From the Dungeon 29/11/2007
Mail Order Guitars.
After my recent bad experience with the Vintage VEC1500N guitar, I swore I would never consider buying a guitar by mail order. So it was with great surprise that I found myself ordering a Moondog Spirit Cutaway Acoustic/Electric on-line. What could have precipitated this huge change of heart? Well, I've bought all of my previous guitars from music shops or private sellers. You might think that this is better than buying mail-order, and maybe you'd be correct. BUT if you buy from a music shop, you'll probably feel pressured and you are unlikely to be relaxed, so maybe a 10 or 20 minutes 'trial' in a music shop is not the ideal way to buy an instrument. So, was I barking mad, to try to buy yet another instrument mail-order? Well, I don't think so, and I'll tell you why.
Moondog are a small British company who make musical instruments and sell direct to the public. They sell direct from their base in Cardiff, and also on EBAY with a 'Buy Now' arrangement. So, what changed my mind. Well, in a word.... 'setup'. Moondog guarantee their instruments will meet a specific setup. In the case of their acoustic guitars, this is specified at 3.0mm and 2.75mm for the lower and upper E's respectively. Moondog's setup Guarantee... Now, for me, this is a *little* bit higher than I normally use, but I figured that if I REALLY liked this instrument, I could at least tweak the guitar to my liking. After a great deal of 'swithering', I took the plunge and ordered a Moondog Spirit Cutaway guitar. A big plus point for buying from Moondog is that if you don't like their instruments, you can just send them straight back within 14 days for a refund. As a selling philosophy, I liked that a lot.
Moondog produce a range of musical instruments, not just acoustic guitars. Their website is well worth a visit.
The Moondog Spirit is a single cutaway acoustic guitar fitted with a transducer fitted under the saddle that drives an equaliser that has high and low impedance outputs. The guitar is a little bit unusual in terms of the materials used. The neck and fingerboard are of conventional construction and the guitar has a solid spruce top with conventional bracing but the back and sides are made from a laminated composite. This laminate appears to consist of Indian Rosewood skins over a balsa or similar wood core. That's what it looks like to me. This sort of construction is starting to become more common in acoustic guitars and can produce outstanding results.
Spirit Dreadnaught, Standard Spirit and Spirit Cutaway.
The Spirit guitar arrived safely by courier. Took me about 15 minutes
to unwrap all that plastic from the case! Very nice, straight out of the
case. It was almost perfectly in tune. This is a *very* good guitar
for the price asked. In fact, just as when you meet that special
person for the first time, it took me less than 10 seconds to fall in love
with it. Corny... yes, but true. I'll never be parted from this guitar until I pop my clogs. That's how much I like it. The standard setup, as expected, is a
little higher than I like.
I contacted Moondog and while they suggested leaving it set up as-is for a month
to see how I got along with it, they
offered to put a truss-rod key in the post for me. I emailed them
immediately to say that I have allen keys at home. This is exactly the sort of excellent service you
won't get in the UK from any of the big-name companies. They are great guys to
deal with and answered my emails to them in a very prompt manner.
I love the fast neck which is slightly (2mm) broader at 43mm at the nut and more comfortable than my Gibson MK-35. The Spirit is considerably louder too, and has that wonderfully complex tone you instantly associate with rosewood guitars. I love it! It has a shorter scale length than my Gibson which makes it feel different to play... different in a nice way. Strings of a gauge that would be hard and unyielding on my Gibson are rather soft and 'bendy' on the Moondog. Very pleasant indeed.
I used to own a Rosewood dreadnaught many years ago, but it got stolen. The Spirit is a better guitar, louder, more focused and has a far better neck. When you strum a chord, all the notes in the chord are crisp and clearly independent. It's delivery is bright, crisp and well-balanced. When you pluck a string, the response is crisp with very good sustain. Some guitars have a tendency to be 'boomy' or have a noticeable resonance on a specific note, usually in the bass register, but this one is clean and even, crisp and excellent sustain. I seem to be using the word 'crisp' a lot, but I can't apologise for that .... it's crisp. It makes me want to play better. Because of this, I find it difficult to put down. It pleads to be played. It's a major distraction from the other things I should be doing. It's that sort of a thing.
Watch Pete 'The Hat' of Moondog playing a Spirit Guitar (non-cutway model) SPIRIT
Generally I use Martin bronze XL's on my Gibson so I was very surprised to find that the somewhat 'rope-like' Light Gauge Cleartone strings fitted are actually quite pleasant and feel soft to the touch. Probably because it has a shorter scale length than my Gibson. I certainly could get used to strings like these, so long as they were on *this* particular guitar. Bending notes is easy. The strings feel quite soft and pliable to the touch. I like that a lot. Oh, and I don't think I've ever seen an XLR connector on an acoustic guitar before. The pickup system works a treat. Very clean and well balanced through my little Roland amp. No problems there. High and Low Impedance outputs. Very nice indeed.
No musical instrument is perfect in terms of finish, but this one is rather good, particularly given it's cost. What AM I saying... it's a steal! The minor blemishes I've noticed include a microscopic ding .. and I mean microscopic, on the table, a trace of 'bleeding' of colour on the rosewood/binding edge on the bottom edge and also that only two of the three truss-rod screws actually go anywhere. Being a little bit off-centre, one of the screws almost 'missed'. No big deal... real guitars have real flaws, even the expensive ones. They tend to be mainly cosmetic. My Gibson wasn't perfect either when I bought it and it cost a load more money... and that was in 1976 pounds. With this instrument, all the things that matter for playing, like the neck, fingerboard, and bridge are really really good. Oh, and and it has genuine Grover machine Heads. They are silky-smooth.
OK, we need to maintain a sense of perspective here...this is a £200+ guitar, not a £2000 one. But it's a lot better to play than many of the £2000 ones I've tried out. I keep having to pick it up and play it. It positively urges you to try to play better. It's that sort of guitar.
I haven't even mentioned the case yet. My Gibson lives in a battered old (31 years old!) plywood case. It seems that cases have come a long way since those days. Who knows, I may even order one of these lovely Moondog cases for my MK-35. I think that's exceedingly likely. Moondog's guitar cases are made from fibreglass and have an all round rubber gasket lid. The lid is a very snug fit in the bottom part and should be very water resistant. The fittings are of good quality and some D rings are fitted that can be used with the supplied straps to carry the guitar case on your back, like a rucksack. A nice touch, that. Rubber feet allow you to stand the case vertically, should you so wish. Very clever thinking. The interior is finished to a high standard in a maroon coloured velvety material on top of foam padding to protect your instrument. It has the usual small pocket for picks and bits and bobs. The guitar is a snug fit with no room to move around, probably why it was still almost in tune after it's road journey from Cardiff to Glasgow. The cases come in red, blue and the more traditional black. I chose blue. Black is sort of boring. If I buy one for the Gibson, you can bet it'll be red.
Everybody seems to have their own preferences for the way their guitars are set up. A fairly standard setup such as that guaranteed by Moondog would be 3.0mm on the bottom E and 2.75 on the top E measured at the 12th fret. On a correctly set-up instrument, this is accompanied by a slight forward bow of the neck in order to provide some 'string-relief', clearance for the vibrating string. When you sight along the neck of a properly set-up guitar from the bridge end, the neck should appear to lean slightly upwards with the nut end being square with the body. The upward bend is slight, but important because it provides clearance for the vibrating string. Many guitars are simply built and shipped with little or no regard to playability. This is particularly so with cheaper instruments because setup takes time, and time = money. If you buy from a reputable guitar shop, the instruments would normally have been set up up to at least a reasonable standard by the shop's guitar tech. If you buy an expensive instrument such as those made by Gibson, Martin or indeed some of the specialist makers, you have every right to expect them to be set up to a reasonable standard. Unfortunately many guitars, even expensive ones, are sold by music shops with a stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap mentality. You are unlikely to 'become attached' to an instrument sold in this manner. I have in the past tried some big name guitars that were absolutely horrible to play. My Moondog does 'exactly what it says on the tin'. It's an absolute delight to play. A big thank you to Tim, Nick and the team at Moondog for their dedication to providing first rate musical instruments at very affordable prices. Maybe mail-order is not so bad after all, provided you buy from the right people.
With a few distractions, like having to go to work, eat, etc, I've been pretty much plying this guitar since it arrived. It's an absolutely superb instrument. It's unforgiving because it's so clean and bright, but that just makes me really want to play all the better. Sorry, gotta go, I have a guitar waiting....
Thank you guys.
Allan Copland
(Happy Dog!)
PS Here's what others say about Moondog musical instruments...
Testimonials