads of UA-camrs teaching free lessons, free backing tracks, a slowdown feature on UA-cam AND apps that can remove instruments from songs. Honestly, I'm kinda jealous to be 15 years in at this point. Wouldn't mind being a teenager figuring out how to play again right now! They've got so many genuinely great options available it's crazy!! ✌️
I'm 48 and 2 years back in after 13 years of not playing once...only 20 years of occasionally playing acoustic basically open chords and barre chords.. always had a talent for it and a good ear but never dove in seriously and put the work in...I play nearly every day now and have a great collection of killer guitars and gear...so I'm living it all over again and have the advantage of all the technology..it's overwhelming and can cause paralysis if your not focused..lol...best of luck to you my friend. Have a great day today 🤘😁🎸
That is the best posting or comment that I have read in a while. I am a beginner and I agree man!!!
Yes theres a plethora if cheap instruments, amps and effects that are all great for the money. There were some nightmare instruments when I started playing. Funnily these days, they're now considered "vintage" and people wanting top dollar for them second hand - They still garbage! You're much better off picking up some of the current cheap gear as the quality vs price is amazing.
I just picked up a Kramer Baretta special and I’m very happy with it. Great beginner guitar and then some.
That's why so many kids under 16 can play so well these days. In the 80s and 90s we had to figure things out for ourselves. I know so many players that are stuck in the one position pentatonic and can't break out of it or sound different.
It's amazing how these things come with a bag/case yet the EVH Frankie for over $2k didn't
You can rip off guitar snobs easily, pay for the badge😊
Donner & blizzen for the holiday's? LOL! Really nice for the $ Steve compared to HB which brand overall play, feel, sound, HW/pups would you say is better? Thanks! Happy Holiday's!
Does it NEED tuners? If they stay in tune / hold pitch why swap them out? Great review, guitar looks nice.
That guitar is a fresh look on you. It looks great. It would be cool to see an episode where you mod it up. Make it your Hot Rod.
That's the best Donner logo I've seen on any of their guitars so far. Pretty painless pricing, I gotta say.
Ya! Do a mod job! Tuners and pickups! Thanks Steve
$99.99 on Amazon through Dec 20th. At that price it's almost irresponsible not to buy one (or three) :D
Is it worth buying these or should I spend the extra $100 for a $200 guitar
Wow, looks & sounds great !!
I just bought 2 of these for £85 posted in the UK. Brand new in boxes with cases and extras. One is sunburst rhe other black. Not £85 each, but £85 for both!!! The black one has 2 dings that I'm going to relic anyway. I think I got a good deal though
It also has 6 saddles so you can adjust intonation. That's better than what I started with in 1968, I'm sure others have said something similar. Cnc, gotta love it! 8) That cost about 40% of what I just paid for a set of pickups. 8( --gary
No skunk stripe...... excellent, they've done it right ,the way it should be with a rosewood ? fretboard....well done Donner
The guitars today are miles ahead of what we had to endure back in the day, today a Squier or Epi, Donner and such with a Boss Katana & you are ready to go including effects.
Steve, a great set of Tele pickups are the Fender Custom Shop Pure Vintage 64. I have them in 2 Teles that I built.
Gorgeous guitar Steve. I would put a Duncan hot rails in the bridge and maybe some locking tuners
Alot of quality guitars for the start up guitarist.
My first was a 59 Gibson melodymaker. And while all those Sears, Wards, or others would be unplayable. Mine stayed perfect.
The budget market is totally kicking the brand name guitars arse, it's come to the point where the name on the headstock doesn't matter,these aren't the guitars we use to get in the budget market, CNCs can plek out exact replicas of the most iconic guitars,and you don't have to close your eyes to compare them to more expensive guitars,they look just as good and may even play better.
They were doing a Black Friday $99 deal a while back. I probably should’ve picked one up…
Just got one for total 107.49 with coupon
It's $99.99 on Amazon through Dec 20th. I have a few of these -- it's a ridiculous deal. You'll probably want to swap out the saddles, and you may want to swap out the tuners, but that's all relatively cheap and easy.
@@joshhenly Thanks, that pice included tax. Great deal and I will look into the items you posted. Kind regards.
At that price they are eating up the competition! :)
I have the Donner "LP" that you had on your show a couple of years ago and it is a really cool and amazing for the orice guitar.
$95 on eBone for a sunburst. The neck is poplar tho, not maple,which is odd. Hope it lives long!
Musiclily has "ultra" deluxe locking tuners for $40. I got a set of open box Fender Drive Deluxe pups for $50, super close to '59s plus they hoover gain, so. And a set of Artec big poles for $25.
But the best budget tele on the high side of budget is the Jet JT 350 BTS butterscotch blackguard. If I were a parent buying something for my kid to learn I would sail right past Squier, past all these marketing challenged chinese brands and buy her a Jet JT 300, or the 350 if I wanted her to get to the dusty end easy. Handshake neck joint, spooned lower bout, and a belly cut on the neck humbucker models. Solid.
I bought one a few months ago, in a beautiful sunburst finish, with the bag etc for £65 (currently 82USD). I challenge anyone to beat that for value, it's a superb guitar for very little money.
Laurel wood fretboard isn't treated. : Varies from light brown to dark brown with darker, nearly black streaks. Sapwood is pale pinkish. So Donnor is selecting the very dark color.
I bought one a few months ago. It's a great guitar.
I picked one up brand new for £65, and I couldn't be happier.
Hey you guys! Donner has a sale on at Amazon. The DST 400 strat is $144 bucks. Use the $100 off coupon when you check out. I got mine for $200 bucks a few months ago and I feel like I got a good deal. For $144 bucks it is a steal.
Very attractive, eye-catching guitar.
Don't be a prima donna- Buy a Donner.
Yep got 1 blk frtbrd,wht pick guard,blk fnsh,hot rod!
Has that nice chimey Tele sound as well. It does that Townsend Tele sound perfectly. Good job.
Just don't think I want the name of cannibalistic pioneers on my headstock
Dude, you're getting a Donner!
I have this model. It's awesome. Only issues were that with high gain the pickups were a little microphonic, easy fix to wax pot them. One of the saddles stripped, but I replaced them with a set of GFS steel saddles. Not deal breakers by far. As one of the commenters said, there's no better time to learn to play guitar. Donner is putting out a fantastic product. I have the DST-152R and DST-400 on the way..I'm a believer. Great demo Steve, as always. Please demo the 400 some day?
Hi, do you have any info on the saddles you used... link, size, fit ? Many thanks.
I don’t know how they do it but it’s for sale on the Donner UK site for £79 today! Bonkers. I bought the Strat version (DST-100) in March. After a bit of usual setting up and string change it’s a peach… and was only £95 in a sale. If I wasn’t saving for stuff for the nippers I’d get one of these Teles too.
I picked one up after I bought a power supply for my pedals. The adverts just kept coming. So I ordered the black version. The price as you say was £79 delivered......think they have sold out!
the headstock look like harley benton guitar . I think they are in same factory
I hear if you leave these guitars alone in a room with each other long enough, they'll eat each other.
Last year on prime day, I got a Donner "jazz guitar" (looks just like a Fender deluxe thinline telecaster). It's a winner! Changed strings and wiped it down, that's it! Didn't even have to adjust it.
I have the same guitar and I love it.
Are you playing this through an amp?
it would be cool if they made some with RichLite.
Gotta do their version of the 335 next Steve.
"I had a girl... and Donner was her name..."🎵
That sounds SICK
These have to be a rebranded Harley Benton? Maybe..
Yes once he unveiled it I was thinking the same thing !! lol
Affordable guitars like this usually look good but weight too much however for beginners its a bargain! Its an awesome looking platform for modding that doesnt sound bad!
They make sure it weighs a lot so you can feel that it has a quality build whether it has it or not. My Harley Benton PRS copy is gorgeous with its carved top that my real PRS SE Custom doesn’t have and is really good but the weight bugs me. The Harley looks more like an American PRS than the SE does but the SE is lighter so more comfortable.
@@yactabay other than the weight, how do you like it? Im considering buying the Hb, all the reviews rave about it!
Beautiful guitar. Better headstock than Fender by far.
Sadly...not much is "drop in" for a Donner. You would need to plug the holes and start with a new bridge. The cheap Chinese pock metal is way too soft! The sadles stripped out adjusting the string height....this is even after I loosened the strings because I knew what the obstacle would be. The easiest thing I found was to just change the saddles on the bridge. The neck I love! These guitars play great...especially for the price.
Actually, I found a bridge that's really close and much better. I did a video on it. New bridge, pickups, and electronics were $72 on Amazon. The improvement was huge. Check my channel for the video, it was fairly recent. I'd post a link, but UA-cam has been blocking links.
Excellent! Thank you! I found it!
@@SFBGuitar
...Sir,...why "MUST" a nice-playing guitar "ALWAYS-COST-BIG-MONEY"?......Satisfaction is priceless!......"I" have played "Very-Expensive-Guitar's" that played-like-SHIT!!!...So what-does-that-mean???....Help-me,Steve!!!........."It pays-to-be-poor;...I can't AFFORD an over-priced guitar"!!!....Peace,my Brother & much-love from Southern Illinois...
Very Cool. Thankyou. Picked up a sunburst one of these in Black Friday Sale, Bargain.
I have this exact same model and color; got it on cyber Monday for $120. I also bought the sunburst version, which was only $100. Mine does have an issue, but I sent a request to Donner to see if it can be resolved before having to send it back. The toggle switch on my white model appears to be non-functional (all solders seem to be intact). I am hoping it is just a matter of a bad switch as I really love this guitar, and the price was ridiculously good. They did go a bit overboard with the protective wrap though; I probably spent about an hour with an exacto knife getting it all peeled off the hardware and from around the volume/tone knobs. It's almost like they heat-gunned it on, heh.
Nice T-Style ,Opps he Donnered again. 22 frets makes all pickers grin. Nice dark fret board,Sounds good too,Bonus.
Chubular!
Yeah they should dye all rosewood substitutes . I played a real nice epiphone gold top lp standard and I loved it but the finger board made it look cheap.
If Yamaha can put Rosewood on a 400 dollar guitar why can’t everyone else ?
I dont get how a brand like Donner can have through ferrules that all line up perfect but the squier CV Indonesian guitars they are always off and a bit wonky which is what has stopped me buying the newer cv T guitar.
For new strings, check out the String Stretcha from Stewmac. 13 bucks and you use it to stretch your strings easily when you first put them on. No more break-in time.
most pick guards today have 2 films the second is a protective layer that typically stays until you scrach the shyt out of then you remove it, by then you should have learned how to play some... :-)
It says the freetboard is something called Perilla. But, that is the first thing I noticed. it looks beautiful! Wow.
I was just noticing they seem to include a decent cable and bag compared to some of the other cheap guitar companies, so thought I'd scoot over to their website. The prices on the website have gone up quite a bit ($299AU for this particular model). But if you get on ebay, they're still relatively cheap - $160AU for the same thing. Seems weird?
Anyway, as for the spec's it seems to depend where you get it from as the specs are different on each of the sites.
- The US site, it's a canadian maple neck, purple heart fretboard, poplar body
- Amazon US poplar neck and body, laurel fretboard
- AU site it's poplar body and neck, perilla fretboard (which is an Asian mint species??)
Donner seem nothing but consistent 😳
Either way, I think when you're buying any cheap guitar it doesn't matter so much about what timber is used as lets face it, they'll use whatever' is the cheapest at the time and will substitute just as quick if they run out. The main thing is whether it's a good bare bones instrument.
It has a good sound. But it's another copy of a Fender Telecaster. Or should I say a Squier instead ?
Sounds much better than my Squier
I'd love to see a followup video like you mentioned, where you do some upgrades. I added Jin Ho locking tuners ($38 on Amazon, drop-in), and swaped out the crappy saddles for solid brass/chromed modern style (Musiclily Ultra, < $20 on Amazon). I haven't touched the pickups yet, but I have a really solid, well-playing, nice-sounding T-style for about $160 all-in. I really like the necks on these DTC-100's.
At least they don't cost you an arm or a leg! ...or will they? :)
Those are ggod guitars for the money new pickups and tuners and u good
Amzn says poplar neck.
Amazon is wrong. It's maple.
You can spare your "looks great on camera" comments - we can be judge of that.
We want to hear about what we don't see in your camera.
I think it would be perfect if it had a maple fretboard!
I really like that.. the fretboard goes great with the White body and it sound good stock
I just got one for Christmas, it’s Great
Nice video! How much does this guitar weigh?
I put EMG T pups in mine with locking tuners, saddles, pickguard and string trees. It's great guitar now
I was looking at the EMG T pickups as well! What's nice is that it replaces all the electronics with their modular stuff. So not just new pickups, but also new pots, switch and input jack.
@@SFBGuitar So much better, I hate soldering. If you go that route you will have to open both the pickguard and bridge plate with a dremmel as the EMG's are bigger
What color is the pickguard?
Nice looking guitar.
Better or worse than the krama berreter?
Here today, Donner tomorrow.
Oh Berklee, not Berkeley.
I want to see some modds
$109..Walmart
👍👍😎✌️🤟
It's always a party when you play a Donner! :)
😁
Owners should host a get-together. They could call it a Donner Meet.
God, this drags. Get on with it!!!
Get to to the point please. Cheap guitar that plays well.
You got a strong stretcha or better advice?
Did you fart at 8:42? I didn’t hear anything but the video …….
Squeaky chair.
and the dye comes off eventually
I forgive you steve ALL THE BEST TO YOU FROM NYC!!!! YOU ROCK
The $2.75 guitar.. that cost more to ship it than build it.. I've noticed through a microscope they're are made from ground up trash...
What was the weight?