1970s Stagg SD37F "Hummingbird" Dreadnought Guitar

How many Hummingbird clones have I seen? Lots! This is the first one I've seen with "Stagg" branding, though. It's a Japanese-made, all-ply, x-braced guitar and handles about the same as a Hummingbird in feel and size and scale. It even had an adjustable saddle (but not the ABR style of '60s 'birds) to begin-with.

The owner wanted better playability and a fixed, drop-in bone saddle, so that's just what it got. The result? Well, a little more volume but also better intonation, too. A lot of these all-ply '70s Japanese guitars tend to sound pretty good -- sort-of Yamaha-like -- up-front, so small tweaks and setup changes to dial them in just make them sound better.

Will it do chord-strumming just fine? Sure! Will it do fingerpicking alright? Yup. Will it sound great as a flatpicking melody or fill machine? Well... that's where it starts to get boring-sounding, but c'est la vie.

Does that mean it would serve 99% of guitarists perfectly-well as an acoustic? Yes, sadly, it's true! ...and it will do it without you ever needing to worry about the body splitting from low humidity or dramatic weather changes. And it looks cool.

Guitars, right?