Donner DST152-W Electric Guitar: Full Review

The Donner DST-152 is an affordable entry-level electric guitar designed for beginners and novice players. This guitar provides a great way to start learning and playing electric guitar without breaking the bank.

The DST-152 has a classic double cutaway shape with a basswood body, maple neck, and rosewood fingerboard. It is available in 3 attractive finish options - vintage sunburst, black, and white. While it does not boast premium tonewoods or high-end appointments, the DST-152 offers everything a new player needs to begin their musical journey.

This starter electric guitar from Donner includes two humbucker pickups for a thick, rich sound. It also comes bundled with useful accessories like a gig bag, clip-on tuner, strap, picks, and an amp cord. Overall, the Donner DST-152 provides fantastic value for money with its quality construction, playability and genuine hardware. It's the perfect choice for new guitarists ready to buy their first electric guitar.

Body & Neck

The Donner DST-152 electric guitar features a solid basswood body paired with a maple neck. Basswood is a common choice for budget-friendly electric guitars as it provides a balanced tone and smooth feel. The basswood body helps produce clear low end and bright highs. It also contributes to the guitar's lightweight design, making it comfortable for extended playing sessions.

The maple neck offers stability and sustains notes well. Its slim, fast profile allows for easy shredding up and down the fretboard. The neck has a smooth satin finish that lets your hand glide effortlessly during solos and riffs. Overall, the basswood body and maple neck make for a great pairing that provides versatile tone and excellent playability.

When shopping for an electric guitar, it's important to consider the combination of woods used for the body and neck. Different wood types affect the tone and feel in unique ways. Basswood is known for its balanced and clear tone while maple provides crispness and sustain. The Donner DST-152 utilizes these woods to deliver great bang for your buck.

If you're looking for a more high-end guitar in this price range, check out the Mad About MA-CG02. This model features a mahogany body and maple top for slightly warmer tones with excellent clarity and articulation. The mahogany adds some midrange punch and sweetness to the sound. The maple top helps balance out the lows and highs. Overall, the Mad About MA-CG02 provides gorgeous tone thanks to its premium wood combination.

When researching electric guitars, carefully read details about the types of wood used. Basswood, mahogany, maple, alder, ash, and poplar are among the most common. The densities and characteristics of each wood affect the sound and feel. If possible, try out guitars with different wood makeups in person at a music store. This will allow you to hear the tonal differences for yourself. An informed decision will help you end up with a guitar you truly love playing.

Pickups Provide Versatile Tonal Options

The Donner DST-152 electric guitar comes equipped with a humbucker pickup in the bridge position and a single coil pickup in the neck position. This versatile pickup configuration allows for a range of tones perfect for rock, blues, country, and more.

The bridge humbucker pickup outputs a warm, thick sound with emphasis on the low end and mids, great for rhythm playing and heavier rock/metal styles. It uses ceramic magnets to produce high output and sustain. The single coil neck pickup has a brighter, twangier tone focused more on the mids and highs, suitable for lead playing and cleaner genres like country, jazz, and blues.

Having both humbucker and single coil pickups makes this guitar exceptionally versatile. The 5-way pickup selector switch allows you to choose between the humbucker, both pickups, the middle single coil, and the neck single coil. This makes it easy to go from a growling rock sound to a sparkling clean tone within seconds.

Overall, the Donner DST-152's pickups provide a wide spectrum of tones making this guitar suitable for players of all styles and genres. The combination of the high output humbucker and crisp single coil give you the best of both worlds - thick distortion and bright cleans.

Another great versatile electric guitar option from Donner is the Donner EC1277 DLP-124B. This guitar features a double cutaway design with a basswood body and maple neck for balanced tone. It comes equipped with two humbucker pickups that can handle anything from heavy metal to blues rock. The 3-way pickup selector switch allows switching between the neck pickup, bridge pickup, or both. Tone and volume knobs provide additional tonal shaping options. This Donner electric guitar gives you the ability to sculpt a wide range of distorted and clean tones perfect for rock, metal, blues, jazz, and more. The slim neck profile and low action make soloing and shredding a breeze while the locking tuners keep it in tune through intense performances. If you're looking for an affordable, versatile electric guitar that can handle an array of genres, the Donner EC1277 DLP-124B is an excellent choice.

Hardware###Impressive For The Price

The Donner DST-152 electric guitar comes equipped with decent hardware considering its low price point.

The bridge is a standard 6-saddle hardtail design that gets the job done. It's nothing fancy but holds tune reasonably well and intonation is accurate. The chrome tuners are also pretty basic but do their job keeping the guitar in tune.

As for controls, the Donner DST-152 keeps it simple with one volume and one tone knob, plus a 3-way pickup selector switch. The volume and tone pots feel solid and have a smooth taper from 0 to 10. The pickup selector switch allows switching between the neck pickup, both pickups, and bridge pickup configurations.

Overall the hardware gets the essentials right, especially for a beginner focused guitar. As players progress they may eventually want to upgrade some components, but the hardware is solid where it counts for an affordable instrument.

Playability

The Donner DST-152 electric guitar scores high marks when it comes to playability. The neck has a comfortable C-shape that fits nicely in the hand, even for smaller fingers. It's not too chunky like some beefier necks can be. The fretwork is also quite good, with smooth and rounded fret ends that don't scratch or poke.

The neck is made of maple with a rosewood fretboard, a common and well-liked combination. The rosewood feels smooth to the touch. The action on this guitar is set fairly low out of the box, which makes it easy to press down the strings and play chords or single notes without too much effort. Lower action usually equates to better playability for beginners and intermediate players.

The hardware on the Donner DST-152 poses no issues for playability. The sealed diecast tuning machines keep the guitar in tune nicely. The nut width is a comfortable 1.65 inches, providing ample room for picking and fingering chords up the neck. Overall the Donner DST-152 electric guitar hits all the right notes for playability.

Sound

The Donner DST-152 electric guitar produces a versatile range of tones that punch above its price class. The dual humbucker pickups provide thicker, warmer output compared to single coils, with decent sustain and bite when needed.

The neck pickup produces a smooth, rounded tone perfect for jazz, blues and clean chord work. Switching to the bridge humbucker adds some snarl and bite for rock riffs and solos. There's enough warmth and low end to handle heavy distortion without getting too muddy.

While the pickups don't have the nuanced texture of USA-made models, they capture the spirit of classic rock and metal tones. The 5-way selector switch lets you blend the pickups, with the 2 and 4 positions offering useful in-between sounds.

Overall the Donner impresses with its tonal versatility given the budget price point. It covers a wide range, from warm jazz tones to aggressive metal crunch. The sustain is decent thanks to the fixed bridge and quality tuners. A versatile guitar that punches above its weight for rock, blues and metal.

Accessories

The Donner DST-152 electric guitar comes with several useful accessories for new players. It includes a padded gig bag for safe transportation and storage of the guitar. The gig bag has adjustable straps and a front pocket for small accessories.

For picks, Donner includes 5 celluloid medium picks (0.71mm) to get started playing. Extra picks are always handy to have when starting out in case one gets dropped or lost.

A guitar strap also comes included, which is essential for standing up and playing guitar comfortably. The strap is adjustable from 45 to 55 inches and has quality stitching and padding for secure fit.

To keep the strings clean and help tune stability, Donner provides a polishing cloth and chromatic clip-on tuner. The soft polishing cloth can remove dirt, oil, and grime from the strings after playing. And the tuner conveniently clips onto the headstock for quick and accurate tuning.

To get started playing right away, the accessory pack has all the basics covered for a beginner guitarist. Having a case, picks, strap, cleaning cloth, and tuner included provides good value.

Pros

Donner's DST-152 electric guitar offers several advantages that make it a great value for the price:

• Quality materials: The basswood body and maple neck provide a solid feel and balanced tone. The rosewood fingerboard is smooth and comfortable for playing.

• Versatile pickups: The two humbucker pickups offer a range of tones, from crisp and bright to thick and heavy. The 5-way selector switch allows for combinations like single coil sounds.

• Hardware and tuners: The chrome hardware, including the tune-o-matic bridge and diecast tuners, is durable and helps keep the guitar in tune.

• Included accessories: It comes with useful extras like a gig bag, strap, picks, and an amp cord. This makes it easy to start playing right away.

• Affordable price: For a beginner or intermediate player, the DST-152 offers great value with its quality components and hardware. It competes with more expensive guitars.

Cons

• The pickups are quite noisy and can generate hum, especially when using high gain distortion effects. They don't deliver the clearest sound. Upgrading to higher quality pickups could significantly improve the guitar's tone.

• The hardware like the bridge, tuners, and tremolo are budget parts. The bridge doesn't stay in tune that well when using the tremolo arm. The tuners can sometimes slip out of tune too. Replacing some hardware could improve stability and tuning.

• The neck is quite thick and substantial. This can make fast lead playing and shredding somewhat awkward, especially for players with smaller hands. The thick gloss finish on the back of the neck can feel sticky during faster playing too.

• The tone controls are very simple, with just one volume and one tone knob. Those seeking versatile tone shaping may want additional controls like a coil split option or separate volume controls for each pickup. The lack of switching options limits tone versatility.

Conclusions

The Donner DST-152 electric guitar starter kit provides an excellent value for those looking to begin their guitar journey or have a backup instrument on a budget. With its basswood body, bolt-on maple neck, and dual humbucking pickups, it offers a versatile array of tones well suited for rock, metal, blues, and more.

The hardware is decent quality for the price point. While the tuning machines could be a bit smoother, they get the job done. The fixed bridge also does its job reliably. The bundled accessories add convenience, providing everything needed to start playing right out of the box.

Overall, the Donner DST-152 is recommended for beginner and hobbyist players looking for an affordable, playable electric guitar with classic looks and a diverse tonal palette. More advanced guitarists may want to look at instruments with higher grade components and electronics. Alternative guitars to consider in a similar price range include the Epiphone Les Paul Special II or Squier Bullet Stratocaster. However, the Donner DST-152 is hard to beat when it comes to value for money.