Esteban guitar

[bugo]

My friend just got an Esteban. First off, this guitar is gorgeous. Simply beautiful. And it doesn't play or sound half bad. It's no Martin, and it's not as good as those infomercials claimed they were, but it's a very pretty decent playing guitar. I don't understand the hate towards them. Or maybe he just got a really good one.

[JohnnyRebKy]

Any guitar that makes somebody happy is a good guitar.

[BigDaddyLH]

I thought stain on the fretboard came off on your fingers. Tell him to wipe it down with his Zorro mask, first.

[jazztele]

Honestly, considering the amount of Esteban's I've seen as a guitar teacher, I feel like this thread has to be a wind up or the OP and his friend have played some really BAAAD guitars previous to this esteban...

[bugo]

Originally Posted by jazztele

Honestly, considering the amount of Esteban's I've seen as a guitar teacher, I feel like this thread has to be a wind up or the OP and his friend have played some really BAAAD guitars previous to this esteban...

I'm serious, it was a beautiful guitar. Like I said, it wasn't a Martin or a Taylor, but it was a decent cheap guitar. Maybe this one was the top of the line model.

[mrboson]

Tell your friend to be bold and start an Esteban Owners Club here at TDPRI

[bugo]

To be fair, my friend is a beginner and this guitar is fine for him. His 7 year old daughter plays around with it some, but it's just too big for her. I promised her I'd buy her a Squier Mini, a guitar that is certainly more respectable and a better fit for a kid.

[WildcatTele]

Now far be it for me to judge a guitar that I've never played or held in person, but I've always raised an eyebrow at the Estebans because 1. I'd never heard of him before I started seeing the infomercials, so I can't exactly trust his "expert" endorsement, provenance, or credibility 2. If it was actually a high quality instrument why would they rely on QVC/Infomercials to peddle them and why not get distribution deals through dealerships like everyone else? They are obviously marketed towards beginners and folks that know absolutely nothing about the instruments in order to make a quick buck with something that will eventually wind up in a garage sale for $5 and those "in the know" can smell that a mile away.

But really I think the hate just comes down to the high cheeseball factor. I mean, really, if you're going to attach a guitar brand to someone they probably shouldn't go around dressed like Zoro...at least in this day and age.

[studio1087]

I was biting my tongue on this but what the heck.....

The tuners are worse than the tuners that come on really cheap Epiphones.

They don't stay it tune. You have to fight the guitar constantly to keep t in tune.

Most Esteban guitars smell like chemical.....they coat the fake ebony fretboard with some type of black dye that makes the guitar smell horrible. The dye comes off on the fingers.

The body binding is painted on with a paint brush by someone with steady hands. 100% fake.

The white heel cap is also fake/painted onto the rear of the guitar.

The top back and sides are all plywood.....no solid wood anywhere.

The frets are trimmed such that you could cut your fingers running your hand up the fretboard. Terrible.

They are very hard to play.

The sound is very bad.

Acoustic Guitar Magazine has a popular acoustic forum. I spend a lot of time there. I only gig acoustic.

The AG Magazine forum gets countless parents and grandparents who inquire about the QVC Shopping Channel Esteban Guitar offer.

A forum member in Nebraska bought one of the guitars for $199 and about 25 of us sent him $10 to $20 donations. Anyone who sent a donation received the guitar via a long chain of FedEx shipments. We each made a video and we sent the guitar to the next participant. We all signed the guitar as it traveled across the country.

This is our video blog....

Our Logo...



Here is the Blog with all the videos - Link

This is me. This was my entry......



To get the Esteban to sound this good I had it plugged into a Fender Acoustasonic Amp with the tone and reverb tweaked and the amp is pointing right at the camera just out of the video shot. I had to do this to help the guitar because the volume and tone "acoustically" were so weak.

If you care about someone who has $200 to spend on a guitar please steer them toward a Yamaha FG700S or the like.

This promo for Zorro's new CD shows his live guitar. It's not an Esteban. He sells them on QVC TV Shopping Channel but he never plays them. Snake oil peddler.

[speedmusic]

What a coincident, minutes ago i was looking at a soccer match of my fav. team AZ Alkmaar against Ajax Amsterdam.

It was the 38 minute when the AZ goalkeeper got a red card for kicking a Ajax supporter, i hear now that AZ isn't going to finish the game and refusing to return to the field.

Name of the keeper? Esteban

[bugo]

This guitar belonged to my friend's grandfather, so it has special meaning to him. It is white and the fretboard is white, I couldn't tell what kind of wood it is but it doesn't look like maple. It had several inlays on it.

It was a decent guitar, but I bought a really nice guitar today: a blue Ibanez AEL20E. It is beautiful. It is an electric-acoustic with a built in tuner. It has a weird output jack along with the standard output jack. I bought it for an xmas present for my sister. It will be her first guitar. I'll post some pictures in a NGD post when I take them a bit later.

[Murky]

A good few years down the road they'll be selling 'Vintage' Esteban guitars on Craigs List from coast to coast. Won't that be the day you'll wish you had filled your back closet with some of them?

[BigDaddyLH]

I think the reason the guitar in the original post is so nice is because it's a Classic Vibe Estaban.

[dsutton24]

If your friend likes his Esteban, then bless him. I've played a few of them and they've been just awful. But, most were better than the guitar I started with 40 or so years ago.

The really sad thing about the Estebans though, in my opinion, is that for the same money you can buy a really decent used guitar, and especially if you're getting close to $200.00 you can even find some very playable new guitars. Those options weren't available years ago, but these days there's plenty of good gear out there that is cheaper than ever in realtive terms. Three months ago I bought a like new Ovation with a case for $100.00. Those deals don't come along every day, but they do come up from time to time.

[tbp0701]

studio1087 - That was pretty cool, and a great idea. What happened to the guitar once everyone was done?

---
Anyway, my issue with these guitars is that they are being bought by people who just want to either learn to play or give to someone to learn to play. If these people had spent a similar amount of money, they could have gotten a Yamaha, Seagull, Art & Lutherie or a number of other very nice guitars that would have been great instruments on which to learn. Instead, most will fight with the Esteban and give up in frustration.

[bugo]

I totally agree that there are far better guitars for the price, but this guitar was just gorgeous. If I had it I would hang it on the wall and never play it. But I wouldn't give over $50 for it.

[studio1087]

Originally Posted by tbp0701

studio1087 - That was pretty cool, and a great idea. What happened to the guitar once everyone was done?

---
Anyway, my issue with these guitars is that they are being bought by people who just want to either learn to play or give to someone to learn to play. If these people had spent a similar amount of money, they could have gotten a Yamaha, Seagull, Art & Lutherie or a number of other very nice guitars that would have been great instruments on which to learn. Instead, most will fight with the Esteban and give up in frustration.

Jeff Miller has it in Omaha. Jeff started the whole thing and paid for the guitar originally. Jeff has a nice acoustic duo in Omaha and he runs his own factory/business....nice guy. It started and ended with Jeff.

I know that I sound like an *ss being as harsh as I am but I want you to understand something......

I sold good guitars for three years in college. Mid 80's. We would have parents come into our shop frequently who had bought an Arbor electric guitar (remember those 80's heavy metal guitars) or some bizarre acoustic at a discount center and the neck would be pulling away or the thing would buzz really badly and the dad would be mad as hell and they would ask about trading it or trying to sell it to us. I've seen angry dads who spent $200 on crap and I've seen their panicked teenage kid who understands that this was the only *$^&* guitar that dad is ever going to buy and when our luthier told dad that he bought a pig in a poke it got ugly.

Lots of really nice people can't afford to make a mistake like that.

When Esetban gets on the QVC network with a 25 years old Martin and his black Zorro guitar and he looks right in the camera and compares the Esteban to the Martin it's shameful. You can't see his eyes because he wears the dark glasses but the guy looks right at the camera and tells people that his $199 guitar is like a Martin.

It's just crappy snake oil peddling. Moms and dads and grandparents grab credit cards and buy the things based on Esteban's sales pitch and it's just crooked.

If Esteban wants that steady income he should become a side show act in Vegas....stop selling guitars on TV that are worth $40.

I worked at a Martin, Fender, Gibson dealer when frustrated parents would bring guitars like this into the store........"Little Suzy can't play this thing and I was told it was a damn good guitar when I bought it at Ziggy's Wholesale Blowout Center".....

Oh boy that brings back bad memories. Been there....done that.

That's why I vented. Sorry for being harsh.

John

[bugo]

Originally Posted by studio1087

I sold good guitars for three years in college. Mid 80's. We would have parents come into our shop frequently who had bought an Arbor electric guitar (remember those 80's heavy metal guitars) or some bizarre acoustic at a discount center and the neck would be pulling away or the thing would buzz really badly and the dad would be mad as hell and they would ask about trading it or trying to sell it to us. I've seen angry dads who spent $200 on crap and I've seen their panicked teenage kid who understands that this was the only *$^&* guitar that dad is ever going to buy and when our luthier told dad that he bought a pig in a poke it got ugly.

I had a white Arbor Explorer clone. It was made of wood of ply. I didn't keep it very long, I traded it for an equally junky bass that I stripped the paint off of and cut the bottom horn off of.

When Esetban gets on the QVC network with a 25 years old Martin and his black Zorro guitar and he looks right in the camera and compares the Esteban to the Martin it's shameful. You can't see his eyes because he wears the dark glasses but the guy looks right at the camera and tells people that his $199 guitar is like a Martin.

That is what's offensive. If they would sell the guitar and be honest about what it is, a $150 or whatever guitar, I would have no problem with them.

[WildcatTele]

Originally Posted by BigDaddyLH

I think the reason the guitar in the original post is so nice is because it's a Classic Vibe Estaban.

Now that's just funny.

[zombywoof]

I love his info-mercials where some guy always calls in and says he has this or that Martin or Gibson but his brand new Esteban just blows it out of the water.

I usually don't knock guitars as I believe if it has six strings and is playable you can have a blast with them. But our local music store has gotten a few Estebans in and I was able to get a good look at them. Yeah, the fingerboards were painted on but so were those on old Nationals and Stellas among others. But I swear one had what looked like masking tape or something to serve as top bracing.