We recently aquired a stradolin...ebay purchase. It turned out to be one of the really good ones, and is solid wood. The tone is wonderful, and my husband likes it alot. When we did the research, what we found was that Stradolin really had a wide range of qualities, from the all plywood crate, to the solid flamed maple beauty that we aquired. Do your homework: Is it solid? If not, tap tone it on the back, and see if it is the good handcrafted plywood. Nothing wrong with HIGH quality plywood, its incredibly stable. How tall is the nut, how beveled are the frets, yadadadadada....Good luck!