Review of the Baton Rouge X1S/DCE Dark Hole Acoustic guitar. Where to buy it?

Bought this guitar as an upgrade to my older begginer-intermediate guitar. I am not a professional musician, so if You’re reading this review thinking to replace a 5K euro Taylor guitar for the BR, I recommend going to a music store and get Your hands on it before taking that decision.

The Good about the guitar:
* The price – at 399 Euro, I thought this was a very good price for a solid’ wood instrument – so it ticked that box for me straight away. The guitar is just perfect size and weight for me. I was a bit’ worried about moving from 43 mm (previous guitar) nut width to 46 mm (on this BR) – but that, to be honest was a very good change – it is so much easier to play now, especially if You do some picking, as well – I would not want a 43mm again; Also, the guitar scales length is 630 mm on BR (I used the 650 mm before) – but that reflected good for me – I like this setup more now, makes it a bit’ easier to play the guitar.
* The sound – did I mention I was buying this as an upgrade to my older 200 Euro electro-acoustic guitar? Well – after playing the Baton Rouge for just a few hours – I picked my old guitar again and I could not belive the difference in sound – the BR is by far superior – tones are bright and clear and sound resonates much longer. One note – the Batton’ basses (thicker strings) are stronger and louder then what I was used to with my older guitar – so I had to adjust a bit’ my play style – to balance’off the sound level across all the strings.
* The design – I loved this guitar as soon as saw it (I was searching on Thomann for a guitar in the range of 350-500 and came across this BR by chance, did not even know at the time that Baton Rouge is a guitar brand) – I looked up online – and apart from a russian video review and a few videos made by a polish guitar player on Youtube could not find much – so was kinda’ thinking – to buy/to not buy – but am happy to have made the decision and got it.
* The electric pickup – I did not use it much – tested it for about an hour, just to check if it worked. It is good, does what it should. One thing to note – I found a Youtube video for the BR2.1P dual pick-up system – and the guy in the video recommended using the sound "blender" at 13:00 O’clock position, to me it sounds much better at 10:00-11:00 (sound coming directly from close to guitar neck did not feel so exciting when guitar was plugged into the amp, so I balanced more to the bridge pickup); another note – I also had to tighten the plug where electric cable hooks into the guitar as it was pretty loose – but that is a few mins job – if You have a spanner handy). Just make sure You use proper cables when testing the electrics, at first I had a "hiss" noise and thought it was the guitar – but then replaced the electric cable – and all sounds good now (no "hisses" or other strange noises)
* Service from Thomann (including delivery) – I had to wait for about two weeks for this guitar to be available – but that was fine – it was noted on the website about delivery times; then it took 4 working days from DE to IE; packaging – very good – all arrived intact and in good condition. Thomann responded within two working days from the moment I submitted the query on delivery times – so well done on that, also.
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The things to be aware of about the guitar (not bad, just needing attention)
* The tuning pegs (things that spin around for strings tuning) are partially made of plastic (? while they look nice on this guitar, they are made in a combination with plastic; they seem to hold strings tune very well so far – but I think of replacing them in the future for 100% metal ones ,that’s the only reason why I gave 4 stars for quality, the overall build deserves 5 stars)
* Cleaning of the guitar – this will make You laugh – one of the reasons I liked this guitar was for the black MATTE finish – it looks amazing – but I will need to figure out how to clean the fingeprints and the dust off it without damaging the paint-work (I think there are special cleaning products for the matte finishes, will need to read on that). Again – this is not too bad – but will just require a bit’ more attention to keep the guitar nice and clean.
—- Update on this ^ a week later – I found exactly the product that works well for the matte paint (not advertising here the brand – it is called "Guitar Detailer for Matte & Gloss Finishes" – You can find it online – and also a very soft cleaning cloth – again – not advertising the brand – You can find it as "Ultra-Plush Microfiber Polish Cloth"). They do a good job on the guitar matte finish – and protect the paint-work.

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That’s pretty much what I can say about my new "BR X1S/DCE Dark Hole" after having it for a week.
* Would I buy the same guitar again – YES
* Did it meet my expectations – YES, for sure
* Should YOU buy it – Well, donno’ probably Your decision – depends what You have in plan, what is Your budget and what You require from the guitar; to me it ticked <almost> all the boxes.

Thx for stopping by and reading this.
Stay safe 🙂