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I’m a huge fan of Moonstone Guitars.  I consider Steve Helgeson to be one of the three best guitar builders in the world today.  He certainly was ahead of his time with his vision of high quality guitars.  I don’t care for this one though.  It has a beautiful quilted Maple top & back, Mahogany sides and a Maple neck with a sustain block.  How could you go wrong?

Like all Moonstones, this guitar could not have better wood selection and build materials.  The workmanship is flawless and it plays well.  The Joe Barden pickups prove to me once again that they are boomy and overemphasize the low mid frequency range.  I personally feel that these pickups should never have been paired up with this guitar.  The guitar is a bit brash sounding as well.  I also felt that the guitar had poor balance between neck and body weight.  The neck would actually start to dip down if you weren’t holding it.  Ugh.

I really went out of my way to acquire this guitar used.    The original owner was located in Germany (as evidence by the photos).  I ended up trading it for a Moonstone J-90 Eagle acoustic guitar.

Build materials & Quality = 10

Sound = 3

Playability = 8

Appearance = 10

Overall design = 5