For the price, this is definitely an adequate instrument to learn on - you can't expect professional quality for $100 or less, can you?

If you really can't afford $179, Google "2x4 lap steel" and learn how to make an excellent instrument out of hardware store parts that's superior to the Rogue, and to a lot of more expensive instruments, too.

I do feel that the lap guitar holds its place in the set and has no noticeable weakness performing with the Ebow as an effective drone instrument.

If you really can't afford $179, Google "2x4 lap steel" and learn how to make an excellent instrument out of hardware store parts that's superior to the Rogue, and to a lot of more expensive instruments, too.

That's $79 more than the Rogue, but you can easily spend that $79 trying to upgrade a Rogue and you still won't have as good an instrument