Customer Reviews

Rogue Dreadnought Cutaway Acoustic-Electric Guitar Natural

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have bought several instruments from Musician's Friend and several Rogue instruments, as well. All of these Rogue instruments are of excellent quality. We have an acoustic dreadnought, a 12 string dreadnought, and this concert size acoustic electric.

For those of you looking for a beginning instrument or a second instrument, definitely look at Rogues. We are so impressed with everything we've received from both Musician's Friend, and its "house brand", Rogue.

When my son wanted to learn guitar, we were going to just give him one of my husband's, but it was really too big. So, we decided to get him this concert size cutaway guitar. We looked at a lot of instruments and decided to go with the Rogue. Rogue instruments do not have a wide varying price range. The highest priced instrument doesn't go over a couple of hundred dollars. So, when you spend only $100 on something, they aren't cutting a lot of corners from their highest-end models. Conversely, if you buy a starter Gibson package or some other well-respected company's starter pack, they cut a lot of corners from their highest-end guitars/stringed instruments. If a company makes a guitar that retails over a few thousand dollars, or even if the average selling price is $500, they are going to cut a lot of corners to make a guitar (or mandolin) priced at under $100.

So, this specific guitar came with Martin Strings. Yes, they make great instruments, but only decent strings. Still, these sounded fine. The action on this specific guitar was pretty low. We would have preferred LOWER, but it isn't too high. The pickup/preamp system works great! I read on Musician's Friend's website that some people have had difficulty with this, but not here. The finish, beautiful. Everything about this guitar screams, "I'm a $400 guitar". The sound-- most importantly-- is pretty rich for a cutaway concert size guitar with a pickup installed. I think it sounds great. My husband does, too, although he doesn't think it's quite as rich as a dreadnought. I don't hear too much of a difference.

With the Rogue instruments, this just isn't an issue. Want a twelve string? Only a bit over a hundred and sounds great! Want a mandolin? Nothing is stopping you at under $50. And, you really won't be disappointed, either. Even if you have to lower the action or pay for a professional setup, you still come way out ahead.

We have very expensive instruments in our house and we have these Rogues. The Rogues feel and sound as if they are $400 instruments. No comparison to the $100 famous brand starter guitars I looked at. This one will last for years.

For my first guitar, I bought the regular, acoustic version of this product, so that's what I'm really reviewing, and I'm assuming this is basically the same quality, with a preamp.

Guitar choice is a personal thing, so if you don't like the sound of this guitar, you should try a different one...

with that said, the construction of the guitar is pretty cheap. It feels flimsy, and very light...the tuners on mine felt loose, the nut broke (but I did use medium gauge strings, and I purposely put some in the wrong spots, for alternate tunings). It's not high quality construction, folks. It makes a nice, cheap, beginner guitar.

...with THAT said: I later bought a $600 Breedlove (actually, I caught it on sale for half price b/c of a blemish)...much better construction quality, solid wood, it's a beautiful guitar...and I've been playing it for years, and I still miss the sound of my Rogue.
This could be because of the way I play guitar. Different styles sound better on certain guitars, and I use my fingers (no picks), and I do a lot of sliding, scratching the strings, hard strokes... the Rogue guitar has thick bass, the highs are muted, and the overall sound is a bit muddy/raw...and I love it.

I went to the Guitar Center, and went through the acoustic guitars, and spent hours playing almost everything in the store. I only found three guitars that fit me/my playing: a Laguna (which is another low priced brand, with this one being around $200), and two high-ends: a Gibson J-45, and the cedar topped Taylor GS (both priced over 2k, and were a great blend of low mud and top shimmer).

The extra benefit of loving this guitar...is that you don't have to worry as much about taking great care of it.

This was the first guitar I ever owned, and since then, I have upgraded to a $1000 all-solid cedar/mahogany Alvarez, but I still like to play my Rogue from time to time. This is my review of "the little engine that could."

Features:
All-laminate Spruce, Nato guitar with nato neck and rosewood fingerboard/bridge. Plastic bridge pins, saddle, nut. Die-cast tuners, Fishman Classic 4 preamp.
Honestly, the best part about this guitar would be the Fishman. The quality of a Fishman is second to none, and seeing one in a $100 guitar is incredible! The Fishman makes this guitar sound better plugged in than unamplified.

Sound:
The sound is decent, especially for an inexpensive guitar. With a set of new strings, the Rogue sounds like a million bucks. However, after a few hours, it really has the "rubber-band" sound going for it, due to its subpar construction. But come on, what can you expect from a hundred-dollar guitar? This is not a good fingerstyle guitar, try the little brother of this guitar, the Rogue A/E 000-sized version, for that.

Playability:
High action, this is a good strummer's guitar, but it may be too high for some people. Poor fret-job, a bit difficult to play up high on the neck, which is very slow, due to the heavy poly finish. The tuners are surprisingly good for such a cheap guitar.

Setup/Finish:
What you'd expect from a made-in-China guitar, glue showing, unfiled frets, poorly-slotted (heightwise) nut, thick and uneven polyurethane finish on the whole body. That being said, with a little bit of work, this is a very playable guitar.

So in conclusion, this would be a great guitar for somebody who's not really into learning, but would love to jam with it around a campfire, or just nonchalantly here and there. For somebody who is looking to get good at guitar, I recommend you save up some more $$$ (only around $50-100) and opt for a solid-topped guitar, which will bring much more satisfaction to your ears.

I can't believe people whine about this thing.
If you received a blem, send it back until it's made right.
The tone of mine is great both acoustic and electric. The finish is beautiful and it has binding on both the neck and the body. The tuners are good quality sealed (by Ping?) and hold well. The nut is decent and strap buttons good (1/4 plug goes in end strap pin). The bridge saddle was a bit high so I sanded it down and it lowered action to a comfortable level. I love the guitar so much that I took it to a luthier and had him profile the frets for $60 and was worth every penny. I purchased the guitar at MF a few years back on sale for $79 and it plays like a dream; love it. A real keeper.
It doesn't say Martin, Gibson or Breedlove on the headstock, but I've gotten over it (you will too).

This is a beginner's guitar that sounds great. While build quality isn't perfect, this guitar offers great bang for your buck.

The wood and finish look good. The natural finish is pretty attractive and complements my room pretty well.

Pros:
Sound- This guitar does not sound cheap. It resonates and creates big, defined sound. Make sure you replace the stock strings to get better sound.

Acoustic-Electric PreAmp- This is an acoustic-electric guitar, meaning it comes with a built in pickup and preamp, so that you can plug it in to an amp and play. The guitar comes with a Fischer preamp that does a rather good job. It contains low,mid, and high controls, as well as "brilliance."

Tuners- The tuning machines feel solid and well constructed.

Reliability- I've had mine for over a year now and it has held up. Nothing has come loose or fallen off, which happens more than it should with budget-oriented guitars.

Cons:
Consistency- There are complaints of inconsistent build quality. Some units come better than others. Mine came with a bridge that was a bit too big so I had to sand down the bottom a bit to make the strings easier to press down by lowering the action a bit.

Overall, this is a great guitar. Get it if you are a beginner looking for a guitar that wont be too expensive, this is a great choice.

Purchased this Guitar in July of 2009. After opening the package I found that the frets on the neck were really sharp. I had to be very careful not to touch the outside of the frets. This indicated to me that quality control was really bad. Had to take a fine emery cloth to take the sharpness away.

I've tried really hard to like this guitar from this company, but the facts speak for themselves. Take my advise Avoide this guitar! Spend the money, even add an extra $100 to the cost of this thing and get something good from ANOTHER BRAND. Now I know that all manufactures mess up from time to time and I'm not one to practice brand loyalty but this thing isnt worth your time. First off, the first one i got was busted! On first tuning the entire bridge plate lifted off the body. Seriously shoddy work! Had to return it for a replacement. When I got the replacement it looked ok at first but it had some finish issues ie: tacked and dried glue on most of the neck, especially on the finger board very thin coating there this makes it hard to bend or slide up or down the neck I'll need to remove the strings and do some intensive cleaing and polishing. The frets are not embedded properly into the board i can SEE gaps. Loose screws on the tuners, damaged bridge (looks like they use some low grade plastic for it) the strings were already burrying themselves into the bridge and the nut oh the nut wow! badly done rush job even! You could see bits and pieces of the nut still left in place after filing for the strings? why? and the 6th string position on the nut was filed so now the string is way too deeply embedded into the nut. I fixed the fret buzz with the truss rod but even after that you can hear buzzing somewhere else inside the body of this thing. The fishman pickup controls look and feels flimsy. Although the guitar is somewhat playable its no where near as good as my friends $200 yamaha. This thing? Its not worth what they are asking. And as for the finish!!!!! You'd expect someone to properly sand something down then spray on the clear coat right? in my case some arears were sanded after the clear coat was put on, WHAT???? were they on a clock or something? Whats with the rush job on this one?! After getting a fairly well made guitar Washburn wi26 I can see exactly where there "little" things would matter. Rogue has some serious quality control issues wich has ruined their name for me completely. After two guitars, I'm done! Take my advise SPEND THE MONEY AND GET SOMETHIGN GOOD! If you can't afford it right now then WAIT till you can. Above all Try before you Buy and if you don't know much about it get someone who does to go with you to check it out! AVOID THIS AVOID THIS AVOID THIS! As for me I'll just have to keep this thing and work on it to get it working right. I'm not even going to bother return this one I'm afraid it's going to get even worse with the next one!