Great review. Glad you spoke up about what you disliked about it. And good luck on the sub count! Will stick around for the giveaway :)

Thanks for the review!

Bought one last winter. Good things: Low cost, weight very light, really comfortable to play, beautiful finish front and back. Loved it at first. However, difficult to tune and change strings. I didn't mind that so much until I tried to lower the action. Took forever because of all the little screws and levers you have to adjust. I never did get the buzz out of the fifth and sixth strings. They want $150 for a luthier to work it out. Now it's in the closet.

I really dig the one I received. The frets are stainless steel, there are varying degrees of quality with SS frets, they don't feel like my Parker, but they are nice. The point about the length of the frets is a good one, does it interfere with the playability? I never even noticed it, maybe I got a good one. The bridge stays in tune, it was easy enough to adjust, it really is a poor man's Babicz bridge. Eart has a better looking bridge on the 599.00 version. I would love to replace it, but it does work despite it's "clunkiness". I've never played a 323.00 guitar that was this good. There are mods/upgrades I will do in the future to suit my tastes, but overall no deal breaker issues. Always good to see reviews on this brand!

Any updates? Id love to see how you modded it. I have the gw2 in the solid black color also they have roasted necks now. I like the neck but think it could definitely be thinner. My fret ends are a lil uneven too. Really interested to see if you replaced the bridge.

Great informative review 👍 was considering one of these plus spending the time and money to upgrade it over getting an Ibanez q series. What are your thoughts?

I have this model. I also found the position of the volume knob a problem. I moved it back as far as possible (towards the bridge) just so the pot would still fit inside the cavity and covered the old hole. Problem solved. I also changed out the pickups to something a bit hotter. Love the neck; I use it for a drop D guitar (so not on every song) so maybe that's why I'm not seeing a tuning stability issue. Would I buy again?....absolutely; just something about the neck feel makes it special.

Great observations! As soon as I saw close up pics on Amazon of the frets it was easy to see that some of the frets extended further than others. This made me suspect that the frets are somehow manufactured with the hotdog ends before being pressed into the fret board. Not the same as a premium finished fret. Of course these don't cost that much either - If they figured out how to tightly control the fret length to the fret board edge they would really have something there.

i own an EART headless and i love mines

It's a really good looking guitar despite all the little flaws.

Greetings, very informative post! I would like to replace the existing neck joint bolts with threaded retainer/bolts in order to make the GW1/GW2 more feasible for overseas travel. In your opinion, can this be done without problems? I'd have it done by a luthier. Thank you in advance!

Have you seen the newer GW2-PRO. The improved bridge and woods are making it hard for me to resist buying it.

Very nice review. Just an FYI. You said the word like 106 times in your video.

I thought hard about ordering one of these off Amazon. They're even running a sale right now, but nearly everyone besides Phil McKnight complains about the bridge complexity. Can't justify that $350 price tag, when an Ibanez Gio comes under $300, and is idiot proof.

I'm not sure I understand. All frets are pressed into slots on the fingerboard. So what's different about these? Frets are cut from long strips of fret wire, so there's always going to be a bit of variability in fret length - the less the better of course. But zero frets are great - with a zero fret, the only purpose of a nut is to guide the strings. Wish EART had gone with a combo headpiece like on the Steinberger Synapse, they could have eliminated the ugly white nut altogether. But try opening up the nut slots so you're really using the zero fret, you'll feel and hear the difference. Anyway, great critical review. I'm trying to decide if these are worth the 400 euros they're getting over here... so far, I'm skeptical.

why is the fretwork bad? its uneven but there are no sharp frets you arent getting a guitar for the photos in instagram

If you don't like it, why didn't you send it back? Just curious 🤔

Fret ends dont line up? Non-issue for me. I dont bend strings over the fret edges. I think the idea was that its easier to do "great feeling frets" in this manner, rather than having to sit and polish every end of the fret, they have these premade shapes and just pop em in. Cost saving, but like I said, its a non-issue. Guitar still plays just like any other. I think the critisicm on the bridge being complex is fair, but it never got in my way doing palm mutes, maybe our technique is just different. I actually found this bridge very easy to play on. Also the veneer top I think is nice. As long as it doesn't start lifting over time, I like the look. They kept it thin so that it would be able to be pressed over the arm bevel without breaking. I think it looks great, normally they just bevel into the veneer, this looks nicer.

I want to know how guitar center hangs that thing up

Had mine yesterday but will send it back tomorrow nice guitar but too heavy and Liked the previous shape more and the pickups are a little noisy great sound but have some noise I'm a little disapointed,great neck but it weights as a normal guitar and compared to the previous shape (strandberg like) this one looks unfinished!!!

Ash looks diferent and this is an african pearwood I believe. People call it redwood. Your model is GW2 not a GW1 which comes with ash body and trem bridge. A lot of guys say that these guitars are equipped with stainless steel frets which is not true either. I own two of them but older models (W1 and W2) I must say that you are right about lenght of these frets. They are uneven because they fit them already finished. In my case they did not fit them in order. For example accidentally they swap 17th fret with 20th. In other case they did not place it straight. Three uneven by max 1mm frets do not cause any problem. A bit of WD40 inside bridge saddles (around brass drums) males them work like a dream. Larger 0 fret makes these guitars speed monsters ;-) very low strings action. Watch it if you want to - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/l9ycoZaC2LjQnp8.html Photos at the end show some mods ;-)