Black friday D'Angelico Premier Madison Vintage Sunburst £199,any good ?

mark123 · November 2019

guitar guitar £250 off rrp now £199

look great but....do they sound great???

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/product/190426342766008--dangelico-premier-madison-vintage-sunburst

DB1 · November 2019

I'll let you know. I was looking for a cheap acoustic and they look pretty good, so I've just ordered one. My last two acoustics were a Gibson SJ-100 and an Atkin 'Forty-Three', so I'm not expecting miracles, but if it's half-decent, I'll be pleased with that.

DB1 · December 2019

Here goes - the basics first. It arrived yesterday, which I thought was pretty good considering it was only ordered on Friday night and free delivery as well. Kudos to GuitarGuitar for that. So £199 all in, which is not a lot - if the guitar's any good.

I wasn't looking for anything much really, as I just fancied something to pick up and strum, maybe to take away on holiday with me, and - if the action and tension felt right to me - maybe play some jazzy stuff further up the fretboard.

First impressions when it came out of the box was that there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it really, the fret edges maybe a little sharp, but I've had that on far more expensive guitars, and it wasn't an issue, The inbuilt tuner works well and the pickup sounds rather nice, even through a Fender Blues Junior. So far, so good as far as value for money and - to be fair - being quite a nice guitar goes. It's a handsome thing too - if you like the headstock, I guess, which I do.

The only negative was the way that it came 'set up'. If I'd have played it in a shop, I'd have put it straight back. There was room to store my sandwiches between the strings and the twelfth fret, and anything but cowboy chords were a trial of strength. In fairness, it did come with a truss rod adjuster tool - an allen key - and instructions as to what to do. You might disagree, but even on a £199 guitar, it shouldn't be daunting to play, particularly as at that price, beginners might fancy buyingone and the Herculean strength needed to hold down a chord (OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration) is offputting, and if you're not prepared to have a go at sorting it out yourself, or pay a tech, then I could see a few 'returns' happening.

I thought it was pretty unplayable and wondered whether to box it back up again and send it back, but I thought there was a good guitar in there and £199 isn't end of the world even if it eventually had to have a pro set-up. Anyway, for the same '£199' reasons, I thought I'd have a go at it myself as it wouldn't be a disaster if I made a dog's breakfast of it. I've never adjusted a truss rod, and filed a saddle down, so it was good practice. Three hours later, a couple of changes of strings, saddle filing and truss rod tweaking, and it's a lovely thing. I've got the action pretty low, and the tension's fine (I like a really low action and pretty easy tension).

It's got a very nice acoustic and amplified sound, it's an easy neck to play, especially if you're used to an electric guitar neck, the tuners work very smoothly. I can get right up the neck and play diminished and maj sevenths, comping, etc. I can perhaps tweak it a little more to get the action super low, but it's actually a nice guitar in it's own right.

I'm certainly glad that I bought it, and in it's current state it's a proper bargain. I'm also glad the crappy set-up encouraged me to spend a bit of time fettling it. It was quite easy and I'm no tech - I'm so hamfisted that I can just about knock a nail into a pane of glass, and that's about it, but I quite enjoyed messing around to get it right.

I still think it should have turned up set up in a more user-friendly manner, as even at £199, you've got to be able to at least play the bloody thing, but it's a properly nice guitar, and at the money, a superb deal, when you consider the onboard pickup the tuner, and the decent build quality. For the less committed (or in my case, hopeless) acoustic player, I'd recommend it, particularly if you know a good tech, or have got an hour or so to potentially get handy with a truss rod adjuster, or - if all else fails - a hammer.

It's nice - at £199 it's a no-brainer and I'm delighted with it (because it really is a proper thing), at £450-ish, I'd want to play it first, because I'd be disappointed in that action even at that sort of money. But would I have another one? At that price, absolutely.

Frightened of getting my head stuck between the strings and the twelfth fret.....

lapua65 · December 2019

Thanks for that. I'm still bad enough to feel guilty about spending £600 on the guitar I want so this may be something to get me to the point where I can justify the spend.

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Black friday D'Angelico Premier Madison Vintage Sunburst £199,any good ?

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