Of course the value of any guitar is also in the eye of the beholder. They were considered a good value for a beginner's guitar, but had no value to serious players, as their manafacture precluded the richness in tone and sound that comes from aged solid wood tops and more premium guitar-making techniques, which is what makes premium guitars accumulate most of their increased value as time goes on if they are made well and age well. At the time they sold for around $130, give or take depending on the model. The old preamp-panel has been cut to turn it into trim for the new "sideport." Said new "sideport" works great for the player as it's a lot easier to hear your own instrument mixed with other guitars in an acoustic setting.Lotus made knock-offs of premium brand guitars, from factories which began in Japan, and then were moved to India before the company's general demise. Stringing is changed to "loads-through-soundboard-rear" and the original electronics have all been hacked-out. The original saddle slot is filled and it has replacement, oddball, screw-style saddles now. Truss rod: adjustable but essentially maxed-outĬondition notes: it's a bit beat-up with some finish chipping/flaking where it's been bumped-around here and there. String gauges: roughly 90w, 75w, 55w, 35w (stick with a lighter set) Repairs included: fret level dress, electronics yank-out, new K&K Twin Spot pickup install, relocated saddle (individual "screw" saddles, now), cleaning, restring with used lighter gauges, setup.Īction height at 12th fret: hair over 3/32" bass and 3/32" treble In addition, the individual "screw saddles" can be turned to jack action up or lower it further. It's easy-enough to lower/raise action height as-desired because the neck is bolted-on and so can adjust with shims easily. Playability is good and action/feel is pretty average for an acoustic bass guitar. The reason for its decent sound is obvious when you peek in its new "soundport" on the side, too - they're lighter-weight in cut and the flying braces (tonebars, etc.) are all scalloped. I originally though the back and sides were ply maple but I'm pretty sure they're actually solid maple. The vast majority of these are simply "plug in or don't play" instruments.
It's not a high-quality instrument but it's endearing and works better than most ABGs with this Martin-like ABG-style body layout and "feel." With a flatpick it's definitely loud enough to play with your buddies in a smaller acoustic jam, though its vibe is a lot more "piano string thwang" than "boom-boom bass." There are a couple of almost-dead cheapish ABGs in the shop for repair that share this same body and neck style so I'm not telling lies when I say it actually works alright. The neck is bolt-on and, unfortunately, won't adjust totally flat with the truss rod but adjusts flat-enough to play just fine after some trickery during leveling and dressing of the frets. Right - what does one say about this? It's late-'80s or early-'90s, made in Romania (the Hora factory), has a solid spruce top with x-bracing, a 16" jumbo body shape, a long neck supporting a 33 7/8" scale length, and way more sound than I was ever expecting. I played a louder outdoor gig with it and we were gooooood to go.
K&Ks are passive but high-output and pretty feedback-resistant, too. It's a lot more slick and the plugged-in sound is awesome.
#Lotus acoustic guitar update
Update September: I've added a K&K acoustic pickup to this and some bajo quinto-inspired tortoise pickguards.
Above: the plugged-in sound of the K&K pickup
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