• Two times not the charm

  
  As reviewed by bob on 8/16/2011

  I ordered one of these EF-500RCCE guitars and found the cedar top to be poorly sanded and finished, with several very rough spots and an uneven finish. The Rosewood sides near the neck had some strange areas that looked uneven and poorly finished. On top of that, it played poorly--lousy strings and a rough fretboard. I sent it back and ordered another, hoping this one was an aberration. Not the case. The second unit was worse, with terrible sanding scratches behind the tailpiece and a dead sound. I sent it back, too. I have seen and played the EF-500M guitar from this series, with the spruce top and mahogany back and sides, and although it costs less (admitttedly without the electronics), it is much better finished and sounds great, like guitars costing much more. The EF-500RCCE, well, stay away from it.

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• Apparently not built by masters

  
  As reviewed by Paul on 7/10/2011

  I ordered mine from the Guitar Center website since they don't carry this model in their stores. I picked it up late in the evening so didn't unpack it in the store. When I opened the box the first thing I saw was a card that said it was checked for quality in China and again in the US. The QA person in the US was #8. So far so good, if #8 vouched for the condition I was sure it was going to be good. I took the guitar out from the packaging and couldn't have been more disappointing. The front of the guitar was gritty like sandpaper in places and there were multiple black greasy smudge marks along with several scratches on the sides. It looked like a used guitar packaged as new. I returned this one and ordered another which I picked up last night. This time I opened it in the store and this one didn't have a QA card (weird quality control there...) and it wasn't dirty but the front of the guitar had significantly more grittiness to it. It was so bad that if you rubbed hard enough you could easily scratch yourself. The Guitar Center staff was great, they didn't try to force me to take it and tried to clean it up but it seems like there is dirt under some sort of finish (even though they say it's unfinished) that was sealed in. The guitar sounds great and looks awesome but very poor quality. I would not buy one sight unseen again. $200 Epiphones in the store looked perfect, not sure why they have so much trouble with this model.

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• Disappointment - Damaged

  
  As reviewed by David McIntire on 6/22/2010

  After making signifant progress on a beginner guitar I wanted to upgrade to a mid-level fingerstyle guitar. I had read some good reviews of the Masterbuilt EF series and wanted the wider 1 3/4" vintage V neck and Cedar top. I ordered EF 500CCRE through the Guitar Center Store and they had it shipped to their store where I picked it up. The box looked a little crushed but the salesman assured me it was doubled boxed and should be OK. When I got it home and unpacked it was crushed is several places big time and had a hole the size of a pencil in the top. In addition it did not have the wide V neck as advertised. The shipping box was very cheap cardboard whick is why it didn't hold up to shipping. My concern was if they paid so little attention to the shipping box perhaps they cut corners in the guitar. I did tune it up and play it a little before returning it. It sounded and played wonderfully. The tunners were positive and it tuned easily. I was very disappointed it was damaged. I returned it and since it was out of stock for 30 to 60 days I had to chose another brand and up my budget considerably. The Guitar Center did refund my money without question but it took two weeks to credit my charge card. I chose an American made guitar with the wide neck and cedar top and am quite pleased with it.

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