Glarry guitars make for excellent mod platforms. Definitely not for beginners, but the bones are good, they just need the right dressing. I have 4 Glarry guitars and I modded the crap out of all of them.
This makes me happy. I just ordered two Donner guitars. Should be arriving in a day or two. I can't wait to try them out. I am getting the DST 100 and DST 152.
I had a glarry bass. It took a ton of modding to make it worthy. Not sure I'm going to take that journey again. I also owned 3 Donners. The Donners are definitely worth buying. Donner is a brand I would buy again.
after open heart surgery, I needed a very light weight guitar. Good friend gave me a Glarry blue tiger stripe two bucker strat. It got me back gigging again. Still playing it six weeks out of surgery. It sounds good, and works for me. Surely not my Strats or Telecaster, but it works.
I bought a donor I've had it a month now just like the one in your video same color and everything had no problems with any any of it except on the bottom humbucker cover was kind of blemished and I'm going to have to do some Polish work on it later everything else was no complaints
Got a Donner Tele ($100 on Prime Day, July 2022)and it was pretty good for me right out of the box. I swapped in some JinHo Korean locking tuners ($37). The bridge saddles were horrible "vintage style" stamped steel with wobbly grub screws. I replaced them with solid brass saddles ($21) with good grub screws and it plays and feels solid. Pickups and pots are just o.k., but again, good enough for me. New strings, of course. I also swapped out the white pickguard for a vintage tortoise ($10). I now have a $175 tele that I play regularly, including a church worship band. Not too shabby for a 73 year old half-assed git player.
Love the video. I own both Glarry and Donner guitars. I have owned 3 Glarry guitars. One broke after a few years of heavy playing (acoustic). One I later sold (Tele model). I later bought a Glarry's SG knockoff which I switched out the pickups and wiring. Everything else was spot on. I also have owns 3 Donner guitars. My first was the Telecaster model and sold it later. I own their Strat model and the semi-hollow jazz guitar. They were all great.
I bought the Donner Seeker guitar and I was immediately disappointed. I must have received one with an especially bad set up. There was considerable fret buzz from high frets and the truss rod needed adjusting. Using the tremolo arm would throw the guitar completely out of tune and then the tremolo arm would just fall out. I bought this in June of 2023. At the time there was no fret sprout but after going through a New England winter the fret sprout was terrible! I've done quite a bit of work on the frets and I'm currently waiting for a Musiclily replacement bridge to arrive. I am hoping to have a good playing guitar soon.
Philip McKnight found a few uneven/buzzing frets and a few sharp fret ends. So that is a possibility, but unlike some guitars, these things can be easily fixed. It's not like my Ibanez AX120 which had all sharp fret ends which I could not fix because of my arthritis.
Need to check out asmuse guitars this headless bass is pretty neat has a string winger the magnetically sticks in the bridge and they have guitar versions yes its not set up and you have to sand bridge cause ground won't work on paint but after that is pretty neat guitar I'm gonna hotrod mine out with pickups and few other things
@@thebaldshredderI bought my IYV les paul cause of your channel the video was a iyv superstrat but the quality was great on the lp and the green finish is 🔥
I own a Donner DST-200 and it gives my Yamaha Pacifica 012 a run for the money. What I like about Donner is even the cheapest model comes with a Coil Split Bridge pic up for way under $200. The cheapest Pacifica with Coil Split is over $300
I really like both jams equally and those guitars I think but I love the custom stuff you did to the telly. I always put my headphones on when I listen to you play because I love to listen to you play I can hear it a lot better on my phone with headphones. I know you put all new hardware on the glary what the the bridge and the tone of volume control. I love that you put the hot wheel and the back. Will a hot real fit in the regular bridge that comes with the guitar.
I have had experience with Glarry in the past, having bought one of their Strat-oids and one of the P-bass-oids. I destroyed the Strat-oid body, trying to drill it for a two-point vibrato. Since then, I've bought two Donner DST-400s, which have stock two-points. The lesson I learned was to buy as close as possible to what you ultimately want. I am sorry I killed the Glarry body, because I had just done a really sweet fret job on the neck. At this point, though, Glarry has nothing I want. Neither does Donner, since I'm not going to buy a THIRD DST-400.
Hey buddy it's jim from maine,I bought the DONNER200 and I love it,its shell pink and it's the strat with 2 single and 1 open humbucker,I needed to level a couple frets and clean up the nut alittle,also I dressed and polished the frets perfect and that's all there was to it,but a beginner could have played it out of the box pretty much but u no what I'm saying,it's a stage guitar now really,I'd play it on stage if I was drunk right,lol,just kidding bud but he'll ya it's a great guitar for 102$ ebay,refurbished but mint when I got it,tags and tape still on it,simple didn't like the color or something stupid but I love it,thanks bro love ya,send me a hiiii,jim
I have 3 glarry's and 2 donner's Have done mods to all of them. I bought them for projects and now they all play as good as some of my more expenceve guitars. For a beginner I would pick the Donner also.
i like to say that a Glarry is just a painted and fully asembled kit with an unfinished neck with the cheapest parts just to make it work. i put emgs in my glarry and made a video about it on my channel.
Enjoyed the vid, Richard. I gotta ask tho ..you earlier this year were pretty darn pleased with Fesley. Was there a reason THEY didn't make the cut? I'm also seeing some great reviews about a brand coming out of the UK called Fazely. They (like Donner and Glarry) ALSO have a wide assortment of styles to choose from at insanely low price points... thoughts?
Thanks. Yeah a couple reasons. First, Fesley only has 1 guitar model so far. Second, Glarry and Donner are probably more well known. Third, I'm doing a separate video about the Fesley coming up because it's better than both! 😃
@@thebaldshredder AWESOME man!! I'll tell you what.. I'm 59, and only WISH I could've gotten these axes at these prices "way back when"!"... Keep on keepin' on!
I have just bought a Donner DST200 in the Amazon cyber Monday sale. For the price it's OK, but i may have received a bad sample when it came to how poor the setup was out of the box. So here goes, first of all far too many sharp fret ends, the trem was screwed solid to the body, no movement at all, one of the string tree's was at a very strange angle and will need the hole filled and re-fitted, the action was way too high and like a wedge of cheese. So after attending to all of these i finaly had a chance to play it, all i can say that the pickups are not for me, far too bright with little mid range to them and just to wind me up if i dared to use the trem it went out of tune. Conclusion, it needs more work, at least a new nut, tuners and possibly a better trem and most of all some alnico pickups. This may make it a half decent guitar, but is the expense worth it ? Out of the box it would be useless to a beginner, at this price point i expected to have to do some setup and upgrades but not rebuild it! Sorry for my rant, but if Donner reads this, you need to improve the factory quality a lot before i would buy another. So i wonder just what a Glarry would be like if you are saying that Donner is way better.
@@thebaldshredder I suspect that Amazon are buying factory seconds in bulk and passing them off as A grade stock. Having worked in this industry I know how it works, we were often offered B grades at very low prices, but quickly learned that they cost too much to refurbish.
@@thebaldshredder I think it's a case of not buying guitars from Amazon. You can't see before you buy, so the chances of getting a B grade are very high. At the offer price i paid, all i have is a finished body and dubious neck, the truss rod is doing nothing to remove the dip in the middle. I should have rejected it before trying to do a setup.
I agree I have one of each, my Donner is my top 3 I rarely play the Glarry it is a semi hollow Tele I upgraded the pickups but I still don’t care much for it other than it is pretty 🎼🎸🎶
I bought a donner dst400 strat about 3 days ago.the frets are horrible,and the nut is all over the place with cutting.ive got a 99$ starcaster strat that beats the classic vibes in terms of fretwork.but I spoke to Amazon about it.they made it right.i get that they're beginner guitars but damn.i have a new nut on the way,and I'm going to give it a fret level and a polish.but I know next time squier is the better option.hell fesley guitars are better for 3/4 the price.donner dropped the ball in my opinion.
My daughter bought a Glarry lightning bolt guitar with her allowance. At first I was like omg cheap guitar u wasted ur money. I was dead wrong I set it up an was blown away I fell in love. Con was nut is plastic an the pickups have feed back but other than that I would buy a lot more.
I've never played a Glarry but I'm biased towards Donner , based on the pedals and power supply that I own. I have about half dozen pedals , 3 of them that are killer are the giant metal , the blue's driver and wah pedals! But you're right I'm sure they're both great modding platforms... PS nice demo bro!✌️🤘
Thanks for the video! I have experience with Donner, but with e-drums, not guitars. It's a good experience. That typed I recently wrote them, as I was curious if they stopped producing bass guitars and haven't yet heard back from them and it's been some time. Donner and select other brands have garnered a stigma associated with their brand. Some think of them as "beginner bundle" companies and not serious musical organizations. I'm not saying there's truth to this, but it's out there. Donner has come out from under that shadow, to a degree. Regarding logos, I'd love it if companies used an image and not their names... or at least made it look aesthetically pleasing - and placed it (or a variation of it) nicely on the guitar. It's baffling why they shoot themselves in the foot on this.
I didn't had a chance to try either of those brands. But from what I have seen from reviews so far, I also think that Donner makes better guitars than Glarry. Cool comparison🎸 greetings from Lotasticland
I like the Donner headstock better than the Glarry. I don’t like the type of shape Glarry uses, at least on the in-line tuner ones. Glarry offers a short scale bass I really want, though.
Whatever wood glarry uses for their bodies is horrible! I've refinished a couple and once you get past the paint and then the plastic coating they put over the wood it's like balsa wood. You can literally shred it apart with your fingernails with ease! I love modding and refinishing guitars so might have to check out a donner!
Yes those Glarry bodies are super light weight, so I'm guessing something like Candlenut wood. I'd never try to strip off the finish of one of those. Maybe paint over the existing finish.
I bought one Glarry because of the nice purple finish. But the rest was garbage. Action was half an inch off the neck with zero setup! I put it in the trash can to set on fire some night after playing The Who and Hendrix on real guitars.
I absolutely LOVE my blue tiger-stripe Glarry. New strings and a little tweaking on the set-up and it ROARS! Well worth the $99 I spent.
Cheap guitars and fixing them up! That's the ticket! I love doing mods and fret job's electronics paint job's! Fun,fun,fun!! I agree! Thanks Shred
Glarry guitars make for excellent mod platforms. Definitely not for beginners, but the bones are good, they just need the right dressing. I have 4 Glarry guitars and I modded the crap out of all of them.
This makes me happy. I just ordered two Donner guitars. Should be arriving in a day or two. I can't wait to try them out. I am getting the DST 100 and DST 152.
My wife and I both own a few Donner Guitars 🎸 as well as keyboards 🎹 Donner makes great products great customer service.
Couldn't agree more!
100% 👍 agree. Donner is just a few steps ahead.
Yep
I had a glarry bass. It took a ton of modding to make it worthy. Not sure I'm going to take that journey again. I also owned 3 Donners. The Donners are definitely worth buying. Donner is a brand I would buy again.
after open heart surgery, I needed a very light weight guitar. Good friend gave me a Glarry blue tiger stripe two bucker strat. It got me back gigging again. Still playing it six weeks out of surgery. It sounds good, and works for me. Surely not my Strats or Telecaster, but it works.
Thanks for the great reviews. 🤘
You're welcome
I bought a donor I've had it a month now just like the one in your video same color and everything had no problems with any any of it except on the bottom humbucker cover was kind of blemished and I'm going to have to do some Polish work on it later everything else was no complaints
Short answer "Donner!!!" Hands down.
Yep
Got a Donner Tele ($100 on Prime Day, July 2022)and it was pretty good for me right out of the box. I swapped in some JinHo Korean locking tuners ($37). The bridge saddles were horrible "vintage style" stamped steel with wobbly grub screws. I replaced them with solid brass saddles ($21) with good grub screws and it plays and feels solid. Pickups and pots are just o.k., but again, good enough for me. New strings, of course. I also swapped out the white pickguard for a vintage tortoise ($10). I now have a $175 tele that I play regularly, including a church worship band. Not too shabby for a 73 year old half-assed git player.
That's how you do it! Sounds like some great mods on that.
Love the video. I own both Glarry and Donner guitars. I have owned 3 Glarry guitars. One broke after a few years of heavy playing (acoustic). One I later sold (Tele model). I later bought a Glarry's SG knockoff which I switched out the pickups and wiring. Everything else was spot on. I also have owns 3 Donner guitars. My first was the Telecaster model and sold it later. I own their Strat model and the semi-hollow jazz guitar. They were all great.
Thanks for sharing!
I bought the Donner Seeker guitar and I was immediately disappointed. I must have received one with an especially bad set up. There was considerable fret buzz from high frets and the truss rod needed adjusting. Using the tremolo arm would throw the guitar completely out of tune and then the tremolo arm would just fall out. I bought this in June of 2023. At the time there was no fret sprout but after going through a New England winter the fret sprout was terrible! I've done quite a bit of work on the frets and I'm currently waiting for a Musiclily replacement bridge to arrive. I am hoping to have a good playing guitar soon.
Philip McKnight found a few uneven/buzzing frets and a few sharp fret ends. So that is a possibility, but unlike some guitars, these things can be easily fixed. It's not like my Ibanez AX120 which had all sharp fret ends which I could not fix because of my arthritis.
Need to check out asmuse guitars this headless bass is pretty neat has a string winger the magnetically sticks in the bridge and they have guitar versions yes its not set up and you have to sand bridge cause ground won't work on paint but after that is pretty neat guitar I'm gonna hotrod mine out with pickups and few other things
They are on my radar.
@@thebaldshredderI bought my IYV les paul cause of your channel the video was a iyv superstrat but the quality was great on the lp and the green finish is 🔥
I own a Donner DST-200 and it gives my Yamaha Pacifica 012 a run for the money. What I like about Donner is even the cheapest model comes with a Coil Split Bridge pic up for way under $200. The cheapest Pacifica with Coil Split is over $300
I really like both jams equally and those guitars I think but I love the custom stuff you did to the telly. I always put my headphones on when I listen to you play because I love to listen to you play I can hear it a lot better on my phone with headphones. I know you put all new hardware on the glary what the the bridge and the tone of volume control. I love that you put the hot wheel and the back. Will a hot real fit in the regular bridge that comes with the guitar.
Thanks! Yes the pickups are the same size so it would fit in the original bridge.
I've got both... they are close, but my newer glarry has rounded frets... the dinners aren't bad, but the rounds a little better in my opinion.
I have had experience with Glarry in the past, having bought one of their Strat-oids and one of the P-bass-oids. I destroyed the Strat-oid body, trying to drill it for a two-point vibrato. Since then, I've bought two Donner DST-400s, which have stock two-points. The lesson I learned was to buy as close as possible to what you ultimately want. I am sorry I killed the Glarry body, because I had just done a really sweet fret job on the neck. At this point, though, Glarry has nothing I want. Neither does Donner, since I'm not going to buy a THIRD DST-400.
Well at least you didn't destroy an expensive guitar so not a big deal. And you can always use the neck on another guitar.
Dude those are both rad!
Hey buddy it's jim from maine,I bought the DONNER200 and I love it,its shell pink and it's the strat with 2 single and 1 open humbucker,I needed to level a couple frets and clean up the nut alittle,also I dressed and polished the frets perfect and that's all there was to it,but a beginner could have played it out of the box pretty much but u no what I'm saying,it's a stage guitar now really,I'd play it on stage if I was drunk right,lol,just kidding bud but he'll ya it's a great guitar for 102$ ebay,refurbished but mint when I got it,tags and tape still on it,simple didn't like the color or something stupid but I love it,thanks bro love ya,send me a hiiii,jim
Awesome
I have 3 glarry's and 2 donner's Have done mods to all of them. I bought them for projects and now they all play as good as some of my more expenceve guitars. For a beginner I would pick the Donner also.
i like to say that a Glarry is just a painted and fully asembled kit with an unfinished neck with the cheapest parts just to make it work. i put emgs in my glarry and made a video about it on my channel.
Enjoyed the vid, Richard. I gotta ask tho ..you earlier this year were pretty darn pleased with Fesley. Was there a reason THEY didn't make the cut? I'm also seeing some great reviews about a brand coming out of the UK called Fazely. They (like Donner and Glarry) ALSO have a wide assortment of styles to choose from at insanely low price points... thoughts?
Thanks. Yeah a couple reasons. First, Fesley only has 1 guitar model so far. Second, Glarry and Donner are probably more well known. Third, I'm doing a separate video about the Fesley coming up because it's better than both! 😃
@@thebaldshredder AWESOME man!! I'll tell you what.. I'm 59, and only WISH I could've gotten these axes at these prices "way back when"!"... Keep on keepin' on!
I have just bought a Donner DST200 in the Amazon cyber Monday sale.
For the price it's OK, but i may have received a bad sample when it came to how
poor the setup was out of the box.
So here goes, first of all far too many sharp fret ends, the trem was screwed solid to
the body, no movement at all, one of the string tree's was at a very strange angle
and will need the hole filled and re-fitted, the action was way too high and like a wedge
of cheese.
So after attending to all of these i finaly had a chance to play it, all i can say that the
pickups are not for me, far too bright with little mid range to them
and just to wind me up if i dared to use the trem it went out of tune.
Conclusion, it needs more work, at least a new nut, tuners and possibly a better trem
and most of all some alnico pickups.
This may make it a half decent guitar, but is the expense worth it ?
Out of the box it would be useless to a beginner, at this price point i expected to have
to do some setup and upgrades but not rebuild it!
Sorry for my rant, but if Donner reads this, you need to improve the factory quality
a lot before i would buy another.
So i wonder just what a Glarry would be like if you are saying that Donner is way better.
I guess it depends on each individual guitar. My Donners have been pretty good.
@@thebaldshredder I suspect that Amazon are buying factory seconds in bulk and passing them off as A grade stock. Having worked in this industry I know how it works, we were often offered B grades at very low prices, but quickly learned that they cost too much to refurbish.
Well that sucks if they are doing that!
@@thebaldshredder I think it's a case of not buying guitars from Amazon.
You can't see before you buy, so the chances of getting a B grade are very high.
At the offer price i paid, all i have is a finished body and dubious neck, the truss rod
is doing nothing to remove the dip in the middle.
I should have rejected it before trying to do a setup.
I have that blue one, it can shred. Even better after a set of screamers. ;) As for Donner, I'm falling in love with the dlp124
I agree I have one of each, my Donner is my top 3 I rarely play the Glarry it is a semi hollow Tele I upgraded the pickups but I still don’t care much for it other than it is pretty 🎼🎸🎶
Yep Donner is better.
I bought a donner dst400 strat about 3 days ago.the frets are horrible,and the nut is all over the place with cutting.ive got a 99$ starcaster strat that beats the classic vibes in terms of fretwork.but I spoke to Amazon about it.they made it right.i get that they're beginner guitars but damn.i have a new nut on the way,and I'm going to give it a fret level and a polish.but I know next time squier is the better option.hell fesley guitars are better for 3/4 the price.donner dropped the ball in my opinion.
100% the Fesley is better than both.
I agree, i made the mistake of buying one from Amazon, i wonder if they are selling B grades as new stock?
Great video man. Definitely loving what these companies are doing now days. Looking forward to what Glarry and Donner create next 👍🎸
Yep me too! 🤘
Donner makes some great mini pedals for a cheap price , I've got 3 or 4 on my board that I use regularly!
My daughter bought a Glarry lightning bolt guitar with her allowance. At first I was like omg cheap guitar u wasted ur money. I was dead wrong I set it up an was blown away I fell in love. Con was nut is plastic an the pickups have feed back but other than that I would buy a lot more.
Seems like a tie to me. I only give Donner the win for the HSS configuration. Just a tiny bit more choice in sound.
No way. Donner is much better built with superior parts.
@@thebaldshredder you’re an experienced builder, I’ll take your word for it.
It says your glarry review is private? Really wanted to check it out.
I've never played a Glarry but I'm biased towards Donner , based on the pedals and power supply that I own. I have about half dozen pedals , 3 of them that are killer are the giant metal , the blue's driver and wah pedals! But you're right I'm sure they're both great modding platforms... PS nice demo bro!✌️🤘
Thanks
Thanks for the video! I have experience with Donner, but with e-drums, not guitars. It's a good experience. That typed I recently wrote them, as I was curious if they stopped producing bass guitars and haven't yet heard back from them and it's been some time.
Donner and select other brands have garnered a stigma associated with their brand. Some think of them as "beginner bundle" companies and not serious musical organizations. I'm not saying there's truth to this, but it's out there. Donner has come out from under that shadow, to a degree.
Regarding logos, I'd love it if companies used an image and not their names... or at least made it look aesthetically pleasing - and placed it (or a variation of it) nicely on the guitar. It's baffling why they shoot themselves in the foot on this.
I didn't had a chance to try either of those brands. But from what I have seen from reviews so far, I also think that Donner makes better guitars than Glarry. Cool comparison🎸 greetings from Lotasticland
By looks i like moro the Glarry but you can see that the Donner just but looking at it it's better Quality.
I like the Donner headstock better than the Glarry. I don’t like the type of shape Glarry uses, at least on the in-line tuner ones. Glarry offers a short scale bass I really want, though.
I got a glarry one time! It sucked! So I used the body and got everything else replaced!
lol damn
That's the positive about these budget guitars , great platforms to customize your guitar the way you want. If you're into that like me.
Whatever wood glarry uses for their bodies is horrible! I've refinished a couple and once you get past the paint and then the plastic coating they put over the wood it's like balsa wood. You can literally shred it apart with your fingernails with ease! I love modding and refinishing guitars so might have to check out a donner!
Yes those Glarry bodies are super light weight, so I'm guessing something like Candlenut wood. I'd never try to strip off the finish of one of those. Maybe paint over the existing finish.
Your Glarry review video is private???
Glarry looks better
What else matters??? Lol
That new 24 fret Donner looks pretty sick
Yeah I want to try that one!
Glarry Vid don't work for me comes up private for Me.
Which one's lighter?
Glarry
DONNER... like the Reindeer! 🥰
⛄🎄🎅
I don't even have to watch this video to be able to tell you it's Donner Donner Donner and Donner
Ok but watch anyway 😆
I bought one Glarry because of the nice purple finish. But the rest was garbage. Action was half an inch off the neck with zero setup! I put it in the trash can to set on fire some night after playing The Who and Hendrix on real guitars.
No comparison, the dinner hands down.Glarry is in my opinion the worst of the budget guitars.
Not even close. Donner makes MUCH better quality budget guitars than Glarry.
Probably made at the very same Chinese factory, lol
The videos are private wtf
Donner >>> Glarry
What is simulated bone? Plastic maybe?? 😆
I'm sure it is, but they are definitely better that the average cheap plastic nuts that I've seen.