Blueridge BR-40 Contemporary Dreadnaught Guitar

I'm a music industry professional, teacher, performer, songwriter. Recent travels took me to North Carolina where I played the BR-40 and absolutely loved it. I had played dozens of guitars in showrooms along the way and this was hands down the best sounding guitar I played. I was shopping in the $1000-1500 range, but this far less expensive guitar had impressive tone. I brought a chromatic tuner and checked the fretted notes. Intonation is flawless on all but the 6th string, which becomes slightly sharp on higher frets. This is easily corrected by a decent luthier who can file the saddle to shift the end point for that string.

The appearance was very clean and the finish was nice, although not completely glassy on the top, i.e. some slight grain texture apparent in the finish. I assume they kept the coats thin on the top to keep it light and responsive. The back and sides have a great gloss that is indeed glassy and smooth. The entire guitar is very light and you can tell...Read more

I grabbed one of these today, and I was totally blown away by it. I played Martins, Taylors, Eastmans, and even more expensive Blueridges, all with the same strings, and none of them had rich mids like this one. Most acoustics seemed to be voiced for heavy bass and treble, but this one is just nice and full, without being overly boomy or weak. Extremely loud, too.

Not wanting to risk my Martin D-18 Vintage in the cold and the heat when I have to leave my guitar in the car for a few hours, I picked up a BR-40. For what they cost they are a heck of a deal. While it cost about ten percent of my Martin D-18 Vintage(I paid $236 in Dec 2010), it delivers about fifty to sixty percent of the performance. To me that is a mighty fine tradeoff. If you really try to crank on it, it comes up short to my Martin but even with that being said, it is a great guitar for the next to nothing it costs. I would recommend one to anyone who is starting out or who is looking for a guitar to play around the fire, or at the beach, etc. I don't know how they can make a guitar for this little money. I would guess the compensation packages in China are similar to what Martin was paying - in the 1930's!
If on the other hand you are an experience player looking for a full time guitar I would consider something in the BR 140-BR 180 or higher range