Epiphone Songmaker DR-100, Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar - Ebony

This is hands-down one of the best sounding guitars in this price range (the $100-ish budget range). I am quite blown away by how great it sounds-- it's very similar to any of the solid-wood Epiphone Masterbilt guitars, which is also a great bargain because they sound just like their Gibson counterparts (e.g. the AJ) -- which sound somewhere between a Martin and a Taylor -- not too dark/muddy as some Martins can get, and not too harsh/bright which most Taylors are... It's just perfect.Really great projection/volume too when you do full strum, and clear articulation and voice at any volume. I keep saying to myself, how do they make any money off this thing? Almost all "beginner" or budget guitars that I've played sound very shallow and "boxy" (like the sound is coming from a small cardboard box). They all do this-- any cheap Yamaha, Takamine, Washburn, whatever. But this DR-100 (also known as PR-100 if sold by Guitar Center/Musician's Friend) is just miles above those other guitars in sound quality and voice. I would say this sounds like a $500-800 guitar. Whether you're an experienced player looking for a backup guitar (which is why I bought mine-- wanted a laminate guitar that I don't have to worry about and just leave out and play whenever at the office or take with me outside), or a beginner, this is the perfect guitar and most bang for your buck at $100... plus it's a Epiphone with a lifetime guarantee and not some no name brand...Of course, a guitar can't be perfect at this price range, so I'll tell you where they cut corners. They didn't cut corners on the finish-- the finish is very nice and glossy and the binding is very nice and has a lot of great details such as the nice big headstock. But here's where it needed some work: The frets. Ouch. They needed to be dressed BADLY. They were so sharp that I think you can really cut and bleed sliding up and down the neck... I spent a good 30 minutes just filing it down and smoothing it out as best as I could and now it's so much better. You can tell these were just pressed in by machines in a factory and that's it-- no one hand dressed them and filed them down and finished them-- that sort of manual hand labor is where it costs money and this easily can be a $500+ guitar... The other part that they cheaped out on are the tuner machines. They are not terrible, and fairly usable, but they aren't the best. If I had to modify one thing on this guitar, it would be to swap out the tuning machines with some good Grovers and call it a day. Specifically, when you turn the tuner, for the first 1/16 of a turn, it doesn't do anything, and then it turns and then sometimes it doesn't do anything... So it's not a 1:1 translation of turning it and the turning changing, which makes tuning the guitar a bit cumbersome. I was lucky to have bought the guitar and it didn't need a truss rod adjustment and the action was fairly good. I did file down the saddle nut about .5mm to lower it a bit more, but that's really it. Even with the crap strings that come with the guitar, it sounds good and that's what I'm basing this review on, so obviously with a better set of strings (I like the Elixir Polyweb in Light or Medium) it only sounds better. The stock strings corroded easily (noticeably changed colors) so I took off the strings from one of my other acoustic guitars and put them on this one.In short, based on just the sound of the guitar-- I'm amazed that a laminate guitar sounds like a mid-level solid wood guitar. At this price, I don't have to worry about it getting dinged up or whatever, and yet it plays beautifully. I believe the Tak Jasmine S35 also gets good reviews for its sound, but I haven't had a chance to play it in person, so I can't compare...

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.