Rob DiStefano
Registered: March 2003
Location: Park Ridge, NJ
Posts: 4918
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Review Date: Fri July 11, 2003
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $150.00
| Rating: 3
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Pros:
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Cheap! Solid spruce top, Grover 1:18 tuners
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Cons:
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Requires modifications for optimum playability and tone.
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Cheap g'tars can sometimes be fairly worthy, but usually only after a bit of "tweaking". Bought a Music-Yo D200S acoustic online for $150/delivered. Yeah, yeah - I know - *never* buy an acoustic without first hearing/playing. So sue me. 8)
Anyhoo, the very lightweight dreadnaught sized box has a solid spruce top with laminated mahogany sides, 1-11/16" nut width, rosewood fingerboard, mahogany neck, gold Grover 1:18 tuners (whoa!, worth almost half the cost of the g'tar), string-through rosewood bridge ala Breedlove (no pins), and a non-grain filled satin/matte finish.
What arrived ...
http://www.ugf.cc/photos/d200s-myo.jpg
As it arrived, it wasn't a bad little box in terms of construction, fit and finish (some minor flaws here and there, as expected - but nothing noteworthy). The action was a bit high (as expected) and the tone was decent with more of an emphasis on treble (most acoustic instruments need lotsa playing time, to best reveal their inherent tone). Time to tweak and mod this sucker ...
I pulled off the bronze strings, removed the tuners and made an aesthetic mod - sanded off the "Kramer" decal logo!  220 grit did the job, and then progressive MicroMesh grits to 12000 brought back the headstock's rosewood veneer lustre - a final polish with FinesseIt II and it looked showroom perfect, sans the Kramer reminder!
Carefully removed the PVC nut and pulled out the hard plastic saddle - both were replaced with super hard Corian material.
Removed the truss rod nut, lubed it with white lithium bicycle grease and replaced it back.
Drilled a 7/32" hole on the bridge rear, between the "D" and "G" strings, and installed a JLD bridge doctor. Though the top has what appears to be an intentional slight rounded belly, I *know* the bugaboo of nearly all acoustics is a pulled up top - JLD does to the top what a truss rod does to the neck. 'Nuff said.
Replaced the tuners, installed and cut the new nut and saddle, strung'er up with a new set of LaBella phospher-bronze .012's.
As expected, the truss rod needed a bit of tweaking ... and the saddle needed two bottom sandings. Now the action's perfect. A fun little knock-about acoustic for little dollars and a buncha elbow grease.
New and improved ...
http://www.ugf.cc/photos/d200s-full.jpg
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