Gordon C.
Well, I read the reviews and as an owner of some 13 guitar's including PRS and Fenders etc I thought for the money I would give this a try.
I had expected the finish to be good as so many had praised it, it was better than I imagined, flawless in fact, playing wise I was playing it straight out the box, all I did was change the strings for my preferred brand but wasn't at all necessary.
I lowered the action, again a preference, and not one buzz anywhere on the neck, I played it for about 2 hours and decided to take it that evening where I play in a busy jam night, all who see it were impressed, but more so with the sound, I have either got lucky or they all sound this great, i have a few jams coming up and this will be my guitar of choice, outstanding value for money.
lostmysanity
This is a great value guitar. I purchased this as an experienced player for a beginner who is starting out at 40 years old. Naturally I wanted to make sure it was a decent guitar and all the important boxes were checked.
Pros:
-REALLY NICE finish and wood grain.
-Decent quality tuners
-Binding adds a nice appeal, that you usually don't see at this price point.
-Pickups actually sound decent!
-Great modern "C" feeling neck and it is pretty slim as well.
-Great action and intonation out of the box (on mine)
-Comes with a gig bag, strap, cable and hex key (to adjust neck relief)
Cons:
-Mine came with the volume pot loose. (Simple repair, just pull knob top and back plate, hold pot from back and tighten the 10mm nut on top, then replace knob top) but a novice might not know how to do that easily.
- Some of the fret edges stick out A LITTLE. This one is a nitpicking thing, but you can feel the edges of the frets, which I am not use to when I see fretboard binding)
Overall I would NOT hesitate to purchase again. This is a great guitar for the price and I think a beginner, someone just restarting to play, or even some intermediate players could find this to be a solid go to guitar.
JACK
Honestly, I was expecting lower quality considering the price. The electronics and hardware are actually very decent. I only had to make minor adjustments to get it playing beautifully. Changed strings, adjusted pickup height, tweaked truss rod (neck had a bit of relief right out of the box but I straightened it a bit) lowered action (again, was good right out of the box, very playable) polished the frets a little and oiled the fretboard. All very easy to do and it made the guitar play and sound better than Epiphone Les Paul's I've played in guitar stores. Very impressed with Donner, they make great pedals as well :)
Van
This is a fantastic beginner guitar. The guitar plays fairly well right out of the box. The pickups sound great plugged into an amp. They have great sound and plenty of output. As with any guitar, this would benefit from a good setup. The factory string height came at about 2.5 mm at the 12 th fret. This is easily adjusted at the bridge. The knobs and switches operate smoothly with no noise coming through the amp. The sides of the frets could stand for some polishing but it's not a huge deal to me. The one drawback is the tuners seem to be the lower quality. They work, especially for beginners but down the road I will opt for a nice set of tuners. All in all it's a great starter guitar that should serve well without breaking the bank.
EB
The Donner DLP-124S Solid Body Full-size 39 inch Guitar Kit in Sunburst Yellow is a diamond in the ruff. The DLP came packed in an outer box in addition to the Donner Guitar Box for extra protection. It was shielded with packing material and placed inside the Gear Bag. I was elated to find the guitar had arrived in pristine condition, and a beauty it is. The sunburst yellow nicely finished is awesome, framed by a vintage white binding strip around the top edge of the solid body. The Gear Bag is quality nylon with padded sponge interior with protective edge to prevent scratching by the zipper. Also included is quality strap and cable with a right-angle connector and allen wrench to use to perform adjustments to the truss rod. I was able to set the guitar up within minutes with minimal effort. When I plugged the guitar into my amp and turned it on, man, I was surprised with the smooth, deep sound from the Donner 202S Humbucker pickups! The notes and chords are clear without external or humming sounds. The string action is great and barre chords are resonant without buzzing. The tuning keys and pegs are of good quality and serve to keep the guitar in tune – even after bending the strings while playing. I was happy to find that the guitar stays in tune when I use a capo, and further adjustment was not needed to play with perfect pitch. And some of us know how difficult sometimes the G or B string can be to tune properly for all chords without a pitch issue – hah, not with this guitar. I have tried it with each of the different modes on the amp, and I am having a blast with it. I know that the description of the guitar in Amazon says it is for beginners, but I think an intermediate player or even a professional player using this as a practice guitar would be surprised with the quality of sound that it produces. It is a great selection for the beginner player starting out, and with the Gear Bag, Guitar Strap, and Guitar cable included, it spares the beginner an added expense of these items to get started, meaning that it is available to more people who otherwise may not be able to afford all of these items separately to get started. I had bought a guitar of a well known brand in this price range previously (without the extras), and it does not measure up to the quality of the DLP-124S. Well done Donner!
Douglas B.
Here is what I did with my new purchase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU6wTtb6u1E
Alan D.
Good value for the money. I have been playing an acoustic guitar for several years, and was looking for an inexpensive best to try an electric.
Brian H.
Amazingly good for a LP that doesn't cost any money. Out of the box, I re strung with my favourite Rotosound strings, set the action and intonation, and it plays great. Don't know what the pickups are, but I won't change them, they sound awesome. Now the bookings are starting to come in, I will be gigging this beauty.
Great job Donner.
Jaehoe Y.
Really good guitar good price good service
Kevin H.
I purchased this because of the reviews that I have seen and some of the Youtube reviews as well. I was skeptical at first but after receiving the guitar and playing it, I was convinced that it was true. The guitar was for real. Even though it's not made here in America, it still has my vote and I'm not a fan of overseas guitars but for the money, it is outstanding. I thought of other lower-priced guitars but this one just seemed to win among them all. Donner just seems to go the extra mile and that's what made the difference. Now I have two donners and they are both my favorite guitars. I play them and I have probably 8 more that lie in cases. Fenders, Yamahas, Harmony, Gretsch. I don't know why but I love playing the donners.
Jorge C.
Nice sound. Excelent price/product value.
Ernest S.
This guitar is very cool. Much nicer than I anticipated. Set up out of the box was good. It was delivered on time exactly when Donner said it would. I honestly think the DLP 124 is going to earn a cult following in years to come. If you can get one do it.
Ian
If you how to set these guitars up they're amazing. After a string change, pick up and bridge set up, feels and plays great. Looks good too. I've played for over 40 years this would be an ideal starter. The tones are stunning
Kevin B.
I am a rank beginner guitar player, so please take all of my advice / opinions with a healthy grain of salt... This is one in a series of reviews of guitars and kit I am doing as I learn how to play guitar. All of my purchases have been at the bottom end / inexpensive side of the market. The guitar being reviewed was purchased with my own funds and the manufacturer (Donner) has not provided any compensation for this review.
Two weeks ago I purchased my fourth guitar (my second electric). This one is the Donner (brand) DLP-124S (pictured below / cut from the Donner site). On sale and with a discount, it came delivered for just under $150USD. The "normal" retail price on their site is just under $170USD. I gather the naming convention is "Donner Les Paul" style with the ending "S" standing for the color: "Sunburst". I don't know if the "124" means anything or not.
The guitar arrived in less than the promised 10-day delivery (good). It was the first of my guitars to arrive in an undamaged box (great). It was not double-boxed, which is what I was expecting. It came in a water-proof plastic and taped wrapped cardboard box.
The guitar is a steel six-string electric guitar with dual (neck and bridge) humbucker pickups. "Humbucker" pickups simply means they are (as near as I can tell) double posted and wound to breakup the 60 cycle hum which is common to unshielded single pickups. In English, this means you get less feedback from the environment you're playing in. I have not opened up the electronics to see if they are in a shielded cavity or not. As I only play in my bedroom or living room, my environment isn't a big concern.
The guitar comes with a padded "gig" bag, a strap, a cable and a couple of Allen wrenches to make adjustments to the truss rod and the intonation. The guitar does NOT come tuned and ready to play, but it it pretty close. I attached one of my electronic tuners and was playing in tune within five minutes. The intonation was (is) practically perfect (according to my tuner). The "action" (the height of the strings from the frets) seems pretty close to what the YouTubers are saying is standard height and although heavy (weight), the guitar is very easy to play. I'm not sure if this (ease of play) is because of better strings or better action or a combination of both. Either way, I was comfortable playing around with this guitar for well over an hour after it was tuned up. (It didn't hurt my fingertips.)
My "other" guitar is a Stratocaster style and this DLP is about twice the weight even though it is no larger. In fact, this guitar feels smaller in my hands. I stood them side by side for comparison. The DLP is thicker and does not have cutaways for your arm or stomach.
The sunburst paint / finish on my guitar is beautiful. I didn't think I'd like it only being "sunburst" on one side (the top), but the truth is I think it makes the guitar look classier and it makes me almost want to get a full-on black guitar. Most of the other sunburst guitars (I've looked at) have a similar effect on both top and bottom, which is why I originally wasn't too taken with this before its arrival.
The neck is very comfortable in my hand. It's somewhere between the width and fretboard flatness of my dreadnaught acoustic and my other electric. In other words, its almost as comfortable on the board side and slightly more comfortable on the underside. The underside is stained / colored in a dark honey orange / brown. It is smooth without being slick. In other words, your hand doesn't stick, but it also doesn't feel like you're on a slimy polyurethane shellac. The frets end cleanly at the edge of the board and are moderately tapered so they neither stick nor slice your hands / fingers. They are not rounded though. The fretboard itself is fresh looking (dark and smooth) and did not come with that "ashy / dusty, oil me now" look which two of my other guitars had on delivery.
The tuners seem stable. Easy to turn without dead spots or wiggles.
Extras: I haven't had to use the Allen wrenches so I don't know if there are any issues with the truss rod. The shoulder strap is a nice cotton feeling material. Much better quality than my other three "included" straps, but obviously not as good as the full leather strap I bought (separately) for my primary acoustic. Similarly, the included cable is much nicer than the one which came with my other electric (starter kit). In fact, it compares favorably with the replacement I purchased. It generates no more buzz than my good cable, so now I have two decent cables in case one goes on the fritz.
I would like to discuss the gig bag separately (here). I was very dissatisfied with the "bag" which came with my first electric guitar. It was little more than a plastic dust-cover with a cheap zipper. It was bad enough I bought an upgrade (from Donner) for just over $20USD. As it happens, the current bag is not as good as my upgrade (from Donner), but it is FAR superior to the dust-cover (from the other guitar manufacturer).
Factoring in the bag, the cable and the strap with the total price, this is probably $35-40USD (at retail) additional value.
After all this, you're probably thinking: "Who cares? What does it sound like?" Well, disappointingly, I can't give you very much input there. Unplugged, it sounds much deeper / heavier / fuller than the unplugged Strat-style I own. Not acoustic level full, but significantly fuller than the Strat-style. I don't know if that's because it's a heavier / more solid guitar, or just because it has much better strings. I can say, it tuned up faster and has stayed in tune better, too. Again, is that the strings, the tuners, the weather or something else? I don't know...
Okay, how about plugged in? Again, due to my extremely limited experience, I can only give a very limited evaluation. I can play the standard beginner open chords and the standard A-minor and Blues pentatonic scales and (again) this guitar sounds "fuller". I don't know (I don't yet have the vocabulary) how to describe the differences. This guitar has three positions and the Strat has five. This guitar seems to have more sustainability. I have to palm mute it or it goes on forever. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I can imagine circumstances where it could be either / both.
Bottom Line: This guitar is a very nice beginner's guitar. On the guitar I received, once tuned, the intonation was spot on and the tuning was almost exactly the same at the end of the hour (plus) as when I initially started playing with it. The price is very good and the only things missing are an inexpensive "starter" amp and a little electronic tuner to make this a pretty perfect starter set. The extras add a great deal of value to the purchase.
Given the weight, I'm not sure I would recommend this guitar for small (under 10-years old) children, but it seems to be both an excellent instrument and an excellent value for any beginner over 10 or 12 years old. And it's pretty good for a retired codger like me... It's now in my regular rotation and I wouldn't be surprised if I end up with other Donner equipment (particularly a starter / practice amp or some effects pedals).
So, for now, keep on picking and strumming!