Rogue RA-100D Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar Pink

This was my first guitar, I bought it over 4 years ago. I had only played minimally before buying this, so I really had nothing to compare it to. I read all the fantastic reviews so I figured it must be a perfect first guitar. I practiced and practiced and learned how to play, I learned how to adjust the truss rod (seriously needed) and I purchased a TUSQ saddle and popped it in there, then I sanded the saddle down to correct the action, but it was still off. It came with martin strings, but I changed those out for some elixir nanoweb strings - still hard to play on. I finally realized it was the Nut, which was too high, and I bought a new nut.Once I changed all the pieces it sounded pretty good, it played nicely and it looked cool in black. I did get compliments on it.I then bought a Seagull S6 and found out what a really nice guitar sounds like, as well as playing many of the samples in the store. I figured, for 80 bucks, this wasn't a bad deal, and it did get me started playing so I recommended it to many friends and on some forums as a good starter guitar for the cheap price.About a month ago however, I wanted to buy my sister a guitar and I saw the great reviews of the Jasmine s35 by takamine, so I figured I would buy one for her, fix the action, put a new saddle on it, change the nut, change the strings, and the truss rod. The Jasmine cost 70 bucks so it was a little cheaper but it was made by Takamine, and I have played some takamines so I figured it was worth a shot. With the new strings and gear it would run me about 100.Well the guitar arrived with a fully compensated plastic saddle, in near perfect tune, with the truss rod already adjusted, the right size nut to begin with, and the strings played perfectly. The Jasmine looked amazing and played with more body than this Rogue. I returned the nut and the saddle, and gave my sis the spare strings to use in 6 months.PLEASE DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME OR YOUR MONEY BUYING THIS GUITAR. For the price, this isn't a bad deal for what you get, but there is at least one MUCH better option that will require little to NO extra work and money (and its cheaper to begin with!)I highly recommend the Jasmine S35 right now as of 12/5/2012 it is 66 bucks on Amazon. If I had started with the Jasmine, I would have progressed much faster as the action is set correctly to begin with and I wouldn't have wasted so much time working on the Rogue.I am giving this 2 stars which is low, this is not because it is a piece of crap, it isn't... and compared to many other beginner guitars, this is a HUGE step up, but compared to an equally priced Jasmine S35, this deserves 2 stars and no more.

I'd like to give this guitar 5 stars, but it's just too cheap! There's lots of clues suggesting where corners were cut to keep this price point, but the sound of this guitar IS NOT one of them.I bought this without a demo based on price and reviews and couldn't believe how good it sounded out of the box. When people say it sounds better than any $200 starter guitar, they're telling the truth.The things I haven't read from others are how brutal the factory setup and Martin strings (as nice as they sound) are on your fingers. It came with the action set WAY TOO HIGH. I was afraid that if I adjusted the truss bar and changed to light strings that it wasn't going to maintain its sound. I was wrong. I swapped out the Martin strings for Ernie Ball Earthwood 80/20 Light, and lowered the action by at least one full revolution of the truss bar, and it sounds even better now. AND it's much more playable.Even considering the price, this is not a 5 star instrument. If you don't know how, or aren't comfortable making adjustments yourself, you'd probably spend as much to get it set up as you paid for it. Otherwise, I would think any beginner would lose interest trying to tame this thing for any length of time. The spruce top alone is worth the extra $25 over the RA-90D, but its still a laminate, and despite the sound that it makes, it's clearly thrown together as quickly and easily as the plant in China can turn them out. It looks OK, but it's not a show piece, and parts of the structure look crude. I have little hope that it'll still be playable in 5 or more years. But at this price, who cares?

I am not a guitar pro, but have had 3-4 guitars previously and found this one pretty difficult to play. The strings were placed way too high off the fretboard and had to press really hard to get a decent enough sound.After making a few innovative adjustments, I have been able to play it to produce sound which is decent enough and I have been living with it. However as compared to the sound from some other guitars (a little costlier than this one) it sounds a little dull.Given all the good reviews we have for this guitar, I am not sure if my piece had some problems. But I realized, to purchase things like a gutar, it is always better to go to the shop, play the guitar and purchase the one which sounds good and you feel comfortable with. You might end up paying maybe an extra 10-20 bucks, but you will not have second thoughts about your purchase.

**UPDATE - (2 STARS) June 28, 2011**About 3 weeks ago, the nut broke in half where the D string is. I also had to screw the bridge since it is almost popping out. Maybe I got a bad batch but now the guitar is useless. It's a bad, cheap, and low quality guitar but I did enjoy using it for 2 years.**OLD REVIEW**I've been playing guitar for about 10 years on and off and after looking at the reviews, I decided to buy this one instead of the takamine. The guitar was packed very well inside two boxes and arrived in a week. The reason why I gave this guitar a 4 star rating is that the action is too high and the strings have to be replaced. But after I had the strings replaced and the neck adjusted, it sounds pretty well. You have to play on it everyday though to "soften" the strings a little bit. This is my rugged all purpose guitar while I'm saving money for a Taylor. It's ok. Can't complain for the price I paid for it. And did I mention that it looks very good for a starter guitar. The finish is really attractive.