Firefly: Fantastic or FAIL

Discover the Firefly Guitar: Is it a Fantastic or a FAIL? In this review video, I delve into every aspect, from construction to setup out of the box, scrutinizing its appearance and ultimately deciding if it's a must-have or a miss.
Watch the video now to see if the Firefly Guitar earns its spot in your collection!

[@jameswilliford5478]

Seems strange to me that you have a fret rocker and more than likely other luthier tools but aren't willing to level and polish the frets on such a low cost guitar. I guess to each his own...everyone expects perfection for their money...but at the end of the day it's probably a sub $200 guitar with issues that might come with a guitar many times that cost.

[@DustinRadtke]

I totally get where you're coming from. It's not that I'm unwilling to put in the effort, it's more about questioning why I should spend hours tweaking a brand new product when, according to the glowing reviews, it should be perfect straight out of the box, like my friend's guitar. My expectations were certainly shaped by those reviews, so it's a bit disappointing when reality doesn't match up. I mean, for a $200 guitar, this kind of issue might be expected, but it's still a bummer.

[@Obxhatman]

@@DustinRadtke Most people that buy Fireflys tend to understand that usually there is some more than usual involvement into setting them up that you would or should not have to do to anything over 500 bucks , yet , we all know reputable companies that sell absolute junk over 500 dollars that requires just as much work if not a significant amount more than a Firefly.

[@DustinRadtke]

Absolutlely! My MIM Fender had all kindas of issues and I paid $800 for it. My friend's Firefly was perfect so that's what I expected. I've since worked on mine to get it nicer. I'll have a video up soon.

[@southerncrossvids]

Nice review bud. I bought one in November and completely upgraded it, I put up 2 videos detailing the mods. It's a great guitar now. Cheers

[@iamanovercomer3253]

Clean tone - fender 👍 by long shot ‼️

[@DustinRadtke]

I actually agree. I understand why some might like the smoother sound of the Firefly, but I like the raw sound of the Fender.

[@sam-ww1wk]

I own a handful of nice guitars, and my buddy, who also has plenty of real Gibsons and Fenders just talked me into one of these. He has a number of them and says all his just needed a simple set up. If it arrives in killer condition, great. If it comes like yours, I'm stoked to have something to practice fret filing and other deep set up stuff on before I dive into a fret job on a boutique acoustic I have. At $200, I'm not expecting much.

[@DustinRadtke]

I just posted an updated video where I fixed the neck issues and customized it a bit. Now this Firefly is my main gigging guitar, and I absolutely love it! Check it out and let me know what you think! Hopefully yours comes in perfect so you can just get to playing it.

[@danwixson]

Great video thanks! Turned my brothers into 4 way switch and Seymour Duncan Twang King pickups, truss rod adjustment and Gotoh compensated saddles. Sound awesome and stays in tune better than any tele I've ever had. Graph Tech string trees probably helped as well!

[@DustinRadtke]

Thanks! Wow you did a lot of work into his guitar. They are a fun modding platform for sure.

[@markmullins2756]

I bet 100$ that the neck on the fire fly blows away the fenders..

[@RaysOfSunshine-uw2sc]

I want to let you know I like the white Firefly guitar cuz in my opinion it plays perfectly has a nice sound and that's what you want your viewers to hear. The brown guitar it has some kind of vibration sound to it. I would get rid of the brown one.

[@mikepeterson443]

I bought a guitar from Firefly and spent quite a few hours already trying to make it play nice. I really didn't want to send it back since it was such a budget guitar. I wanted to be a project guitar so I kept working on it. The main thing with my guitar was the frets; these were not leveled, and after I leveled them, I found that some of them started to come lose, so I had to do a glue job on the entire set of frets just to be sure the won't pop out again. Don't think I'll buy from Firefly again. I hear that IYV make really nice guitars; that's what I'm going to try next.

[@DustinRadtke]

Wow, I'm starting to see more and more of these bad fret jobs. I'm guessing we got in at the wrong time. We must have missed the boat on all the great ones people have been getting.

[@overcome8628]

I have several firefly's and most of them have that buzzing sound especially on the low E top string. How can you fix the high frets?

[@DustinRadtke]

The easiest thing would be to raise the action of that one string until it stops or is reduced. But for me, I had to crown and level my frets since it was so bad. Check it out here. kzbin.info/www/bejne/r6mlpWyEr9aMg5o

[@timlaine6268]

For that neck I would keep it and level the frets. If they are stainless it will be some work, but still only an hour or 2.

[@DustinRadtke]

I ended up keeping it and fixing the neck, and now I love it! I posted an updated video on it if you'd like to check it out. kzbin.info/www/bejne/r6mlpWyEr9aMg5o

[@scottsteeves]

My son in law just bought a mad cat copy and it's a beautiful guitar. To bad the neck was warped bad and the truss rod nut was already stripped.

[@DustinRadtke]

My truss is odd on this one. I had to move it a lot to get any change. I'm used to barely moving it and seeing a instant change,

[@MikeDragonborn]

I bought the same model and mine has a darker even cooler looking neck. I dunno if they're really a veneer. I did have buzzing too. They gave me a $60 refund towards getting it set-up and I thought that was alright. What response did they have to your issues?

[@DustinRadtke]

Did you get the off white one? That one had a darker neck. You got a steal! I didn't get that much off... I'm working on an updated video showing my fixes and some additions I'm doing to the guitar.

[@MikeDragonborn]

@@DustinRadtke yea you're probably right. I think it's a little off white. Man, the dark neck looks so good on it! This is my third firefly. I also have a relic strat I made into a single hb invader which turned out amazing and a black sparkle strat. I'm kinda digging the idea of buying them cheap and making them your own instead of buying expensive and ending up modding them anyway and spending too much money. I'll be looking forward to seeing you vid bro!

[@overcome8628]

Dude, you paid around 200 for the Firefly and how much for the Eart?

[@DustinRadtke]

$354.85 at the time. Sometimes the Eart drops to $265. It's a nice guitar with excellent frets, but it has some odd issues too.

[@axtonkahler7360]

I like that bridge pickup in the Firefly better than the Fender by a long shot. The neck is a little murky, but man that bridge sounds great!

[@DustinRadtke]

It is definitely smoother sounding. I do like how articulate the Fender one is though. That's why you need multiple guitars! :)

[@CKS64]

Firefly guitars are great. You need to try the Baritone.

[@DustinRadtke]

I believe my friend's guitar in the video was a baritone. I'd never played one before. Kinda felt like a mini bass.

[@RaysOfSunshine-uw2sc]

Beauty of the guitar is okay but if it sounds lousy you would feel embarrassed on stage. With me I prefer the sound of the guitar will give a great performance. I enjoy listening to your video and I learned a lot from it.

[@TheUlesifah82]

So just polish and level the frets , problem solved

[@DustinRadtke]

It's important to remember that many consumers may not be familiar with or willing to invest in the tools required for this, and that's completely understandable. Ideally, a product should be ready to use without additional steps or expenses. I'm currently working on a follow up video where I addressed these issues.

[@TheUlesifah82]

@@DustinRadtke and I understand and agree but people need to also stop being so helpless, when you buy a cheap guitar these things are common and not that hard to fix

[@jumpskirt]

Man, that Fender sounds so much better: musical vs. mechanical sounding, to me.

[@DustinRadtke]

I agree, it does sound more articulate and detailed. I can see why people would like both sounds though.

[@Hotrod66149]

Dude I’m shaking my head at you not with you.

[@NawImNate]

pups are weak. very weak and thin compared to even $100 indios, just saying. Own a recent FFTL myself

[@samboggs3499]

Are the Brass Barrel Saddles adjustable and intonatable?.

[@DustinRadtke]

For sure, but because it is the old school style they aren't going to be as precise. Close enough for all our old guitar heroes, it's good enough for me!