Grote inexpensive jazz guitar demo (like someone in love, a foggy day, girl from Ipanema)

Pretty much against my principles I recently bought this Grote semi-acoustic guitar on Ebay, just because it isn’t available on retail in European countries. Watching the reviews on YT I was caught by its funny retro appearance and because the instrument was on sale for – as we Dutch say – “een scheet en drie knikkers” (a fart and three marbles) I figured it wouldn’t do too much harm to my bank account if I acquired one. It was clearly stated in the reviews that although you get a lot of guitar for a ridiculous low amount of money the instrument obviously has its limitations, of which the most, however, can be fixed through minor adaptations, which is also demonstrated in the reviews. So far I only replaced the factory strings by a set Thomastic 0.10 jazz guitar strings and I removed the pick guard for reasons of playing convenience, saving the rest (i.e. replacement of top nut, tuning pegs, tone pot and repositioning pickup) for later. The lack of response in the lower position, as can be heard in this demo, is a shortcoming one has to live with, I guess. For further details check out the reviews done by fellow musicians:

   • GROTE Jazz Guitar - Review/Revisiting...  
   • GROTE Hollow Jazz Guitar: six month f...  
   • Grote Jazz Electric Guitar Semi-Hollo...  

On this demo I play three jazz standards, viz. like someone in love (van Heusen/Burke), a foggy day (Gershwin/Gershwin) and girl from Ipanema (Jobim/de Moraes).

Cheers,

Martin

p.s. link to follow-up video:    • Grote not so inexpensive anymore jazz...