By Carlos Martin Schwab
Donner is a Chinese manufacturer of musical instruments for beginners, gear, and accessories for musicians. Born in 2012, it has expanded globally by opening warehouses in Europe and the USA. This electric guitar, presented at Believe In Music 2022 (virtual NAMM), has created many expectations by bringing together features of expensive guitars at an affordable price. You can find many reviews of this guitar, but… The Devil is in the Details, right?
The Donner DST-400 electric guitar is a classic Stratocaster model with an alder body. The test model has a beautiful green translucent high gloss finish, so the alder grain is visible. Its neck is made of AAA Canadian maple with satin finish and C-shaped profile, 25.5” scale, and a classic Fender neck joint with plate (bolt-on construction). The Indian laurel fretboard has a 12“ radius, 22 medium jumbo frets, and silver dot inlays. The headstock shows 18:1 ratio vintage-style split-head tuning machines (meaning that the string can be inserted into the well inside of the tuning peg, keeping the jagged edge of a clipped string safely away from the player’s hands), and two string trees.
This guitar has Alnico pickups in HSS configuration, a 3-ply white pickguard (not so thin), and a 2-point tremolo system with a 3-ply back cover (not so thin). Removing it, the tremolo shows three springs and a pretty thick block made of cold-rolled steel that gives the instrument better clarity, sustain, and stability.
A very interesting detail: the tremolo bar is not screwed, but pop-in, as you can see in very expensive models. The guitar features a coil-split push/pull switch under the bridge tone knob that gives players the choice between the thicker, punchier sound of the bridge humbucker, or the brighter, clearer sound of a single-coil pickup in the bridge position activating only the humbucker upper coil. Added to the standard 5-way pickup selector switch, this gives guitarists two more tonal options to choose from, making this one of the most flexible guitars on the market in this price range.
Before the test, I did the usual setup for new guitars: neck relief (not necessary in this case), strings action, intonation, tremolo lubrication (oil), and nut lubrication (graphite). I needed to change the strings because the factory set (9-42) was really cheap and the guitar didn’t stay in tune. Thanks to the correct relief from factory, I was able to get great low-string action.
With its 7.3 pounds weight, the guitar feels like an expensive Fender Stratocaster. The neck is very comfortable and its satin finish is fast and doesn’t stop your hand. The fret fronts were polished, so no raspy sound from the strings and the fret ends were nice, but with an average treatment. The nut is made of plastic, but there is no pinging sound using the tremolo bar. The tremolo keeps the tuning very well, only affecting the G string in extreme use. The Alnico pickups in HSS configuration give a nice, clear, and articulate sound, being the neck pickup less fat than a Fender Stratocaster. The humbucker is somewhat muddy and dark (something to upgrade if you don’t like its sound) but the coil-split works great.
It’s a great beginner/intermediate guitar. Its coil-split + pop-in tremolo bar + 2-point tremolo system are characteristics I’ve never seen together in any guitar in this price range.
Accessories: gigbag with backpack straps, instrument cable, guitar strap, tremolo bar, and three Allen keys for setup.
Swaps for upgrade: saddles, locking tuners, and a hotter/brighter humbucker.
Price: $259.99, but goes down under $200 with the discount offered by the Donner webshop.
