4:41 PM

Garland,

Great news at last.

Yes you have to make it yours now,
Don't think I've ever seen Chrome open tuners so can't comment.
It's common for new guitars to have an high action, it allows the new owner to set the action they prefer.
The strings on New guitars are pants just use them until you have set the acton up on the guitar.
Hope it grows on you, let us have your review when you have had time to play it a while.
By the way Congratulations on your new guitar.

Derick , Jim , pics? Don't have any except the ones from reverb....I will do a review video later.

I sanded the saddle, took .010in off of it. Needs more.
The nut grooves left somethin to be desired. Not quite wide enough on the low E for it to seat well. The other grooves were less than stellar, in that they looked to be not quite completely filed. I use a mechanical pencil to lube them since it has a very thin lead.
When I went to loosen the strings the high E broke ... oh well, didn't like those anyway.
The pin on the low E doesn't fit well. It was way too tight. Had to literally drive it out from underneath using the side cutters as a hammer. Before reinstallin it I checked the width of the groove. The string at the ball wouldn't lay in it, so, I massaged it til it would. It's better now. I looked for some other pins since I have several sets and none were correct size. I could have used the Ebony ones that came in the Martin 00015M, but they stuck up just a little too much to be pleasin to the eye.

While playin with it before the string change the D string rattled pretty noticeably. I says to me self... hmmmm... whassup with that? Well, the saddle fits in the saddle groove very loosely. So, I made a saddle, for the saddle, from tin foil . I will say the bridge plate wasn't as rough as others I've seen. Not as pretty as the one on the Epiphone, but prettier than others I've seen and the holes weren't all frayed and stuff.

Put Martin Monel 11-52's on.... ahhhhh... sweet, so far. It sounds really good, and the D doesn't rattle...
I tried it plugged in before the string change and it actually sounded pretty decent.

The neck is fat! Nothin like anything I have or have tried when tryin out guitars.
It's a bit difficult to chord because I have smallish hands. The C chord is difficult if you can believe that... I had/have trouble with the high E and B string frettin...gonna take some adaptin on my part.

Over all, first take: I'm disappointed in the issues mentioned above, but am likin the sound. Oh, the tuners are Grover, so it has that goin for it too... the lack of quality control checks, or a lazy checker, or just bad specs seems to be the order of the day... it must have been built on a Monday

Garland ,

Removing .010" from the saddle will reduce the action at the12 fret by.005".

If the nut groove is not wide enough, use a short piece of the string as a file.

If pins are tight to remove, after removing string from tuner, push string down in to guitar body first at the pin, then remove the pin, if still tight, string winder has pin extractor usually.

What you got to remember it's 1/4 of the price of the Gibson model, and I've heard people complaining about the Gibson having more faults than the ones you have mentioned.

That's why I said you have got to make it your own, or as recommended with any new guitar disregarding make, have a professional set up it can be well worth it.

With reference to the neck profile, not much you can do about that, but you should be able to get used to it quite quickly, it just takes a few hours of play time.

It seems the tuners are better than you first thought.

It sounds good plugged in and Acoustic, fit and finish is fine.

Think you may need a few hours play time to get acquainted with one another, good luck.

Garland,

We are all holding our breath waiting for the video.

What is the action now.

Have you checked and set your neck relief, before lowering the action at the saddle.

Garland ,

With reference to the LR Baggs under the bridge mike pickup, this is something I know absolutely nothing about.

A professional set up should be $50 to $80 all depending on the work required and if new string are included.

If your action is 7/64" this is not classed as very high, it may be higher than what you want, but this height should not make it hard to fret.

If you put a capo on the first fret, then play the guitar all over the fret board, if it's still hard to fret, it will not have anything to do with the nut, as you will have cancelled it out by fitting the capo.

If you want to check the nut height, fret the fat E string at the third fret, you should now have a gap at the first fret of around .018" (18 thousands of an inch.)

Hope this is a bit of help,.

  just do the video when you are ready no rush.

Garland,

Enjoy your open Mike tomorrow.

Garland ,

Think I've got it the right way round.
The longer scale length needs more tension to tune to pitch.

The one thing that may feel different, is the nut width, you may be used to 1 11/16" your new guitar has a nut width of 1 3/4" it should not be any harder to fret but may feel different, most in the Cabin including me, prefer the 1 3/4".

May be you could to the new guitar and the Lag to the open Mike,  and let one of your guitar friends give the new guitar a once over.