I am currently working at a small store/studio that sells Crafter guitars.
First thing: I was just recently told that Crafter may be no more.Or at least having to stop making some of their stuff. There is talk that Fender was suing them since Crafter's acoustics and acoustic/electrics are "too similar" to Fenders stuff. Also, Hohner, which was making a bowl shaped guitar, very similar to the Ovation Celebrity series (different sound hole patterns, but really, really nice guitars!) for copyright violations, etc,etc.
Now, that being said. The Crafter acoustic/electrics, the DV.TV series and the SM series are really super nice guitars for a decent price. I have played one of the TV and one of the SM series each. The tone was quite nice. Full sound, not too bass heavy, strong high end. Plugged in sounded very good. Clear definition. Very nice feeling and action on the neck. Quality of workmanship...I could find no flaws anywhere. Unfortunately, these are some of the ones being questioned in the lawsuit, so they may be disappearing soon.
The SA...well, I was excited when I saw that on the web site.
But when the Company rep brought one in....I was very disappointed in the playability and the sound. Sound, both acoustic and electric, was sad.
The playability was very stiff. The action was way too high for me. True, that can be adjusted, but it still felt very stiff. The strings felt like you had to really hit them to get any sound out of it.
The pickups....eh, well, the bridge pickup sounded like an inexpensive piezo pickup. The other Crafter pups sounded Far superior to what this sounded. The "electric" pup was a disappointment, too. It sounded too similar to the bridge pup. I tried it plugged into a guitar amp, then into a PA system. Thing sounded the same.
So, I'd rather go for the new Ibanez Montage if you were thinking of a guitar that can do both electric and acoustic tones.
Or, the Epi Les Paul Ultra II. It's the one that has a low impedance pup embedded in the last spot on the neck near the neck PUP, so you can get acoustic tones from that. Don't know how much that is though.
But, personally, I was very disappointed in the Crafter SA guitar. I really liked the SM and the TV models, though.
Sorry I don't have anything positive about the SA, but I thought you'd rather hear something from a first hand experience whether it be good or bad. Wouldn't want you throwing your hard earned money out for something you'd regret.
Hope this helps.
