How good is a new guitar that costs $89.99?

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astro
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How good is a new guitar that costs $89.99?

Post by astro »

So the last thing I need is a new guitar.

But as I was window shopping on eBay I stumbled across this $89.99 USD strat copy from Monoprice. I googled and found a whole bunch of raving reviews for this model. So I bought it. It arrived today:

Image

Amazingly enough, it comes with a gig bag, and shipping was only about $16 USD. How they can ship a guitar from California to Montréal in Canada for so cheap is beyond me.

The guitar itself is actually pretty nice for the price. The hardware is basic but functional. Toanz is actually not bad considering the cheap ceramic pickups. Only downside is loud hum from zero shielding, but positions 2 and 4 are hum cancelling, so the guitar can still be used as is. I will eventually shield it myself but for the price I really can’t complain.

Playability is good too. It was out of tune on arrival, but other than tuning up I have done zero setup work on it and there’s no buzz and action is low.

I am very happy with this purchase. It will be my beater couch guitar, and I will let my 7 year old daughter play with it. She’s always goofing around with my other much more expensive guitars, and I’m always worried she will drop or damage them. This one was cheap enough that I won’t mind her manhandling it, and it’s good enough that if she ever decides to get serious about playing, she won’t get discouraged by an unplayable instrument.

Man, I wish cheap and good guitars like this were around 30 years ago when I started playing! When I was a kid anything below $400 was usually unplayable crap!
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Re: How good is a new guitar that costs $89.99?

Post by mickie08 »

saw a video on this exact guitar (same color even) and they said pretty much the same thing. Definitely could not complain at that price. I have thought about getting one to mess with myself. Throw in a prewired pickguard and upgrades and maybe take off sticker and engrave my bands logo ont he headstock.
They say great minds think alike....Sometimes we do too...
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dots
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Re: How good is a new guitar that costs $89.99?

Post by dots »

wow, cannot argue with that price if it's that playable.