Saers Guitar A50 Classical Guitar Review – It was my pleasure to test out and add the Saers A50 to my instrument family. This is an excellent choice of instrument at an affordable price point for students and players who need an guitar capable of the musicality and response of the modern player. Saers Guitar have a number of lattice braced models at various prices and upper level guitars with doubletops so check out their website to see the full product line. They also have replica lines of Torres, Hauser, Fleta and Ramirez that are all fully french polished and built with exact specs as the originals.
Saers Guitar Info – Learn more about their guitars at the Saers Guitar Website or see a list of international Saers dealers. North Americans can purchase guitars by contacting Danche Guitars or visiting their Reverb page. Feel free to contact me as well to ask any questions.
Saers Guitar A50 (Summary) – The Saers Guitar A50 is a good guitar for the student or player looking for a instrument at this price point. Nice tone quality with the more open sound of a lattice braced guitar along with good responsiveness and volume is very welcome at this price. The excellent right hand response on the A50 ensures you can bring out musical lines and create a balanced musical texture with ease. Modern features such as the lattice bracing, 12 hole bridge, and high C bring the guitar into the modern market but it maintains a nice sustain and tone with the solid cedar or spruce top and solid Indian rosewood back and sides.
Saers Guitar A50 Specs
- Soundboard: Solid Cedar (also available as in Spruce)
- Back and Sides: Solid Indian Rosewood
- 650mm Scale Length, 52mm Nut
- Neck: African Mahogany
- Fingerboard: Ebony
- Bracing: Lattice
- Truss rod
- Finish: High Gloss PU
- Case: Saers Guitar Hardshell Case
- Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (2023): $1,289
Workmanship – The workmanship is excellent. The guitar I received was flawless and clean both inside and out. The guitar also came to me nicely setup in terms of action. In this price range I appreciate the truss rod as it does seem to ensure quality and consistency in the setup. The tuners were quite nice and functioned well.
Tone – A very pleasant tone with clear and tight basses and round trebles. The clarity versus sweetness of the tone is nicely balanced. I really appreciate clarity so for a guitar in this price range I’m impressed.
Volume/Projection – Good. Full sounding but also clear. The trebles will benefit from a string that projects well to give it some extra ability to cut through but compared to many guitars in the $1000-2000 range I’d say this performs above average.
Playability – Very good. Easy to play and due to the responsiveness of the lattice bracing I was able to bring out whatever voice in the music I needed regardless of which string was needed.
Balance & Responsiveness – For this price the balance is good. Since this guitar has excellent responsiveness (the ability to bring notes out with the right hand) the balance of musical textures was easy to accomplish. The trebles could maybe pop a bit more but that is more of a comparison to the $6000+ guitar so is an unfair comparison. With the right strings and some time with the instrument you can create the balance you are looking for.
No raised fingerboard – Most, if not all guitars in this price range don’t have a elevated fingerboard so this is not a criticism. That said, I think most raised fingerboards on lower priced guitars usually end up not being very helpful. For example, the fingerboard on the Cordoba C12 is really not very raised at all offering only a little benefit to the player but probably raising the price of the instrument by a fair amount. I found playing beyond the 12th fret on the A50 plenty easy and I think it likely keeps the cost of the instrument more affordable. So, it’s probably a good choice here to keep it traditional and deliver the goods elsewhere.
This will be a popular guitar – I’m super interested in guitars in this price range. Professional concert level instruments can range from $5000-$15000 give or take which is an impossible jump for many students and even experienced hobbyists. Luckily, even compared to 20 years ago, students and players have way more options now to buy an instrument that will allow them to make good music and not get left behind when playing next to a more expensive guitar.
Here’s the YouTube review link if you want to watch it there.
Saers Guitar A50 Photos
Thank you for this fine review. I’m looking for a warm yet brilliant sound and playability and like the lattice bracing idea – I’m intermediate and have no plans or the desire to play in public ever. The concert guitars are expensive yes but for me are also difficult to play because of my hand size. I’d really like to get a smaller scale size like your Douglas Scott but don’t want to spend the money. What do you recommend please? Thanks for all that you do. Phil W.
I’ll be reviewing a small-scale guitar from a company that has both fan brace and lattice brace guitars at 630mm so that should be of interest to you.
Where are Saers guitars made
They are made in China. One thing I’ll say about that before others start commenting is that I’ve seen great work and horrible work out of China. Likewise, I’ve seen nice work and horrendously bad work out of Spain. So in the end, it all comes down to the quality control of the company. All politics aside.
Hello Mr. Bradford,
I owned a brand new Cordoba C12 Cedar that I purchased in 2022 for $2,100 at Calido Guitars.
Can you please let me know with all honesty based on your experience, if the Saers A50 Cedar has a better sound projection than Cordoba C12 Cedar in terms of base and treble.
No, the Saer’s A50 is less expensive and therefore of excellent value but to excel over your C12 you would have to go to the Saers A90 I think. Even then though, the C12 is good so I’d consider waiting and getting a single-luthier made guitar.
Considering the information in this review, the Saer A50 has the features I would like. I had been highly considering the Cordoba C10 as a beginning guitar student, until I found your website. Looking at Saers website, the lattice bracing is wooden, not the original scheme of carbon fiber. Saer is listing a relatively new dealer in the U.S., Acoustic Station Central in Oak Park, IL. Do you have any knowledge of doing business with them? At their website, they list a Saer A50, with or without amplification, with no price difference mentioned. My thoughts concerning amplification is to use none in a classical guitar, let the auditorium do its work, and leave microphone recording to the audio experts. Do you agree? Thank you for all the tutorial instructions to help me get started.
Yes, Acoustic Station Central is listed in my article as the main seller. Goran is great, very nice and many people have been happy with his service. He is also the one sending me the guitars for review. I didn’t know that any of the Saer’s had electronics for amplification. I reviewed just the regular one and recommend it. So yes, I agree, go fully acoustic.
Enjoyed your review. I’m a first year student at our guitar academy and looking forward toward “stepping up” with a quality guitar (just ordered mine). You seem like a no nonsense reviewer which helped me decide.
Hope you enjoy it. It’s a good deal for the money, no doubt about that. It doesn’t compare to instruments twice it’s price of course, but it’s worth it and I think will also have excellent resale value if you take care of it.
Very thorough review, nicely done. Thank you.
Just unboxed mine. Thank you for the thorough review. Very light overall compared to what I am used to. Great balance. Construction is just flawless. If I had a gripe it would be that the PU finish is a little thick. Sound is something I’m getting acquainted with. Coming from a spruce top, fan braced guitar the sound of the Saers (cedar/lattice) is noticeably different (in a good way). Looking forward to many hours of playing and thank you for all you do for this community.
Based on your enthusiastic review of the Saers A50C classical guitar along with other favorable online posts, I decided to purchase this model without the benefit of playing it first. Unfortunately, it seems that the dealer might not have set up the guitar properly. Upon first playing it, I found that it had a pronounced buzz on the D-string, especially on the 2nd fret. I took it to a local luthier who replaced the strings (with Savarez 510 MRP normal tension) and the bone saddle, but now the buzz has shifted to the A-string, particularly noticeable on the 3rd fret. Indeed, in its present state, I find that the Saers A50C is not as playable as my old Takamine C-128 with new GHS 2150W hard tension strings. Nevertheless, I am going to try again with a different luthier to see if proper adjustment can enable the Saers A50C to live up to its stellar reputation.
Sorry to hear that, mine came perfectly adjusted, I didn’t need to do a thing. Hopefully it was just bad luck.
After two adjusments by one luthier, I took the Saers A50C to another luthier for a new setup. This latest setup along with changing the strings to D’Addario DJ45 basses and HGN-3T half-set trebles with the hybrid carbon G string resulted in a transformation of the guitar. Playability, tone, and responsiveness are now excellent!
I bought a Cordoba from Calido Guitars, they actually shipped the guitar to me after thoroughly checking it over and lowering the strings a touch but making sure there were no buzzes, they said I could return it if I didn’t like it. I did not, I love my Cordoba. They are a great shop if you intend on buying more guitars in future.
In your case I would have contacted the seller right away and told them they had to fix it or give you another guitar, at their expense. Did you consider that course of action?
@Mike S:
Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, I tried this, but the Saers dealer was not helpful.
Regarding Calido Guitars, I certainly agree. Their customer service is superb. In fact, I am considering purchase of a 630 mm scale length guitar, preferably with a 7/8 (“parlor”) body, and Calido would be my first choice for a dealer.