About
Reviews (2)
Apr 10, 2016
Oscar Schmidt Review
2 of 2 found this helpful [I will limit my ratings and comparisons to other Chinese-manufactured instruments of similar style, such as Davison, Bixby, and Harley Benton.]
The Oscar Schmidt (OS) guitar was slightly higher in price than other Chinese LP-style instruments, but unfortunately it does not justify the price. Overall fit and finish is comparable, but despite two quality control stickers it is substandard in several respects, the first of which is how the "tiger eye quilt" veneer is affixed to the maple top. It is standard manufacturing practice to glue the binding around the top, then glue the veneer down and taper it to the top edge of the binding. Once the glue is dry, the veneer is stained a certain color and then excess color is scraped off the binding with a utility knife. In the case of this instrument, in some spots the edge of the veneer didn't quite reach the top of the binding so some wood filler was applied to replace the missing veneer. When the stain was applied, the filler turned a pinkish color and overlaid the binding, which was very sloppily scraped into a jagged line. This should never have passed any kind of a quality control check.
Second, the pole pieces on the humbucker pickups have slots to allow you to raise and lower them; these humbuckers appear to have adjustable pole pieces but all of them are frozen in place, which leads me to believe that they're dummies. Not to say that the pickups don't work because they're adequate, but faking adjustable pole pieces is an indication of deception and low quality.
The maple neck and rosewood fretboard are of good quality, but the ends of the frets stuck out over the sides of the fretboard binding and had to be filed flush to avoid shredding my fingers. In fairness, this may have been caused by the neck shrinking in shipment to the U.S. and inadequate storage methods at the dealer's, but regardless, this had to be dealt with before the instrument could be played, as well as string height and intonation. The neck has a "scarf" joint just below the headstock; there's nothing wrong with this since properly glued scarf joints do not detract from the strength of the neck; the reason they're used in this case is to conserve the amount of wood used to build the neck -- I'd rather have a scarf joint than a one-piece neck surrounded by a pile of wood shavings.
The mahogany body is actually five pieces of wood glued together; if properly assembled it is as good as a one or two-piece body, but most Chinese manufacturers glue a piece of mahogany veneer to the back of the instrument to hide the multi-piece body; this is not to disguise (you can see the separate pieces by looking at the sides of the instrument) but rather to provide a nice appearance. This guitar had no such back veneer, so the individual pieces are readily apparent and are of mismatched color.
The pickup selector switch is of the "box" type instead of the leaf-spring type; it works, but it's clicky and noisy with a loud Snap! when you change positions.
Overall, once the frets are dressed and the guitar has a complete setup, it is quite playable; however, it should never have passed a quality control inspection and is not up to the quality of of other Chinese-manufactured guitars, which at this date normally sell for around $170 USD, which includes shipping. I've not had the opportunity to evaluate other Oscar Schmidt guitars, but if this one is any indication, I won't be buying another one.
Dec 21, 2016
Great LED Monitor for the Price
This 24" monitor is an excellent value for the money. Its display is bright and crisp, and it's a Dell, which says a lot in itself. I only have two issues: (1) there is no standard digital input jack, relying instead on a DisplayPort connection. It's not really a problem because adapter cables are available; and (2) the display tilts, but you can't raise or lower it. Not a problem if the monitor stands freestyle on a desktop, but might be a problem if you're trying to fit it under a shelf. All in all, I would give it five stars.