Best Acoustic Guitar For $700…That No One Has Heard Of

[@choudclucker]

been waiting for this one! Thank you! Should be receiving the custom i ordered today! I got a linglong with redwood and cocobolo :)

[@JonKaneshiroGuitar]

Hope you enjoy yours!

[@bostonbesteats364]

What did you customize?

[@matthewrtrego]

what customizations did you make?

[@001mladen]

I have HsienMo F Shape guitar.... i cant say enough good things about it. For that price i got custom woods, neck, even my own logo. I just couldnt afford a Lowden so this brand made my wish come true. Guitar is so good made, a lot of sustain and great instrument overall. Thank you HsienMo!!!!

[@JonKaneshiroGuitar]

They’re pretty awesome guitars, huh?

[@howabouthetruth2157]

Pretty sure that's genuine flamed maple used for the binding Jon. It sure looks like it anyway. Great review. Thank you.

[@jeremyjensonchoong4534]

Hi Jon! Greetings from Malaysia. I own a 38" LingLong with German Spruce top and Ziricote back and sides. I put down an order for their guitar through Taobao at 11th Nov 2021 without playing it or even seeing it in real life. Let's just say it was the riskiest, but the most rewarding investment I've ever done. It sounds like no other guitars I've played. The fit and finish of the guitar is on par with the American brands. Everyone who played my guitar was so surprised on the playability of the guitar. The best part is, they cannot believe that the price of the guitar is under MYR 3000, air shipping included ( ~ USD 670 before they start jacking up the price due to increasing material costs ). I even brought it to a few guitar stores here and there and it was the center of attention. The number of compliments it received is out of this world. I was lucky enough to receive this guitar with a free Justpro pickup. Mr. Li Chen, the founder of the company decided to provide the pickup FOC since it was already installed on that particular unit (the guitar was meant for a music teacher in China, but I think things did not work out for him). I do not think I'll be picking up any acoustics for the time being. Looking back, I might have just made the best purchase decision ever in my life. Funniest thing is, my friend said the guitar was sold to me at a wrong price hahahhaha.

[@JonKaneshiroGuitar]

These are great guitars especially for the price. Hoping the next round I’m able to get one of their more expensive acoustics to see how the quality and tone compares.

[@TallTreesClub]

Hsienmo will install white fret dots free if they know prior to shipping. I ordered the same body with Sinker Redwood top and Cocobolo back from a Leen Music Reverb listing. Should be headed for Oregon next week. Shipping is fast if one is pre-built in stock. I ordered a German spruce top grand auditorium June 24th and it arrived in Oregon June 29th.

[@JonKaneshiroGuitar]

Cool! Stay tuned for next week. I have an OM guitar from them. Just uploaded the review to be released on Wednesday. It’s amazing.

[@TallTreesClub]

@@JonKaneshiroGuitar Will check back. Your review led to me buying from them. I started with the grand auditorium. A friend who used to play professionally (a moment after holding and playing it) exclaimed "where did you get this!". She's already been browsing their custom ordering page.

[@JonKaneshiroGuitar]

@TallTreesClub that’s awesome! I think I’m even more blown away by this OM14. I want to see if they’ll send their D45 soon.

[@wolfegtrs]

Available at Wolfe Guitars, Jupiter, Florida

[@bostonbesteats364]

Beautiful guitar at a very good price (love that flame binding)...I want one! Regarding the lack of dots on the fingerboard, the impression I've gotten from their company Facebook page is that they are very willing to customize anything (the benefit of being a small boutique I guess), so I'm sure one could get dots if one wanted. Very happy to finally have a serious independent review of these, as it will give me more confidence to buy one. Thanks Jon!

[@JonKaneshiroGuitar]

Worth it!

[@bostonbesteats364]

Would be interesting to compare it side-by-side to my Yamaha LL16M (itself a deal for $800, and also made in China at Yamaha's own factory), which is similarly spruce, mahogany back/sides, but without the extra touches of the Hsienmo (bone nut/saddle/pins, flame maple binding, tasteful abalone/cocobolo rosette). The LL16M does come with passive pickups installed though (I gather Hsienmo will do that if asked). BTW, IIRC, apparently "Hsienmo" is the founder's daughter's name.

[@bostonbesteats364]

Just looking at the website description of the guitar (which is unusually detailed), they call the neck joint a "2nd Gen Cantilevered NT joint", and the neck has 2 carbon fiber rods in it. Reminds me of McPherson's floating necks, and I think they are taking inspiration from that design. Although the "NT" in the name suggests Taylor, which are not actually cantilevered necks, so maybe there's some combination of approaches going on here, I don't know.

[@JonKaneshiroGuitar]

I definitely think they’re taking inspiration from them and a lot of companies. I personally didn’t need to use it to adjust the action since it felt amazing out of the box. They do have a McPherson inspired guitar too that looks pretty cool. These are really solid guitars. Only thing is I wish I got a pickup installed because I run a Fractal. Would be easier than mic’ing it up and getting room reflections.

[@chrislandry5797]

I have a nylon string from them.

[@chrislandry5797]

They give you guitar strap buttons free of charge,you just have to request them.

[@sugarinthegourd]

Looks great but doesn’t seem to have much tone or volume

[@RafsGearReviews]

Kind of crazy how only a few months later these $900 😥 Such a shame though!

[@JonKaneshiroGuitar]

I think at the time they were running a sale. Maybe that was it🤷🏻‍♂️

[@RafsGearReviews]

@@JonKaneshiroGuitar That would make sense but I think I heard you say tbey were on sale at this time for $500ish. Still a beautiful guitar with great features but it's really hard to compete at the $1k price range for a chinese acoustic guitar brand when there are so many great guitars in that range and even some great Northamerican made guitars for half the price (Like Seagull). Thanks for sharing man.

[@brenthobbs5294]

The guitar does sound nice... and the price point certainly will be appealing to a large demographic of players. But unfortunately, many of the models are almost exact copies of Lowden and other high end guitar companies. They are way too close in design to not even give credit where credit is due on their website.

[@brenthobbs5294]

After browsing their site, I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt... but their 'F' artist series is stolen from Lowden. Same body shapes, same bridge shape, same 2 piece saddle...headstock shape...the signature curve at the end of the fretboards...on and on. What a shame, the least they could do is add something original to the design and rename the model to something other than F.

[@bostonbesteats364]

@@brenthobbs5294 I suppose everyone should stop copying Martin acoustics too? And every electric guitar maker should stop copying Fenders and Gibsons while they are at it? Half the cars on the road stole their design cues from Honda. Most cell phones from Apple. Give me a break

[@brenthobbs5294]

The point is they copied George Lowdens' original design of his F models, and inlayed their name on the headstock....writing in the description for the guitar 'Hsienmo Latest Perfect Masterpiece'. They should add 'copy' to the description to be more accurate. In my opinion it's false advertising to not at the very least give credit to the original designer. You make a great point about copies of the major brands like Martin. The fact is every modern guitar is inspired by the original guitar builders and every creator knows nothing is really original, all great things are built upon what came before. For example I built myself a guitar using the Gibson J185 shape, but I drew up my own headstock and bridge design and added my own marquetry. What doesn't sit right with me is copying designs exactly then selling under your own name for profit. It's just like when talented artists create a masterpiece artwork then some company steals their work, makes prints or blankets or whatever then sells it. It's just shady. The best way to learn is to copy others artwork or style or designs...then I wholeheartedly believe one should develop their own style before trying to sell for profit. Hsienmo obviously has skill, the right tools and ability to produce good guitars. Hopefully they spend the time designing more original ideas.

[@bostonbesteats364]

@@brenthobbs5294 Yawn

[@TallTreesClub]

@@brenthobbs5294 the point is that you don't really have a point because Hsienmo customized the design with their own embellishments and certain other modifications.

[@habbysimpsonone8183]

sounds kind of dead to me?