Luna OracleAcoustic/Electric Guitar, Dolphin Review

Luna OracleAcoustic/Electric Guitar, Dolphin
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I purchased this guitar for myself after seeing it on Gold Box for significantly less than MSRP. Before purchasing, I checked out Luna's website and listened to several sound clips and watched videos of some professional musicians playing Luna guitars. I currently own a Taylor 410, and a couple of low-end Yamaha acoustic guitars. I consider myself somewhere between an intermediate to advanced guitar player. I've been looking for an acoustic-electric cutaway, at a reasonable price, for several months. I thought I couldn't go wrong with this Luna at the Gold Box price.
When the "first" guitar arrived, the box had obvious shipping damage (bent in half at the neck area). Upon opening the box, I discovered the top half of the neck snapped completely off, dangling by its strings. These guitars are simply wrapped once around with a VERY thin layer of foam wrap (about 1 mm thick), and stuffed in a cheap, lightweight cardboard box. I couldn't believe a guitar manufacturer would package a guitar with so little padding and protection, and worse yet, that Amazon would ship the guitar in the same flimsy box from Luna (without putting it in another box).
The return process was simple and painless: I provided Amazon with a brief explanation of why I wanted to return the guitar, and this triggered an automatic shipment of a replacement guitar. I printed a pre-paid UPS shipping label, and dropped the package off at a local UPS store.
The "second" guitar arrived about a week later. Once again, the guitar arrived in the same flimsy box, this time with a fairly large hole torn in the outside. I was pleasantly surprised to find no obvious damage to the guitar, however, the neck had a large finish crack on the back near the body of the guitar. This was not shipping damage, but a gross manufacturing defect. At least with this guitar I was able to play it and give it the once-over. The strings were mediocre, and the action was a bit high. Tone quality was marginal. The built-in electronic tuner worked well and the electronics appeared to be decent, although I never had a chance to plug in to an amplifier. The return process was then repeated.
The "third" guitar arrived, again, about a week after the second was returned. This time, the guitar was packaged in a second, heavier box, which was encouraging, although the inside box was not sealed and had been opened. After taking the guitar out and playing it a bit, I thought the third time was the charm. I thought wrong. This time, the finish at the bottom edge of the body looked like it was delaminated and could peel away. The blemish could very well have been from an impact, which makes me wonder if this guitar had been a customer return. While I had the guitar out, I played it just to get a comparison with the second one. It was very similar in sound and playability, with the action also being a bit high. Due to three strikes with three different guitars, I opted not to get a replacement, but requested a refund instead.
At a glance, these guitars appeared to be fairly well made, but fit and finish quality is far from excellent. I would expect a guitar with an MSRP around $600 to be free from dust specks in the finish, and the edge binding should line up well at the seams, and be blemish-free. None of the three Luna guitars I received met these expectations.
In my opinion, this is a risky purchase if you expect excellent quality, durable packaging, and great sound.

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