Epiphone Songmaker DR-100, Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar - Ebony

I was happy to see that the red stained bridge and neck version was what I received. It’s a beautiful guitar, I changed to strings immediately to the brand I usually use.But the tone and resonance is a sweet tone and the sustain is better than I expected.So for the price Epiphone does not disappoint.

I'm sure a lot of people cross shop this guitar with some of the cheaper offerings from Rogue like the RA-100D, so I'm going to compare the two as I have experience with both. I'm a new guitar player but I have played Sax for years and, having owned several, have a good sense of quality instruments, so take this as you will.All in all I'm very happy with this guitar and have no reason to spend more money on something better right now. It's a great guitar for learning and lacks nothing that prevents you from progressing. Something I've learned over the years is you really just want a nice quality instrument to learn on. You don't need perfect quality high end, but really low end instruments have deficiencies that can cause distractions and hinder your learning.I purchased this guitar after I gave away my Rogue RA-100D. I had previously purchased the Epiphone Les Paul Special II and was very happy with the quality for the price, so when I was looking to get another acoustic I went with the brand I knew.Now the Rogue was by no means an awful guitar. It was my first guitar, and I was lucky in my purchase of it and was actually surprised by the quality for the money. I had originally paid $70 on sale, and the 100D is two steps up from the "starter" and RA-090D, all Dreadnought style guitars made by "Rogue". The frets were smooth and didn't chew up my palm like an awful electric I tried previously, the body was solid, the tuners were perfectly functional and the finish was decent. Perfectly suitable for learning and the sound (to me) was fine once I replaced the strings. Problem is Rogue is just a brand name, I have no idea who the actual company that makes them is, they don't seem to have a website and nobody to contact if I had an issue with it. That said, it's a $70 guitar, what more do you want?As I said I had tried a cheap budget electric guitar from here so I could learn with Rocksmith 2014, so I bought the "Legacy Solid Body Electric", and it was awful. Intonation was off, it wouldn't stay in consistent tune, the finish was imperfect and had bubbles and chips, and worst of all the edges of the frets were sharp and would scrape up my palm as I played. Sound was terrible as well, so I sent it back within a week.So having one good and one bad experience with these cheap knock-off guitars, I decided to go with what I knew should be good and looked for another Epiphone. The Epiphone DR-100 was the closest match to what I was learning on before and it was reasonably priced.Compared to the $70 Rogue RA-100, what does the extra $30 for the Epiphone DR-100 get you? Well, the body of the Epiphone is not quite as thick/deep, which is something that affects the sound slightly, but not very much. Overall I'd say the Epiphone is more consistent in tone, a little less rich than the bigger, more bulbous Rogue. That said, I think I like the size of the Epiphone better, it sits in my lap better, easier to get my arm around it, but I think the Rogue had the ability to get a little louder due to the body size.Build quality - The Rogue wasn't bad, but the Ephiphone is clearly better The details are much nicer, the lacquer finish is more consistent, and if you look inside the body the workmanship is clearly more clean and consistent with the Epiphone.Features - Tuning machines feel virtually the same to me between the two. The nut is plastic on both guitars, I don't know enough to say one is better than the other. The Epiphone has a strap pin on the heel, something the Rogue did not have, which means if you use a strap with the rogue you'll need a head strap loop. The truss is adjustable on the Epiphone, not on the Rogue. Both have the same number of frets. A nice detail for beginners on the Epiphone are the marks on the edge of the head to note frets when you look down. I replaced the strings on both guitars shortly after I bought them, but just to note the strings on the Rogue appeared like they were corroded or old when I got it. Not a big deal, it's usually a safe bet to just put fresh strings on a brand new guitar anyway, but just something to note.

Ordered this guitar for my grand daughter who has already gone through a "beginner" guitar and got fairly proficient! She LOVES this unit. Says the action is much superior to her last, as well as everything else.

I had never played guitar before, but I wanted to learn. I purchased this after doing a little research and checking around with friends on what brands to look for or avoid. I read the reviews, which were largely positive, but there were a few negative. I took the negatives with a grain of salt (come on people, it's a $100 guitar!). It seemed a lot of the positive reviews were by beginners, which was good, as it told me what I would probably encounter if I were to purchase. It arrived quickly, and it was carefully packed. I may not have been able to test it anywhere near as well as a seasoned player, but even in my naivety I was able to tune it using a .wav file of the open low E string to get it close, then with the assist of an electric tuner. After close to 1 year, it holds it's tune for what I would consider a reasonable length of time. The finish did scratch, but they are light scratches, and it's what I would expect from the price of the guitar and the type of finish (I should note here that it did travel in the back seat of my truck without a benefit of a case for at least 6 months). I've had compliments on how good it sounds for the price. The action is high, but it helped to strengthen my hand and build up those callouses. Also, the literature that was supplied with the guitar shows it should have an adjustable bridge and neck (it even comes with an allen wrench for doing so) but it does NOT have either feature. As it wasn't advertised to having these features, It wasn't a big deal to me, but I felt I should add that in, as one reviewer did find it upsetting. Overall, I'm highly satisfied with it, but I was looking for a cheap, entry level guitar to learn on, then tote around and do some plunking on around a campfire.

As a beginner this guitar is perfect for me. Had it setup with lighter strings the action was a little too high easy fix! Very happy with this guitar!!!