IMPRESSED WITH A $200ish DONNER? - Afford-A-Strat score card against the Xavier and Fender Player +
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ส.ค. 2022
- Donner DST-400 (Use code : 05EGUITAR for 5% off up until sept 20th) amzn.to/3pytkjs
Donner sent me their DST-400 fat strat style guitar and then ASKED ME TO COMPARE IT TO THE FENDER PLAYER PLUS! That takes a lot of guts imo. So I decided to shoot it out against the Fender and the winner of the Afford-A-Strat series of videos the Xavier.
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Regarding the copper claw:
When plating the base metal for any nickel or chrome parts, there is typically a copper plating stage applied first. This allows the nickel, chrome (or whatever) to have a better final finish.
However the nickel/chrome rejects solder whereas copper can be soldered to easily.
Typically when soldering to the claw (or to humbucker covers) you'd have to scratch through the top plating to reach the copper layer, allowing the solder to adhere and make a connection.
Donner seem to have just skipped the final nickel/chrome plating step and left it at the copper plating stage which is easier to solder to.
Pshhh... uh, yeah, what HE said... 🤓🤔🧠🤯
Can always trust Colin to ensure we have all the details. Keep being Colin, Colin
You said the Donner QC was the winner but when you marked it, you gave the Xavier the "1". That gives the Donner the #2 spot on the objective portion.
That's Rusty for you. haha
Sick playing dude! I enjoy the more linear opening jams, they really let your playing shine.
I agree that was your best playing yet :)
Agreed - so much better and more revealing than all the usual crunch and overdrive that's used in guitar demos.
For QC, you said the Donner was the winner but gave the winning point to the Xavier.
Just noticed that too
Yeah Ryan Jeeeze
Why in the far-away hills of Led Zeppelin is *this* the top comment on this video??? That was just a little tip for Ryan and I wasn't expecting it to be this... ahem... "popular".
Thank you for pointing it out. I noticed it right away. Lol
He's so caught up on the fender bender, I hate fender strats, their over rated and the price of them are not worth it, get a G&L Legacy, U.S or the Tribute series the cadillac of fenders. The Donner looks more neater and sounds great.
Two Christmases ago my son asked for the Donner (in red) from his Grandmother. None of us know anything about guitars so she bought it for him. She paid $150 on Amazon. He has been using it ever since and loving it. We haven’t done much in terms of modifying it, just having it professionally set up and restrung. It seems to be well built and sound nice. He liked it so much last year he asked for one of their 3 in 1 pedals and has been loving that too.
I had already bought the Donner to months ago based on reviews by some other TH-camrs, so you have confirmed that my money was well spent. My other guitar is an Epiphone semi homebody (Riviera P93), so a very different feel but a nice sounding stray-type guitar.
I got mine from Donner for $200.00 bucks. I just waited for the right discount code from the website. They are constantly having discounts. I really enjoy the guitar. It sounds as nice as my Squire Contemporary.
Someone's probably mentioned it (haven't scrolled through all comments), but the answer to screw-in trem bar issues is these tiny little springs that Fender themselves make. You just pop one in the hole, screw in the arm, and it stays put! It's like 8 bucks for a pack of 4.
As for Donner, I've liked their products for a while now. I've had three of their guitars, all well above average for the price. They tend to have better accessories too, for those that like those things. Their cables, gig bags, strings, capos, etc. are all surprisingly good, and free with the guitar usually.
And kudos for at least trying "Cissy Strut" by the way. Love the Meters, especially that early stuff.
Great info on the trem :Fender makes the screw in springs..thanks,!
Fender is heavier because it’s carrying the weight of the name on the headstock 😂
Awesome Intro Jam, one of my favorites, amazing Demo/Review/Showdown Video. Thankyou.
Adjusting the scores for the goof on QC, my opinions that some of the objectives could have been ties rather than differences, and the fact that the Donner is the most visually pleasing to me, my winner is the Donner.
The Fender isn't even in the competition for me though, due to budget anyway. ;) I've never played a guitar that expensive (because why bother if I'm not willing to pay that much), but I never get the impression from reviews that the things that make them nicer would sway my penny-pinching nature enough to convince me to purchase them. I imagine I could be swayed under the $500ish range though (maybe even to $600), but more than that would have to actually be measurably be a 3x (or more) better guitar, to me, for me to spend that much money. I can't imagine that I'd have 4x to 5x more fun playing the Fender versus either of these other two.
Awesome guitar playing on the intro, buddy!
On the pickguard comparison, I noticed some differences on the Xaviere. They use a different bolt pattern. Xaviere has 3 fewer screws than the other two. Also, the neck pickup on the Xaviere looks closer to the neck pocket than the other two. Donner and Fender looked the same to me; the only exception being the double left screws needed for the wide-range humbucker vs the usual single left screw for the zebra.
It's nice to see you expanding your skills. Gives this basement dad in a rut some hope.
Wow, those lessons have paid off. Keep up the good work.
I enjoyed this. And dude. Your playing in the intro. Nice! Very impressive playing. I figured you could, but it was something I could have listened to for a few minutes. Really. Looking forward to hearing and seeing if more builders will let you do comparison.
Nice démo, thanks for Sharing with us👍
You gave the neck pocket win to the Xavier instead of the Donner.
At 35:10 you said the Donner is going to get if for QC, neck pocket fit, but you put the number "1" in the Xavier column, and gave Donner a "2" instead. Is that what you intended? I think you gave the Player Plus way too many best scores. The guitars were very close on many features and their subjective qualities. Maybe it would be a better comparison to give marks where they did not pass a certain standard of excellence, as so many features were a coin toss in difference. 🤷♀
In the end, both the Donner and Xavier are very good guitars and an affordable price. Thanks
That Source Audio Reverb really drips!! Exciting review!
Beautiful playing Ryan =) Love your show , Love cheers
Wow Ryan that was the best intro playing i have heard you do, beautiful!
I'm 66 trying to teach myself some doodling, that intro inspired me more. I'm going listen to it again. Thanks young man.
Good video. You might want to revisit the unboxing video for Xavier. I remember you having QC issues with it out of the box. (The nut on the input jack wasn't threaded on)
I am not in the market currently for a guitar but I tell you what that color is really nice and when you said it was semi-transparent I dig it.
I absolutely adore the opening music... Thank you for bringing that into the world.
I had one arrive a couple of weeks back now and overall highly impressed with the quality and playability straight out of the box. I’m no pro and I find this guitar really has a lot going for it for the price range.
Thanks for checking out the Donner. I've been a fan of some Donner pedals and have wondered if the guitars are the same level of quality.
Great intro Ryan! Dig the tone!
I bought a Donner dst400 just like this one a few weeks ago. With the online discount I paid $187 delivered. The low e string had an open buzz. Tried to raise it up and found that the screw legs in the stamped metal string saddles were not stable. They splayed out when screwed down farther. I bought a set of solid metal saddles on Amazon for 17 bucks and put them on myself. I'm not a guitar tech at all, but I was able to figure out how to do it. The slotted tuning pegs turned out to be a good thing, because I didn't have to put on new strings. It took me about 2 hours to make this change and then to adjust all the string heights and adjust all the intonations. The new saddles fixed the buzz problem. Right from the beginning I LOVED the sound of the neck pickup. The middle pickup sounded okay, but the bridge pickup sounded wimpy in both single and double coil modes. I raised up all the pickups closer to the strings. The little chord chart card that comes with the guitar is a measurement gauge on the other side. It was useful for lining up the pickups. I also used it for adjusting the string heights on the fretboard. That is all I have done to set up this guitar. It sounds really great now on all the pickups. Even with the work I had to do, it is a terrific bargain for the money.
Great comparison but I would have liked to hear some distortion in the bridge humbuckers as a additional test.
Donner all the way. I have a $1200 American strat that I had to fix a lot of fret hights and a full populated pickguard @$350. I have 2 other donner guitars that needed less work, changed pups and still were sub $350.
Holy crap! What a great demo. 👍
Hi Rayn, What's the name of solo you played in the beginning?
a great introduction of strat comparison. Enjoyed your video.
Well, I was saving up to buy this guitar but after this video I don't expect any to be left. Thanks
Yup. See also: Eart.
That’s a nice shade of Irish Green. I think I’ll add this one to the stable. 💚
Damn dude you took that video " why I suck at guitar " to heart .....shredded the opening my dude !
42mm nut width, yes, alnico pickups on this one. Great deal. Ive been happy with my Donner purchases. Quality for the $$. Great review and great into playing Ryan, enjoyed it! Do that more, soon you'll be up there with Pete Thorn and RJ. 😊
Dude that intro you played was so nice.
Great video, and nice playing! It seems to me that you’ve challenged yourself to step up yo’ game. By God, I think I’ll do that too!
I have a Squier SSH Stratocaster...I love it, would buy it again. With that said, I like the Donner Strat style guitar. For the money, I feel it's the best bet. If Fender wants to justify their high price, they need to step up their game. For me, their paint jobs are average at best but understand, I used to paint Merecedes Benz and Jaguars for a living in my younger years, so I find Fender paint jobs to be quite boring.
I have a Donner strat and think its a great starter, travel, and backup guitar. Being a Strat style also easy to mod out. If you want it to sound more like a Fender just get one of their Preloaded picguard. After that throw some locking tuners on her change out the block and strings and put her on stage lol.
Wow that opening jam was fire!
Maybe instead of a ranking system you could just award 1-3 points and then compare totals at the end. I could tell there were many times you wanted to not rank one lower or higher.
I gave up trying to follow his cockamamie rating system. lol
Ye 1-3 would have been easier to score at the end
I’ll pick the Fender, but if I wanted to save money for the price I like the Donner, I like the head stock of the Donner etc.
Great review of these guitars bro.
Great video! Well done…you should more series like that…Les Paul affordable type , semi hollow etc…
Isn't this basically what the whole channel is?
I would buy the Donner and do a pickup change out. I think overall the Donner and Xavier blow the Fender in the weeds when you factor cost in.
Donner pick-ups are great...sound exactly like Fender Vintage Noiseless P.U.s, plus the coil-tap humbucker. Love it.
Ryan are you going to take a look at Donner's tele?
Thanks for the video its an interesting comparison. Do you know if you can swap the Donner neck for something the easily fits in a standard neck pocket?
Lord have mercy. Before D.B. made his vid on these, you could find them for around 170 USD, if you shopped around.
I am not a luthier, but my understanding of wood is that two different types of wood might expand and contract at different rates depending on humidity. It would make sense to leave a tiny space in between the neck and sides of the body to allow for natural expansion. I wonder if the guitar is more likely to get the dreaded finish crack near the neck joint if the neck is too snug and it expands faster than the body. Just a thought.
Not sure but I have heard that basswood makes for more homogenous wood growth and is easy to work with / easy to achieve the same quality if you process it on a large scale. But I have also heard that its generally a softer wood that is more prone to dents, breaks compared to alder or ash. I couldnt care less about the tonewood aspect to be honest, but from a building perspective its important to know about the differences.
excuse if youve ever discussed this before but ive watched like A LOT of your videos and i havent seen it.... My 95 American Strat came with a little spring that drops down in the trem arm hole. it keeps back tension on it so it stays where you leave it. Is this something youve seen or tried? i know your teflon trick is your thing but i use these little springs in the hole and it keeps the arm where i left it within reason.
Hey would you say the Xavier and Donner compare to like a Classic vibe well?
What an intro jam. 👏
Great video! Thanks for the shootout. But for the neck pocket you said that the Donner won, but you put the "1" in the Xavier's column. Also, since the lowest score wins, not rating the Xavier for the bridge humbucker is giving it a zero, essentially makes it the winner of that round.
Ooh ho! That was the Meters Cissy Strut noice!
sweet comparison!
my green donner was on sale at 169 last fall...and with a "coupon code" it was 145 shipped!
on mine the rear coil is on when split...
i added a "gillmour switch" and now have 14 tones to work with! the wiring looked so good i didnt want to "buck it up" lol!
only way the front coil of the hb works is in hb mode...and yes the block is aluminum...the body on mine is laminated but i like it anyway woooo!
to me the rear coil on the hb has a "twang" like a tele....and paired with the neck you get super sweet "chirp"!
maybe that might be another comparison test....gillmour mod match!
Hey I saw your video cratefetish316. Please do a tutorial on installation of the Gilmour Switch! I wanna add that on mine too. Thanks
@@_thevaporz heres the vid that showed me how to wire it:
th-cam.com/video/EV6G57KLSl4/w-d-xo.html
i hope its ok with mr hum that i put this link here...
That intro jam was gorgeous. Also, I need a guitar in that color.
Donner says the pickups are alnico. They don't say which variety of alnico. You are not easily impressed so I think I may buy one of these. Thanks for the review. Will there be more afford -a-strat reviews? Fender makes a tiny spring that goes into the tremolo arm hole before screwing the arm in which solves the tension problem.
You should note that the Xavier guitars use the quickplug system so pickup swaps have no soldering involved... points to them on that. I wish more would adopt that system as well.
What? Negative points. Solderless is crap
I bought my Donner DST 400 for $165 during the holiday sale 2022. Absolutely love it. I have the black one and it's transparent black .
Are the Donner strats a re-branded copy of Jet JS-400 guitars? or vicevesa?
I'm a bass player and playing guitar is just something I do at home. I've been through a bunch of budget guitars from cheap Chinese copies to Harley Benton to Squier. Finally allowed myself a Fender Telecaster from the Player series and while some of those budget guitars are nice and have been getting better in last few years, they just don't get close to the Fender. Yet. I think if Harley Benton would introduce a line of guitars that have upgraded hardware, they could seriously compete against the Player Series Fenders.
i agree but the player series weigh a ton!
Ryan, the XV-875 HSS Xaviere would challenge the Player Series, of course, IMHO. I will probably get a XV-830 dual rails tele and in due time, a XV-875. But maybe I will do it the other way around. Would you like me to compare? I have a pimped out Sonic Squire that compares to a Player series as well, maybe get a better insight of the GFS lineup?
I'm here from the not-too-distant future to relay that at the Amazon link in the description, there is now a $100USD (!!!) coupon on the product page bringing this guitar down from $269.99 to $169.99. In addition, there are promotions you may be able to stack on these.
This typed, if you're happy with the bones, you can upgrade components, such as adding locking tuners or pickups... and still come out at a super low overall price. Nice!
For the pickup scores you can take an average and give them a ranking based on the results. That would give the overall pickup scores of 3 on the Donner, 2 on the Xavier, and 1 on the Player +.
Just picked up the same guitar except in Void Black for $150!! Once they get the Cypress Green color back in stock I'm going to get one of those as well. Killer guitar for an unbelievable price.
I've been really interested in these
I think the Xavier definitely won the neck pickup battle. It just had a nice warmer more pleasing sound. That said all of the pickups sound good. I'm really surprised at the Donner. Very nice for the money !
YOU DONT SUCK ANYMORE ! FANTASTIC INTRO
I just purchased the same Donner DST-400 in green from Amazon with a coupon for a total of $147 + tax with free Prime shipping - love everything about the guitar!
And the bridge test? Not the pickup, the other bridge, the one we throw things off to annoy the trolls. Now that would be a test.
I have this Donner on my list of potential guitars to buy! I wasn't expecting you to review it. Now I'm torn between this and the Harley Benton MR Modern...They both seem like great guitars.
I bought a green Donner a few weeks ago for $300Aud, I have a USA made strat and I love the donner just as much. Gonna buy a black one when the discount code comes up.
@@rickau8457 That sounds awesome
looks like someone commented you can't play. loving the jam
Looking at the Donner headstock, it's the same as the one on JET guitars. Same manufacturer, perhaps?
I had wished there were more videos comparing guitars from different price points rather than in similar, and giving more than just sound demos. There was the cheap vs expensive trend for a bit, but it mostly boiled down to cheapest vs unattainable collector's gem and, once again, was just sound demos.
Mostly due to Ryan saying 'you can kind of tell it's a cheaper X' a lot during cheap guitar reviews I decided to go and get a player tele earlier this year and now it's hard to choose to play anything else I have, especially after opting to put Texas Specials in it.
I do like the idea of more comparisons between price points, as most stuff in the same price range is pretty lateral, but I think it might be hard to actually show what makes a more expensive guitar 'worth it' as a lot of it is how stuff feels.
Great video Ryan I really liked the donner compared to the fender the Xavier was great also as a beginner guitarist I was looking at the squire comtemporary series but those are in the 400 dollar range so i think I’ll get a donner also the whammy bar has a push fit which I thought was a nice modern touch for the money it’s a no brainer.
I use a spring in my wiggle stick hole rather than tape.
Very impressive intro, im sure you answered this. How did you get the organ like sound?
Surfy bear vibe pedal
@@60CycleHumcast Was there a backing track for the violin like sound? Or something like an octave from a reverb pedal?
So about frets, Ryan didn't mention Teh Holy Grail of frets - ISTR one guitar in or near this price range has stainless steel frets. Or maybe the Amazon page said it does, but it doesn't. Don't remember if it was the EART or what, or who reviewed it, I think I saw two review videos on the EART.
But if these budget-priced guitars are gonna have everything, they might as well have stainless steel frets as well. In the 1990s I got a 1975 strat clone, whoever had it before me musta been good, the frets have a lot of wear.
You're An Expert With Nuts!.
You gave the Donner best quality control but, gave it a 2 on the score.
Ryan- the way to calculate a fair comparison is to create an average - dividing the total score by the number of applicable categories. That gives the Player, a score of 1.27. The Donner a score of 2.27. And the Xaviere a score of 2.4. Lowest score wins. The Donner comes in second.
I bought the dst-200, in black. Well worth the 70-something I paid, after coupon. I'd like a size larger fret on it, but these will work. In that one area, I like my Glarry gst170 better.
I mean if it's a choice of which of the 3 to just have I'll always take a traditional strat like that Xavier. Never been big on using single coils with humbuckers, if I want humbuckers I'll grab an SG style guitar. Still though it seems like both the Donner and Xavier are prime for upgrading parts.
Were you rocking a Mel9?
I'm taking a break at 37:58 to say that I disagree with your "modability" score. The Xaviere has a quick-connect pickup wiring scheme for solderless modding. I doubt the others have anything close. That said, if I'm choosing, I'm getting the Donner. I like bridge humbuckers and 2-point vibratos over single coils and 6-points.
i got the dst 200 for 2500 mx on offer and with a coupon applied thats around 126 dollars, after reading reviews and watching videos im excited to get it, will update when received.
If money was no object I would not get any of these, but as there is not enough difference in sound or playability among them, and I have a limited budget, I would take the Donner.
This is a good video.
It's refreshing to see a left hand guy play a right hand guitar. Since guitar is a left hand instrument to start with.
Donner in Gold might be very interesting!🙏🏻
Wow, someone else said it, I think, but an interesting oversight in this comparison is at 36'.00" to 36'15" when Ryan is discussing modding - he holds-up the Xaviere to point out that "obviously" it would be no trouble to change the pickguard, but the Xaviere has LESS SCREW-HOLES! SO, you really can only buy Guitar Fetish's pickguards, unless you're okay with like three holes in your non-Guitar Fetish pickguard having no screw because there is no hole drilled for them.
Holes can be drilled.
What’s the pedals at the beginning jam!”?
That Donner is pretty alright !
To be fair, you should compare the Xaviere XV-875 with the humbucker.
You can get Xavier’s with bridge buckers for ten or fifteen more (than the $210 price of the single, so I am not sure that was fair.
The Amazon website claims the pickups are Alnico 5..
Amahzohn actually has these on sale for $145 right now!!! I had to grab one!
A lot of the chrome-plated parts from a lot of manufacturers is actually copper colored underneath. Fender included.