Review of Zager ZAD50CE Guitar at Sea
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- Опубліковано 1 сер 2024
- I recommended a Zager guitar to my friend who is a brand new player as they are known for being easy to learn on. He went for the African Mahogany guitar because he is on a boat. I am joining him to sail from Florida to Rio Dulce in Guatemala. We had a little delay, which gave me the chance to shoot this video. ENJOY!
The M/V KARIWA is a 62 ft Nordhaven
I'm going to help you out Mike. Here's a little tip when tuning. Always go below the projected note and tune up. And stop that way. Never tune down to the note and leave it because that will not stay in tune that way. Most guitar players know this, and you being a newbie I thought you should know. So if you are tuning and you don't hit the note right, back it down lower and tune up to the note. Hope this tip helps you. I know it will over the long run. You will find that your guitar will not go out of tune as often while you're playing it. Hope you had a good Cruise. Take care
Thanks for that very useful tip! I will be sure to follow your suggestion. Cheers, Mike
just bought a traveler escape mark iii guitar...love that guitar. Now looking at a Zager
The Zager 800 Mahogany that I demonstrate in another video is for sale by the owner of the boat. If you are interested I can put you in touch.
@@MikeMesseswithMusic I ordered the mahogony parlor guitar...it was delivered today actually. Thank you for thinking of me
Spend your money somewhere else. The guitars are not anywhere close to as good as they claim. Almost everyone of their videos are talking about Taylor and Martin owners leaving those companies for Zager. I can tell ya, i have a Taylor, an Ibanez and Zager acoustics and the only one I RARELY play is the Zager. Mind you, the Ibanez is a $250 guitar and it comes off the wall far more often than the Zager
@@deanmccall5023 I've since bought a bunch of guitars and either returned them or traded them in. I now have a Zager ZAD 900 om ce, a Michael Kelly Prelude Port and an Epiphone Olympic arch top. The Zager is a very good guitar with a slightly wider nut then my other guitars. The Michael Kelly gets played the most as it is the easiest guitar to play and since it was so cheap ($150) I leave it out all the time. The other guitars stay in their cases. You have nothing to lose ordering a Zager and trying it out as shipping is free both ways should you return it. I tried a few Zager's and the higher end ones are very nice and worth the price. I believe you need to play any guitar before you can decide as they are all different. A year into playing and metal acoustic strings are still chewing up my fingers. The next purchase may be a nylon string with a narrow neck...like a Fender cn-140 nylon ua-cam.com/video/uwS07WcbOIo/v-deo.html
At sea sounds the funnest Love music on the river were I Live At home Zager Guitars Are Number 1 they really do the trick!!
Hi WeedyGuitar. Which Zager guitar have you played? I am still not convinced about the EZ play claim.
@@MikeMesseswithMusic I have played the ZAD50CE LH Spruce Top what a wonderful guitar would really love the Mahogany Version But Very Limited For A Left Hand Player so have only played the spruce one and I have played the African Mahogany Parlor E Great Tone I have great Comfortable Electric Guitars I can play but these to me especially adding the Lil details and the pillow touch strings I can play it for 8 hours compared to my electric for more but I'm a 24 almost 25 years experience player and teach a non profit guitar class and music class were I play mostly acoustic and some on albums and stage the EZ Play is a true gift I believe it 💯
the guitar sounds like a toy guitar. I would not buy it for 99 bucks. thanks for your truly honest reiview
Hi Harmur80,
The guitar doesn't sound awful, just not worth $1,000 in any way! To be clear I have learned more about Zager since making this video. I would not have recommended this to my friend had I known what I know now.
Mike
@@MikeMesseswithMusicwhat did you learn??
Their advertising is relentless. I ended up putting stop on their texts and emails. They claim MADE IN USA but everything I find shows that is nonsense. As noteed elsewhere here, made in Asia with poly finish.
Way overpriced for what they sell.
Resale value not much to anyone informed.
Hi Ratwynd, you are so right, Zager is just a marketing company who sells guitars with false credentials. The Guitar I tried out on my friend’s boat is a perfectly nice guitar. Nicely set up, but the rest is just hype! And their ceaseless email bombarding is shameful!
Messy Mike
I have the Zager zad80ce with the Fishman auro pro electronics. The electronics are absolute shit, and the guitar is OK at best.
Hi Dean,
Thanks for the candid review. I recommended this guitar to my friend based on hype and false claims by the manufacturer about made in the USA. I want to be clear I do not recommend Zager.
OMG, LOL!!!!!!!!!
Glad I gave you a laugh!! Keep messing with music James.
If you wanted your friend to have a guitar that is easy to play and sounds fantastic, why not steer him toward a Taylor GS Mini?
A GS Mini would be far easier to do barre chords on than a metric-equivalent Martin-scale Zager would be and that's not an opinion, but physics. Shorter scale = less tension under the fretting hand. Denny Zager doesn't have a patent on undestanding the influence the NUT has on playing feel. Bob Taylor and Company understand that stuff, too.
It isn't a coincidence that you can find a Greg Bennett branded equivalent to the various Zager models, and for much less money. They come out of the same Samick Indonesia factory. Denny ain't hand-building the things from scratch in a Nebraska shed.
One of my new students bought a ZAD80CE from Zager. She was impressed with the advertising hype more than the actual instrument, especially when I had her play my old Epiphone DR=90 Limited Edition. It "plays easier" than her Zager does because it is properly set up to use .011"-.046" nickle-wound strings with a plain G. Even with those light strings, the thing is a sound-projecting cannon, thanks to having the same kind of molded mahogany plywood back that the GS Mini uses. I paid $49.95 + tax for it, brand-spanking new, as a closeout sale item at Guitar Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
That Epiphone-branded, cheap Indonesian plywood box played pretty easy when new and set up by Epiphone in the U.S.A. for .012"-.052" strings. I walked in with $2,000.00 intent on buying the best-sounding acoustic guitar they had in the place and walked out with that Epiphone and about $1,950.00 left in my pocket. It's one of my favorite guitars. It sounds fantastic,. It even has "Limited Edition -Epiphone-Custom Shop" silk-screen in gold on the back of the headstock. So when other people hear it and rave about how it sounds, they're like "No wonder..... Custom shop, eh? This thing must have set you back a bill or two."
So, I have nothing against a guitar made by Samick Indonesia, branded as something American, and set up in the U.S.A. before shipping out to dealers or an end user. That's what my favorite guitar is. And it sounds great even though the spec sheet says it should sound like every other student-model Pac-Rim instrument out there.
What I DO have a problem with is how Zager goes about doing that same basic thing. A Zager isn't scratch built in Denny's shed. It's mostly a product of Samick Indonesia, being sold at Godin, Taylor, and C.F. Martin prices, which is to say, "inflated" prices.
"All solid wood"?
My student's ZAD80CE isn't "all solid." It's laminated back and sides with a solid top. It sounds okay, It doesn't sound as good as my all-laminate Epiphone DR-90 Ltd.Ed. does,
Hi Jerrold, clearly you have a well formed opinion, and I do not doubt what you say. My recommendation to my friend was not as well researched as yours. But he is happily playing that guitar and the mahogany seems a good choice on a boat. I am not likely to go for a Zager myself, they have bombarded me with so much ads and promos that they have chased me off!!
I just bought a 1936 Parlor guitar made by Regal in pristine condition and it is by far the easiest to play and best sounding guitar I have ever owned. we each need to find what makes us happy!
Cheers!
Mike
@@MikeMesseswithMusic If your friend is happy, that's what really counts. I have three students who drank the Zager cool-aid and made purchases. The money has already been spent, and so they're happy with theirs, too. The only reason they shouldn't be is that for the price, I think they could have done as well or better with a different brand or could have done as well or better for a lot less money. Otherwise, I think they're good guitars.
I lived on a 30' Catalina tall rig sloop throughout my eligible bachelorhood. I kept a Traveler like yours aboard when they first came out with them and that, to me, was the ideal "boat guitar" and still would be if "made from wood" was the way I wanted to go. More likely, though, I'd be going Composite Acoustics or Emerald with an all-carbon fiber instrument.
Or not..... That Shadow pickup in the Traveler I had sounded pretty darn good to me. I wish I'd never parted with that guitar.
It was nice to see one getting some love in your video.
I went into the guitar shop looking for a travel guitar earlier this year. And side by side I checked the tailor, and I also checked the Martin and what I wound up taking out of the store was a Luna. That little guitar plays easy, has a solid Spruce top and sounds like a big guitar. Cost me $189 out the door. The problem I had with the baby Taylor and the Martin Minis were that the fretboard was to small. And you could not get your fingers crammed in there tight. Which is a very big issue to me I've got fingers about the size of Mike's. But the best part was the tone. And the price of course. Now when I'm sitting at home practicing I pick up the Luna. And I have got several name brand guitars. Martin Fender Etc. By the way, the Luna came with electronics also. Obviously not a high-end Fishman pickup but it will do the job. But I don't think Michael be able to play that many you were talking about, not with his fingers.
@@thefreese1 A Baby Taylor isn't a GS Mini. I didn't mention the Baby Taylor for a reason, which you've identified in your comment.
My fat fingers don't have any problem at all on the GS Mini. The fingerboard isn't narrow. It's just the scale length that's short.
The Luna you got is more like Taylor GS Mini than the Taylor Baby.
It's a neat little guitar. They're a bit difficult to come by in my area. They're a lot of instrument for little money, though, if you're fortunate enough have that option available to you.
@@jerroldshelton9367 i played the mini also that the same day... the problem with that was the tone.... that plyboard too wasn't too resonant .. yhe Luna with its solid spuce top had decent tone qualities.. a lot more sustain and projection..... and sounded almost like a full size dreadnought....What it didn't have was theBig Name ...However , If my Martin was down ,I could actually play a gig with this guitar if need be ...
I could flatpick it in a bluegrass group and actually be heard ... or down country on stage .... Granted the electronics aren't the best but I did manage to do enough effects adjustments to make it work very well ...
Another thing I remember on the mini was the notation up the neck on the guitar was off a little more that I'd like to live with ...
The Luna doesn't have thenhand crafted extras and the do use CNC as much as possible and it didnt have the fancy binding which eats up a lot of the cost of building a less expensive instrument... I wasn't going for looks though.... .. (Mine actually has those ugly peacocks lasered in it . Ugh) But that only saved me 20 bucks and i would have liked a plain top better...
Next time you get a chance ... try all 4 side by side in a store that carries all off them... along with different models of each ... I think you'll see what I'm talking about....
Please, learn how to tune your guitar!
Goodn idea!
Amature guitar sounds not good
Hi Candi,
I do play for fun not approval, but I am improving so stay tuned. :)
Mike