Gold Tone BZ-500 Bouzouki

The BZ-500 Bouzouki is a great instrument! Sounds fantastic. Item was received in excellent condition.

was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the instrument and of the case. It arrived very quickly and was so well packed that it actually arrived in tune! . Has a good sound and good string action. For those wondering where it was made, there is a "made in China" sticker on the back of the headstock. I have not played a bouzouki before so I don't know if this is normal or not, but it is very "top heavy"- so much so that the body of the instrument seems to weigh almost nothing. Not a problem just will take some getting used to for me. It does have a truss rod and comes with the adjustment wrench & instructions on when/how to adjust the neck. For those who want to use a strap, there is only one strap button so you will have to install the second one yourself or tie above the nut. I personally do not like putting that much pressure on the neck of any instrument. The case is nice & sturdy and fits the instrument very well. The instrument has a highly glossed finish - some people don't like that, I think it looks nice.

We love this bouzouki! Sounds great and is very good quality. I do need to know what strings were used on it when sent? We want the same strings but haven't figured out what they are exactly. Thanks

I purchased this as a Christmas gift for my son-in-law, a very talented musician who already plays mandolin and guitar at an exceptionally high level. He barely put the instrument down over the next two days he was so thrilled with it.It tunes right up and holds its tuning without issue. He was retuning it back and forth between mandolin and traditional Irish tuning before settling on the later. The tone is warm with good sustain, and the action seems right from what he was saying.I was originally looking at the base level Trinity College bouzouki, but at several hundreds of dollars more I couldn’t really justify it before knowing how my son-in-law would take to the instrument. I have several other Gold Tone instruments that I play, an open back banjo and a banjola, so I’m familiar with the company and was confident in the quality. They are factory made in China, but are inspected and set up at the company’s Florida facility.Bottom line: He loves playing it, it sounds great, and it is a terrific value for the money.

Bouzoukis are hard to find in stock, which is why I bought this one off of Amazon.I've had Gold Tone instruments before, and they're decent, middle of the road instruments for the price but there's definitely a difference between the sound and quality of any Gold Tone instrument and other higher end ones in it's class by other makers. I've found that Gold Tone instruments sound and play ok, but tuning knobs and other accouterments such as the strings, the case, etc., are usually the barest minimum quality.Also beware--there are no strap holders on this instrument whatsoever. You'll have to buy a pair and drill and mount them yourself. Another example of providing the bare minimum that I feel Gold Tone is infamous for, probably to keep the price point as low as possible.That said, I do like this bouzouki, it's a fair value for the price.