Top notch feel and tone at an overwhelmingly underwhelming price

Alright where do I start? This guitar is one of the most surprising 6-string discoveries I've made over the years and I cannot overstate how much the quality It is said that Sapele is every bit a mahogany, except for minor grain discrepancies, coloring and a tiny bit more of high end etc. and is a LOT cheaper. Taylor has been using Sapele on their 300 series, GS mini, Baby and such, so let that be a reference point of how this guitar would sound - full, bright, snappy, mid-heavy, and the description on Chard's official website even states that the body chamber of the F4130 is based 1:1 on the Taylor 210 (don't bother checking though, it's exclusively in Chinese). It's a lot of Taylor reference we're getting here, but Chard takes it to a whole other level.

This guitar has a loud, snappy sound that offers lush detail when either strummed or fingerpicked. It picks up a lot of "touch" from your fingers (some might not prefer that, but it's a plus to me) and makes the lightest playing heard. Also, strings still sound bright and sharp enough after some time, I have no idea how that was achieved.

Possibly due to an elongated length (41'), I enjoy the string tension offered by this guitar very much (likely to be tenser). It doesn't hinder string bending as well, so it's basically the best of both worlds.

When I first got this guitar, the action was stunningly good with no dead spots, so naturally I was very skeptical about how well it could maintain that after some time (given its unassuming price tag I didn't expect much) or after changing strings. Turns out absolutely nothing changed after two years of playing - I still enjoy playing this guitar very much and not once did I have to adjust the truss rod to discipline this thing.

The fretboard is admittedly a little flat, so that playing larger chords can be a problem. I do a lot of leads, however, and that makes this a workable feature for me.

This guitar does not look cheap at all, coming with intricate binding and a gorgeous looking top - one would easily mistaken it for a $500 acoustic, or more (which I actually did, when I first stumbled upon this gem). The nicely inlaid "C" headstock is a classy but obscure reference to this covert brand, differing from the rest of the Chard line which have a printed "Chard" written all over it.

The top Sapele piece is fantastic. Originally I went along thinking this was a specially patterned mahogany, with similar color, grain and tone but also carrying a certain "quilted" quality, in the form of broad stripes of varying color depth. I'm not sure of the sonic contributions made by acoustic guitar tops, but the all Sapele construction has definitely given it a baritone voice strong in the low-mids yet pronounced in the highs.

I have complaints on only 2 things of this guitar. First are the tuners: not that it's a pain to tune this thing, but it goes out of tune almost too quickly. They feel flimsy, they look cheap, and they certainly don't stay in tune too well. However I still commend the black coloration echoing the pickguard. Secondly it lacks a pickup. I have played several other Chard guitars and they all have pickups, though not necessarily impressive. Considering that this is one of the better models they make, you'd think they thought of putting a pickup in there somewhere, but no such luck I guess. On the bright side, you can drill the hell out of this guitar without breaking a sweat because it's such a cheap dispensable gear.

Talk about price. This guitar is LITERALLY dirt-cheap - I got mine for about US$60. Brand new from a shop. Granted, it was an indie shop whose boss insisted on selling it to me at this price, but this retails for just under $100, affordable by the newest of newbies, yet delivers the quality and tone of a Taylor equivalent. Highly recommend for players intermediate or above, you won't regret it.