I wanted a budget-friendly guitar to keep at my girlfriend's place for when I visited. After doing some research, I came across a number of positive reviews about the HB CG-45NS and decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, I have to disagree with those positive reviews. The guitar's quality is almost on par with that of a toy. Just to clarify, I was anticipating an entry-level guitar with its shortcomings, but in my opinion, this is taking it a step too far.
From a distance, it looks decent, but upon closer inspection, I realized that I made a mistake with my purchase.
The rosewood fretboard (which is thermally treated maple wood) is terribly dry and unpleasant to the touch. The deep brown/purple grain color is either stained or painted on and comes off on your fingers (at first, I believed it was dirt, but it turned out to be a pigment).
The bridge is also made of stained wood (and I'm not even sure if it's maple), similar to the ones you would find on a toy guitar for kids. You can see the three-piece construction of the heel at the neck joint. It makes me wonder if they forgot to finish and paint it.
The tuning keys are made of plastic and have a rough appearance. The finishing on the gold-coloured diecast hardware is rough as well, and I believe it's the reason why the G and B strings broke off after retuning copule of times. The saddle and nut are made of plastic, which is acceptable as I wasn't expecting anything more.
Overall, I am extremely disappointed with this guitar (if I can even call it that) and with the reviewers who led me to buy it. It's amusing that the guitar had a QC label indicating it was inspected by a person named Miles. Clearly, the standards for this guitar are quite low. This was my first purchase at Thomann...well...lesson learned. So, I've learned my lesson.
