This Budget Amazon Guitar is Bad - Donner Les Paul Copy

One of the problems of online guitar buying is you don't get to test it first. If you're a beginner, head over to your local store and they will most likely have a guitar around the same budget that you can try before you buy and have a conversation about. Great content as always Andy!

I know what Donner have done... They've taken the phrase 'axe' literally. Hence all the sharp, flesh-slicing capabilities built in.

One trend I've seen on some new inexpensive guitars are rounded frets, apparently pre-rounded before installation. I guess they figured out sharp frets meant returned products.

Donner needs to be careful, you hear all kinds of good things about them but that guitar could harm their reputation. I would rather guitars didn’t come with cables, rather the money went into the guitar. Having said that, if you’re going to include a cable, make it a useable one like they do. It’s a tough market, Harley Benton, Jet, Antiquity, EastCoast and others, they have to get it right every time.

I’m a little surprised Donner dropped the ball on this model. I own a DJP-1000 (their hollow body take on a 335) and a Hush-X, both of which, after a proper setup, are spectacular guitars punching way above their street price.

Not only do you learn how to play, you learn valuable Luthier skills!!! WHAT A VALUE! 😂😂😂 I appreciate your honesty. I've seen many cheap guitar reviews where they do $300 worth of work and then claim the instrument was great!

Hi, guitar player of 60 years here. For my 70th. birthday, treated myself to an Epiphone Viola Bass. Put on some LaBella flatwounds. Built myself a 50 watt Bass amp Based on a Valco Aztec/Mk1 bassman.Sweet sounds as you say, and lots of fun! Keep on noodling forever!

Thank you for playing it so we don’t have to!

While I am mostly new to guitars, I've been soldering for over 40 years and your opinion on the connections on the electronics is spot on. I'm mildly surprised the pick up switch works at all, as all of the connections to it look like cold solder joints. Nice review.

Maybe the bridge could be reversed so the screws are facing the pickups, and that might give the space required to intonate it properly.

Appreciate the honest review here. Seems like something salvageable if you can: A) get it cheap, and B) Know how to correct the issues. Temu has a later iteration available for chump change right now.

I had the 'burst' version of this I got in the sales... The jack socket fell out, the frets were uneven which made it almost unplayable and as in this vid it they would literally shred your hands, the cable lasted a week before the plug broke and left a bit inside my amp and the truss rod was so badly adjusted you could mistake it for a hunting bow. The zip on the bag went, the strings were made from fence wire, the intonation was so far out it it was dropping acid back in the 60s and the most annoying thing was a lack of earthing where everything buzzed as you touched it. The holes were there but they just decided not to earth any of it. The hex/allen key for the truss rod adjustment was ok though😄

Its the roll of the dice but i'd rather have a $100 dud than a $2000 dud. I love my DLP124. I modded it to put humbucker sized p90s in it, a duesenberg lestrem, locking tuners, roller bridge, new knbos etc. its all black and gold. its one of my favourite guitars. the frets were actually decent and didnt require much work! much less than some guitars ten times the price.

Perilla: Asian hardwood tree. Often the leaves are used in Korean dishes. Nice straight upright growth with very cold en very hot seasons. Would be something that might work for a violin soundboard....

Your videos are always great. Even when the product is bad, your reviews are always honest and entertaining. Furthermore, you tell us what we actually need to know - which is appreciated.

When Donner gives you lemons… 🥲🍋🍸

Interesting - other reviews really rate this model as great. Variability obviously is very common. I did have one of these guitars and it was excellent - except for fret sprout that proved impossible to control or correct, even after several redressings. I now have their DST152 which is utterly different - no hassles at all . . . except for generic strings. (Donner fit D'Addario to the 400 Strat model. Check out reviews for the 152 .

I owned a Donner Strat for a little, one of the mid tiers with the vintage trem... it was fine, but the pickups were pretty cheap save for a decent humbucker, and the frets were sharp. Not a bad deal, but so many youtubers ranted about how close it was to a Mex strat... id say it was about Squier bullet level, with less interesting finishes and much lower quality pups.

I used this guitar as a mod platform and it's excellent for me. EMG 81/85s Hipshot locking tuners So, everything for less than 450 or so and it's a beast. 🤷‍♂️

I typically skip over videos about cheap guitars, but I'm a fan so I actually watched yours :) It sounds like this one is rather worse than typical for Donner. I've heard reports of some Donners being halfway decent. For me, it strikes out on all accounts because I don't even like GOOD Les Pauls :D rock on!