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Segovia Guitars |
Unless you came down in the last shower you would have noticed how goods made in China are rapidly improving and making big inroads into our economy and culture. For example, my partner recently bought a quality stereo CD player/Radio for $45 - made in China.
It's the same with guitars. In 2002, 28% of electric guitars imported into Australia were made in China. In 2003, it was 45% by number! What's more remarkable is that these guitars aren't just at the 'cheapo' end of the market. These are guitars competing in the $500 - $1000 sector of the guitar market.
The Segovia range of guitars - aimed at the beginner to intermediate level player - is typical of this rapid change in value for money stuff coming out of China. Western nations like Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. are increasingly going to China to source product and working with Chinese manufacturers to get the product they want built to the details they want.
The Segovias I've been looking at are three steel string guitars and an acoustic-electric bass.
1. DLC71 A $500 Dreadnought size laminated Spruce/Mahogany guitar with cutaway and built in under saddle pickup and Artec preamp with volume, presence, treble, parametric mid and bass controls.
2. DC1000 An $800 Dreadnought size with cutaway and solid Spruce top, solid Mahogany back unit with an under saddle pickup and Artec preamp with EQ unit (volume, presence, treble, midrange and bass) with a neat inbuilt tuning device.
3. DR772S A $900 Solid Spruce top/ laminated Rosewood back dreadnought with abalone tree of life fingerboard inlay and binding with turquoise stained top and Rosewood veneered back.
4. FB71 Acoustic Bass Guitar with cutaway and under saddle pickup with volume, bass, middle, treble and presence controls. Interestingly, this instrument has a 19"x15" size body (standard Dreadnought size is 20"x16"). The top and back is of laminated Ashwood and sells for about $600.
OK! To me, the guitars are a mixed bag. All instruments are nicely set up when they get to the land of Oz. If anything, they have been set up a little too low for anyone with the chops to get stuck into it, but hey! it's not hard to raise the action a touch with a truss rod adjustment for correct neck relief and a shim or two under the saddle.
The $500 DLC71 looks neat with eight white pearl acrylic Dolphins inlaid into the fingerboard and a very smart looking wood marquetry Dolphin/ ocean soundhole rosette.
You can buy a solid Spruce top guitar these days for $400 and up but not with an active pickup/eq system built in. I was impressed with all pickup/eq systems in terms of output and lack of noise. All guitars played consistently up the neck.
The DC1000 was, I thought the best buy. At $800 with solid wood specs top and back, including an active pickup/eq setup and built in tuner, unbound fingerboard with dot inlays, and a satin finish this is my sort of guitar - no fancy stuff but plenty of value for money!
The DR772 at $900 is not my kettle of fish. While it has a solid top, you don't notice it under the turquoise tint and unless you're happy paying for lots of abalone inlay, I don't see the value. For me (and most of us) I'll go for plain trim and solid wood specs every time at this price point.
All around, the three guitars had excellent build quality and attention to detail, very neat and tidy. All guitars sported Grover 18-1 machine heads and shaped synthetic saddles (D'Addario strings are standard on some models).
All three played easily but were slightly down on bottom end response. Again, the middle priced all solid wood satin finish DC1000 was the pick of the bunch and being a sold wood Mahogany back I know the bottom end will develop with playing.
The fingerboard scale on all guitars is 640 mm. which I use on my guitars (this is just 5mm. shorter than Martin guitars).
The FB71 acoustic-electric bass was very interesting! Played acoustically, the instrument had very little volume or depth, but plugged in it worked well and did not have that "goinky" sound so common to instruments of this type. The action as supplied was too low and the neck had a bit of back bow in it. Backing off the truss rod soon fixed this. Like the guitars with a pickup unit, I preferred a flat tone setting and found the eq faders gave more cut and boost than needed, but was impressed with the lack of noise involved.
The FB71 fingerboard scale is 32" (813mm.) This is midway between Fender short and long scale and works well on this sort of bass. The back is a steam pressed arched back with no struts which I think offers a bit more "boomf" in the bottom end - a smart move for such an instrument.
All round the Segovia's offer good value. The Australian distributor Shriro, is looking for more dealers and are also keen on getting these guitars into the hands of musicians to seek feedback on sound quality, trim and inlay styles etc. It's refreshing to see things like the wood marquetry rosette on the DLC71 and the laser engraved filigree pattern rosette on the DR772s.