Received my Replacement Donner Rising G Pro

[DavidE]

This once doesn’t have the rattling resonance of the first, but the action is still very high at 3.5mm on the low e. I feel sorry for a beginner getting one set up like this. I’m waiting to hear from Donner about what they suggest. If nothing, I’m returning it. The Enya for $599 is way nicer AND has electronics.IMG_3628.jpg

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by DavidE

This once doesn’t have the rattling resonance of the first, but the action is still very high at 3.5mm on the low e. I feel sorry for a beginner getting one set up like this. I’m waiting to hear from Donner about what they suggest. If nothing, I’m returning it. The Enya for $599 is way nicer AND has electronics.

Is is something that can be fixed by lowering the saddle height? You said the saddle was very tall--lots of lower end guitars ship with a taller-than-necessary saddle. I guess they figure it's easier to lower it than ship with "low" action that somebody wants to raise. That was true of an Ibanez AC340 I bought a couple years ago--not 3.5mm high, but definitely higher than it needed to be for good action. A little sandpaper took care of things.

[DavidE]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

Is is something that can be fixed by lowering the saddle height? You said the saddle was very tall--lots of lower end guitars ship with a taller-than-necessary saddle. I guess they figure it's easier to lower it than ship with "low" action that somebody wants to raise. That was true of an Ibanez AC340 I bought a couple years ago--not 3.5mm high, but definitely higher than it needed to be for good action. A little sandpaper took care of things.

Maybe. But it would take a LOT of sanding and I’m concerned it may make it nonreturnable. I’ll sit down and compare it to my other carbon fibers and see if it’s worth messing with. But man, they should not go out like this. After I posted, I checked the neck relief. It needs tightening big time.

[Captain Jim]

Originally Posted by DavidE

Maybe. But it would take a LOT of sanding and I’m concerned it may make it nonreturnable. I’ll sit down and compare it to my other carbon fibers and see if it’s worth messing with. But man, they should not go out like this. After I posted, I checked the neck relief. It needs tightening big time.

If they can't be bothered with a decent set-up before a guitar goes out, what else might be off with the build?

[DavidE]

I got it playing really well and it was pretty easy. I tightened the hell out of the truss rod and there's still some relief. Don't think I can get it flat. But the main thing is that they put THREE shims under the saddle. THREE! One very thin and two fairly thick. The action was way too low with all three out, so I tried it with 1 shim and it was still really low. Then I tried a couple of combinations of two and I think it's good to go. I've been stupidly busy, so I haven't played it for a few days. I'll check it out again tomorrow.

It doesn't sound nearly as good as my Enya X4 Pro or my Sable, but I want to compare it to my Journey OF660 and report.

[mountainmaster]

Nice. Hopefully this one is a keeper.

I wonder if these guitars always leave the factory with shims. That would explain a lot. But then they had better put that in a manual in order to avoid returns due to extremely high action.

[steelvibe]

Glad to hear a favorable report on this one! Interesting about the shims. I would think they wouldn't want the reputation of having the action of railroad tracks.