Vangoa Twelve String Acoustic Electric Guitar Bundle (VA21CE NT12)

Minus the fret buzz, and mind you I haven’t truly set this guitar up yet, I love this guitar. The value for the cost is phenomenal. Look up some YouTube videos and most people agreed as well.

I have been buying guitars since I was 16 years old. I am now 67. This is one of the best purchases I have made. The sound quality (after I replaced the beginner strings with D’addario strings) was amazing. My Takamini and custom made guitar friends are blown away. I haven’t hooked it up to an amplifier yet but it stands on its own as an acoustic instrument. Buy it!

Nice enough guitar. I’ve always wanted to try a 12 string but couldn’t afford a Yamaha. This is quite good quality for such a low price. The touch is excellent. Just barely off the neck, but enough. The sound is ok. Nothing like my vintage 6 string, but pretty good.
Nice kit. The carry bag is good. The little tuner works. Not thrilled with the capo, but…
All in all, a great deal for $200.

I am disappointed by the quality of the Vangoa 12 string acoustic/electric guitar I received.

I had made my decision to purchase the Vangoa 12 string based on three things: 1. The Amazon description of the item, 2. The overwhelming positive comments I read in the Amazon reviews, and 3. The reviews other guitarists posted on YouTube about their Vangoa 12 string guitars. Much of the Amazon description of the guitar was accurate as were many of the purchaser reviews. The guitar is very nice looking; the sapele finish on mine was basically flawless, and the binding appears perfect. The frets were dressed well – no sharp edges – and there was no “pull away” of the bridge from the body. The gig bag is adequate, and the accessory bag and contents a very nice addition for the price. I can’t speak to the electrics; I did not even get to a point where I would try them.

The problem I have with the guitar I received is that the 18:1 ratio tuning machine heads are, in a word, terrible. Half of them are so sloppy and loose and have so much play in them that I cannot feel if they are tightening/loosening the string. Another one does not turn smoothly but “catches” in the same spot while turning it. (I should add that there is also some amount of buzzing when lower frets are played. But this is something that probably could have been dealt with by making a truss rod adjustment).

I read many, many of the reviews from one star to five, and while some people talked about similar problems, it was a minority and my hope was that Vangoa would have corrected this type of problem just as they seem to have with the finish, fret ends and bridge lifting. I suppose it is possible that I got one that slipped through quality control. But, I have to think that since they string it at the factory, they have to be aware of this problem.

I should also say that in the many YouTube videos I watched with players reviewing their Vangoa 12 string guitars, I largely discounted their commentary regarding construction. This is because most of them receive the guitars from Vangoa at no charge, just for reviewing them online. While most of the reviewers tell viewers this fact and I believe their reviews are likely accurate, it is safe to say that Vangoa is going to make sure that they send them the best instrument they can produce in order to get a favorable review. I did find the videos useful to get some idea of the guitar’s sound quality.

While I had high hopes for this instrument, I cannot recommend it. Especially as a beginner’s instrument I cannot recommend it, because I think a beginner would become frustrated with it and/or learning to play guitar because of it.

Before writing this review I tried, as Amazon suggested, to contact the manufacturer via the link provided. It did not work, going to a “This page cannot be found” message. I will be returning this guitar.

UPATE: A few days after submitting this review, I was contacted by the manufacturer through Amazon. The manufacturer left a message saying that they were sorry there was a problem with the instrument and they wanted to assist me in getting a full refund in the easiest manner possible. The manufacturer was also concerned that the link which I used to contact them was not working, and they asked what steps I used to get to the link. They assured me that they would look into this as they had no reports and were unaware that there was any problem with any link. They later told me that it seems to be an issue with a link provided by Amazon, beyond their control as a third-party seller, but they have already escalated the matter to the seller support center. They asked that I tell others that they can be directly contacted through their website at Vangoa.com and clicking the “contact us” button at the bottom of the page. In short, the manufacturer was as helpful as possible and seemed genuinely concerned about my decision to return the guitar.

I appreciated their helpfulness and replied to them with the information they wanted regarding the link.
A few days later they left another message for me asking to see if the refund had been properly processed and to tell me that they had found the issue with the old link I had tried to use and they had taken care of the problem.

In short, while my initial review stands, (and as I said, it is possible that I may have just received a poor instrument compared to what they usually produce) I was impressed with their desire to want to help me get the satisfaction I was looking for and their swiftness to communicate. In their first contact, they ended their message by saying, “Give us another chance.” I may just do that, maybe not on another 12 string, but perhaps on one of the other instruments they make.

Well made had no problems it takes a while to tune so just change the strings? The strings are not as horrible as some reviewers say but they aren’t great? After a jam session about an hour and a half retuned a lot but now I maybe retune 1-2 strings; honestly a great guitar.

The guitar was sent very carefully and thoughtfully packaged which speaks well for the vendor. I love this guitar! It’s a quality instrument with great resonance and well crafted .A great find for the price.

I’m new to twelve strings, but the sound and action are very good. Looks are also ppealing.