Thomann Brazilian Cavaquinho Standard

To make a cheap cavaquinho at scale you have to cut some corners. I wish some corners had been sanded down, especially the corner of the nut, which was so sharp it took the skin off my finger. There is no binding along the fretboard, so running your hand quickly up the board gets very uncomfortable very quickly, as the fret grooves are sharp. The sound is decent and the intonation correct so this is one way to have a basic cavaquinho with the right sound, but if you are a serious musician the issues I mentioned will hold you back or injure you. Although the price seems cheap, the spruce soundboard is very soft and the open pore finish provides scant protection, so I'm not sure it's a solid investment. Also, it's unreasonably ugly: APC make the same cavaquinho without the ugly black ring around the soundhole, not sure why Thomann insisted on this for their white-label verswion, which just makes it look cheaper. Basically, if Ikea made a cavaquinho it would look like this. I considered spending some money to correct the problems but preferred to send it back and invest just a little more in a better quality insrtument.