I have one for sale currently.
You would swear that it is all solid; the lam Brazilian just has such an impressive tone. A warm whooosh of bass, with lovely trebles underneath. The bass E string is almost subsonic, it is so deep. Nice that the A & D strings are very present, very strong, too. Anyway, mine is new, I am the original owner, and I'm asking 575.00...just in case anyone might be interested.

That doesn't sound like either of the Blueridges I own and mine aren't even the higher end models. I actually posted this quick video of my BR70 in Show and Tell a few days ago. Prior to buying one of these I never played any laminate dread guitar that was even close in tone. The strings are/ were overdue to be changed though unfortunately.....



http://i537.photobucket.com/albums/f...17/th_BR70.jpg

I have owned a taylor 310, a martin om-28jm, and now a blueridge br-163. I've had the br-163 for several months now and I'm very happy with it. They were all fine guitars, but there really wasn't much difference between the john mayer model which goes for 3500-5000 dollars, and the br-163.

Wer'e talking about very minor differences. Soundwise to me, they are so close, it might as well been another om-28jm off the assembly line. I paid 500.00 for the blueridge used and it had a pickup installed. I don't worry if it will last 40 years at that pricepoint. People buy tvs for crazy prices that last 5 years!

If a guitar speaks to me and I can afford it, I'll get it. But I'll always try out the yamaha's, epiphone's, blueridge's as well if I can save money!!

You're right, the one I played definitely didn't sound like yours. Nice playing...:)

Thanks..... Probably some DUDS out there among the good ones unfortunately.

I find these threads amusing!

Wages may be dirt cheap in China, but the cost of living is dirt cheap too. So it balances out well compared to earning minimum wage in the US and trying to scrape a living in a post-industrial economy like America's.

China is trying to achieve in 30-40 yrs what the US has been doing for at least 100yrs in terms of economic development, so it seems a little hypocritical to me to bash them for their labour practices. If someone wanted to be malicious, they could say "at least we didn't import our slaves from another continent". Of course that would irk a lot of people on this forum (and not fair), but making wholesale stereotyped comments based on faulty assumptions and prejudices about the Chinese is not nice either...

Having said that, that doesn't justify what China does. And, having said that, it takes two to tango. The main beneficiaries of Nixon's approach to China in the 70s were American companies looking to tap into China's reservoir of cheap labour. After all, by that time, labour in Japan was steadily rising and Korea was the on the recieving end of FDI in the pursuit of cheaper labour.

So lets have a balanced perspective here. China is what it is because of FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT. Investment by foreign investors who want to EXPLOIT cheap labour. China facilitates that demand for EXPLOITED labour.

Now...onto the Blueridges. The ones I tried had dead strings. Hard to say if they were good. Then again, I've never liked the Martin sound - granted each to his/her own!

With all due respect I doubt that question will be answered in 25-30 years my friend due to the simple fact that even then opinions will vary. Guitars, tonewoods, tone, strings, saddles, nuts, action, inlays etc. are ALL speculative. What one thinks is beautiful another thinks is gawdy. What one thinks has huge bass response another would say doesn't have enough. One may say Taylor, another Martin.

I think there are numerous people who would say they can answer whether BR guitars are good guitars right now while others will say just the opposite. Some opinions may be based on 1st hand experience while others may be based on things that in the end, have nothing to do with the tone, string response, attack, sustain or clarity of the guitar in question. Some opinions will just be whatever is opposite another to provoke a response. So, in agreement with the latter part of your response....I agree that we ALL should play what we love no matter where it was made because our opinion regarding our guitar is the only one that really matters in the end...just my 2 cents...

Blueridge.... I was put off by the overtop head inlays until I tried one out and WOW was all I can say. Now I am a happy owner of a second hand BR183. This OM not only is loud but sweet sounding too. My larrivee D09 has a rounder and sweeter tone compared to the BR183, but it is still a tad softer compared to the BR183. It is really hard to believe than an OM can be that loud. There is absolutely nothing that I do not like about this guitar even though it is made in China.
To digress, I heard that Farida guitar which is made in the same factory as Blueridge is better sounding and better priced too. If Blueridge is already so awesome, I can't wait to try my hand on a Farida guitar. Anyone had exprience with Farida guitar that they care to share?

Yeppers, I've got a Farida D-62, and its built and sound are solid, especially because its a dred, the sound really 'punches' out, great for heavy strummin' i'd say~:D definitely worth all the cents i've dug out to pay for it!

sorry but your dead wrong. laminated anything isnt against the law. they are not martin knockoffs. guess you dont realize that larrivees copied something from some1.lol sorry had br 140a and larrivees, i will take the br. by far superior to a larrivee anyday of the week. i consider larrivees a knock off of taylor. just cause a foriegn company like canada rips off taylors dont knock chinese guitars. some of the best made. my breedlove has a very light top and its american made. will be here lot longer than your larrivee

Larrivee a "knock off of Taylor"?!

Doesn't look the same, isn't braced the same, doesn't sound the same and the necks CERTAINLY aren't the same..

Rather than trying to compare Blueridge guitars to the "big names", I think it's best to consider them on their own merit. If you find a nice one (as I recently did) that you like, then that's a good thing.

It comes down to one basic idea for me: "Buy what you like -- play what you buy" -- something I've shared many times here before.

I really don't think that one could use the argument that Blueridge are Martin knockoffs, unless you also consider that any manufacturer that builds a dred is also doing the same. Collings, Huss and Dalton, Froggy Bottom, Bourgeois, Taylor, Guild etc. would you accuse them of the same?

As far as quality builders go, there are great, as well as sub-par luthiers in all countries. Even here in the U.S. Just because an instrument is made in China does not make it a bad one. Remember, the Chinese have been making instruments for far longer than Martin. I'm sure they have many talented craftsmen.

The fact is that we live in a global economy. There are good things that come from all the world we live in. We are fortunate, in our time, to have the opportunity to choose from a huge assortment of guitars. All countries carry political and social connotations and pre-conceptions about right and wrong. I think that we need to get past that. Governments don't build guitars.

I like my Blueridge, Taylor and Martin. By the way, where is your cell phone made?

If anyone on this forum truly believes that Blueridge is using "Brazilian" rosewood for their guitars, I have some swamp land in Florida to sell them. :rolleyes:

This thread started in 2007. Not settled yet?