Electric Guitars

Founded in the year 1974, Music Alley has been providing music excellence and outstanding service for over thirty five years. While the Music Alley Junior Guitar managed to be a grand success, its sibling, the Music Alley ½ size Junior Guitar also seems to follow up the path of its predecessor. It is amazing how the manufacturer has managed to put together a guitar package at such a low cost. Read on to find out the features and performance of this guitar pack.

Half size:

This guitar, as the name indicates, is a half size junior guitar package that features a nylon string acoustic guitar. Never be fooled by its looks as it is nothing like a toy guitar. In fact, it is the ideal guitar for kids who aim at becoming a pro in very early stages of their life. The half size nature of this guitar just puts further stress on this fact. The quality of the body of the guitar is quite reasonable considering the price tag.

Body and Finishing:

The body is actually a lacquered ply, having a nice and bright coloured finishing. It is available in a range of attractive finishing, and some of them include Red, blue, purple, sunburst, natural wood and pink. The neck quality is also pretty good being not too bulky or flimsy.

Performance:

As we had mentioned earlier, it is a great option for kids, and the main reason for this is its nylon strings that aids in making guitar learning much easier. The nylon makes it easier for them for strumming tuning and also hold the strings down. It is best suited for kids aged five to eight. The guitar is fully playable and sounds amazing too. To begin with, you might feel that the tune does not stay longer before it needs tuning, but is because of the new nylon strings. Over time, once the strings have stretched a little, this will prove to be much less of an issue.

Not so good facts:

That was all good news, but what we are not happy about is the fact that the frets do not have markers on them, which should have been included in a learner’s guitar. Taking a closer look at the body of the guitar, you will realise that the lacquer is thin, thready and even bubbled in a couple of areas, which might be because of the thinness of the ply and lightness of the guitar. Hence, some rough treatment that your kids may tend to do, will end up damaging the guitar quite easily.

The package:

The Music Alley ½ size Junior/Kids Guitar package includes the guitar itself, pitch pipes for tuning, a specially edited beginner’s book for children and a tutorial DVD. The booklet and CD are very informative.

Verdict:

The Music Alley ½ size Junior Guitar package is simply an excellent value for money. This will prove to be a great birthday gift to your kid or grandchild. With a great range of colour options available, you will be able to pick the exact one that the kid desires. Overall, it is a great guitar until your little one earns a bit of respect for their musical instruments.

Music Alley ½ size Junior Electric Guitar – Technical Specification Table

With the winter around the corner, it will be great to take up guitar as a hobby to enjoy it in front of the fire. Electric guitar kits are deal sealers for budding musicians, and the Rockburn Ultimate ST Style Electric Guitar seems to be one among them. Coming in as a complete guitar package, let us see how it performs.

Design:

The Rockburn Ultimate ST Style Electric Guitar’s strat style body is made out of basswood and the neck out of maple. The maple fingerboard just enhanced the whole package. It is a full size strat style electric guitar featuring a pickup selector switch, 3 pickups, volume and tone controls, as well as a tremolo arm. The guitar comes in three finishes of Diamond Black, Classic Sunburst and Chilli Red.

Features:

Features wise, we cannot find any real cool ones, but the basic features present excel in whatever they do. Considering its below eighty pounds price tag, this is not bad at all.

Sound:

Rockburn Ultimate ST Style Electric Guitar does an amazing job when it comes to performance. It is great for starters and really does look the part. Its sound is absolutely amazing and extremely easy to tune as well. Children will simply love it as it managed to hold its tune unlike most kids guitars in the market. Right out of the box, the guitar is out of tune, but will take only a minute to retune it. The pickups are weak and the low density of the basswood used in the body work together to ensure this guitar has a feeble sound at best.

Package:

In the package, the kit includes EQ Controls, a 10W guitar amp with a distortion channel and a headphone socket too. The extras are a 3m guitar lead, a set of spare strings, plectrums, an adjustable bag, a gig bag and to aid the self learners, there is a tutorial DVD and online guitar lessons for a year.

Verdict:

Every guy wants to be a guitar hero and every girl wants to date them, and this guitar can give you the much needed boost. Overall, we can say that the Rockburn Ultimate ST Style Electric Guitar Pack is a beautiful high quality instrument having terrific sound and playability. The package delivers to be excellent value for the money spent. It exceeded our expectations on every level and we highly recommend it.

Rockburn Ultimate ST Electric Guitar Package – Product Specification Table

Jaxville guitars in general are for those who are the ‘dare devil’ kind. They are simply different, which comes in as no surprise considering that Jaxville is often known as the home of Custom series guitars and heaps of special editions. In the following review, we will see about one such custom guitar, the Jaxville Hades ST Style Guitar.

Design:

Jaxville Hades ST Style Guitar Pack belongs to the Jaxville’s Custom Series II, where the company once again has done a great job in bringing together art and music. The Custom II Series offers three original designs on three very beautifully crafted guitars: Demon, Hades and Zeus. Being exclusively commissioned by Jaxville, it looked every bit like uniqueness, style and class. This series captures the darker side of rock completely and just perfect and Hades seems to be the best among the lot, and will be the pick of the lot for most dark loving personalities. In the Greek mythology, ‘Hades’ was the ruler of the underworld, given the Helm of Darknessfor his role in victory over the Titans in the Divine War. The exquisite design perfectly matches with the headstock, neck and black accessories in a luxurious high gloss finishing.

Features:

The uniqueness of the Jaxville Hades ST Style Guitar does not stop with its design as it has a great set of features too. The body is basswood, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard and chrome hardware. The Hades ST Style guitar has got three adjustable single coil pickups, five way selector switch and to provide you with the ultimate selection of tonal colours, Jaxville has offered tone and volume controls. The ST Style Hades has also got 22 frets. Some say 24 frets are better, but we totally disagree with that, we feel that 22 frets are better because the pickups are right under the harmonic node.

Sound:

When it comes to performance, the Jaxville Hades ST Style Guitar sounds as great as it looks. It is charged with snaps and zings that makes it heaps of fun to play. The tones are clean and solid and adds good gain and even tones up the voice of the guitar.

Package:

As the title indicates, the Jaxville Hades ST Style Guitar comes in as kit, which includes everything you need to get started with, such as, the Jaxville Hades electric guitar, Rockburn 10 Watt amplifier, Plecs and set of spare strings, 3 metre guitar lead, Guitar strap, Black guitar bag and Tutorial DVD.

Warranty:

Jaxville offers its Hades ST Style Guitar Pack 12 months warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

Jaxville Hades ST Style Guitar Pack is the one if you are looking for something quite unique. Its performance is great too so, you need not hesitate if you have got one in your minds.

Check other Jaxville Guitar Reviews in this website.  Check our Electric Guitar Buying Guide if you want to know the various types of guitars and how to choose the right one for you.

Jaxville Hades ST Style Guitar (ST1-HD-PK) – Technical Specification Table

Yamaha are renowned for their quality musical instruments. Their C range of nylon classical guitars has specifications way beyond their price bracket. Having 2-ply back and sides, ultra thin finishing and player focussed design, this C range of guitars are just the perfect entry to classical guitar. In the following review, we will see about the C40, which is Yamaha’s most inexpensive full sized classical guitar model with some outstanding quality and tone. Read on to find out more.

Design:

The Yamaha C40 Classical Guitar is made in Indonesia and it looks pretty good too. It has spruce tops and mahogany like meranti backs and sides. The body has normal black wood finishing. There is a gig bag included if you opt for the starter kit, Pack includes spare strings, carry bag, electronic tuner, instant Guitar DVD. It is great quality. The finish looks like it is always going to be there.  It is very comfortable to play with. The shape of the body is just perfect for legs. The finish is more of a glossy type, so it is so smooth.

Classical set-up:

This one is a classical guitar, which means it has the strings set widely apart. It has this kind of set up because, the classical guitars are designed to be plucked and not strummed. So, as you can imagine, this wider spacing enables you to places your fingers into the strings. The next thing to note is that, the fretboard is flat, which means you have to reach further with your fingers to cover all the strings. So, if you have a small hand, or buying a guitar for a child, this is not the right choice. Finally the C40 has been designed to accept the softer strings of gut or nylon. If you try on any metal strings, it is no good as it will damage the guitar, cuts into the wood and puts a lot of strain over the neck. Though these strings are soft, they are quite full as well as soft and gentle. As you can see, this one is not for playing heavy metal, or for a stadium. The C40 comes with chrome tuners.

Fingerboard:

The real rosewood fingerboard and bridges make sure that this guitar is sanctified with a quality of tone and playability that disproves its reasonable price tag.

Sound:

A good player will be aware that, from a guitar, it is a must for it to have a good deal of action and ease of use. Yamaha has got a great deal of reputation of its consistency and quality. And, this one of the main reasons why you can just blindly buy a Yamaha without even playing the thing. We can guarantee you that the tuning keys will just be perfect and you need not wiggle around with it, and spoil the thing eventually. You can play it with a pick or fingers and it will either way sound great.

Action:

Action cannot be compromised at any cost. The action actually seems to be a combination of the height of the strings over fretboard and also of the string’s tension. This is irrespective of the fact that they are steel or 12 string one. They even have the capability of pulling the guitar head upwards, bringing them farther from the fretboard.  This setup requires your fingers to be quite strong on the strings in order to make any clear notes.

We were surprised by the quality of its tone. It is almost accurate in the upper registers. And the only issue with the guitar is that, the trebles are a little tinny. Overall, it is an excellent student guitar that would meet the needs of the learner for at least a couple of years, if not more.

Best for students:

For the price tag it has on it, is very hard not to consider its value as a beginner instrument for anyone learning from scratch.

Verdict:

With the C40 Classical Guitar Basic Pack, Yamaha has proved that a modest budget guitar does not have to put up with a low quality instrument, as the C40 ably reveals. When you have to purchase a musical instrument, especially a guitar, you can face a real minefield of decisions. While you can pay a lot of money for a good quality instrument, if you cannot play it the way you want to, it will be a real waste of money. You have to make your investment in an instrument that suites the kind of music you wish to play.

Yamaha C40 Classical Guitar – Technical Specification Table

Over a couple of years after Fender had a rebirth from the possession of CBS, the company has grown-up into a huge and powerful corporation. Since it is benefitting from the two finely sharpened enormous capacity stateside production facilities, Fender is, nonetheless lively enough to provide continuously developing models on two of its favourite guitars. In the following review, we will see about the Fender Classic Player Baja Telecaster Electric Guitar which is a custom shop motivated instance of Fender that comes on to the shelves from the Ensenada factory in Mexico. It has a dream list of specifications and has been designed by the master builder Chris Fleming.

Design:

Chris has based the Baja Telecaster on a 52′s style telecaster with a typical ash body and maple fingerboard. The Baja is a very classic looking Telecaster which is a style you either like the look of or you do not. The guitar possesses an ash body, which is made of 4 gorgeous parts of a timber that is measured to be the best choice for the fifties style of teles. This is partly complemented by its looks and also by its comparatively scooped-mid, rich and vigorous twanging tone in comparison to alder. The gloss polyester finishing of the body also has that substantial yakky feel for which Telescasters are respected and loathed equally for. They are available in two fabulous finishes of Blonde, Desert Sand and there is also a special run limited edition model Lake Placid Blue. The typically solid feel of a good Telecaster is intact in the Baja.

Neck:

Another vintage feature of the guitar is that, it has a chunky soft V shaped neck with 21 frets. The neck has a fingerboard that is flatter than the vintage 9.5” radius and medium jumbo frets are a allowance to more modern playability.

Frets:

The fret has uniform tidiness and executed well too, which makes the most of the flatter board radius for the issue free bends throughout the neck. Design wise, the twelve fret dots are placed quite close to each other, which will be annoying for a few people. But also note that the neck is a soft ‘V’ beneath a few frets, but still a few people will find the full gloss finis quite thick.

Bridge:

Tone wise, best for the 50’s telecasters is the vintage style tele bridge with three brass saddles. In real time, the cadence fight with this style of bridge is a part of the classic tele vibe and tone.

Features:

The Fender telecaster has heaps of electronic stuff going in inside itself than what it looks like. Inside, you will find a custom shop broadcaster single coil in the bridge and also a custom shop pickup that is a twisted tele at the neck. The bridge is actually a flat pole type that is much powerful than the tele pickups with a stronger mid range.

Controls:

This Baja Telecaster sports a 4 way blade selector and also a separate push pull switch in volume pot for their extended S1 options. Hence, the positions of 1 and 3 always seem to be the bridge and neck pickups isolated, let alone 2 and 4 to different combos of neck and pickups in parallel, series and even out of phase, which depends in if the S1 is in or out. The complete set-up is quite neat.

Sound and Action:

In picking up the electric guitar for the very first time, you will be impressed instantly by the almost acoustic quality it possesses. Many players will just find the tele bridge pickup to be quite disorderly, however, you will soon understand why a lot of the rock and roll guitars sport this very set-up. With this, you will be able you will be able to get the tone to high end with a bit more drive and can even go loud.

Warranty:

Fender gives its Classic Player Baja Telecaster Electric Guitar one year warranty for parts and labour.

Verdict:

The Baja looks like a good Tele, plays like a good Tele and sounds like a good Tele. Whether the out of normal tones is you kind of music is for you to make up, but the extra option of the two pickups in series, thanks to the four-way, it is undoubtedly a champ. The flexibility, and very affordable price tag of the Classic Player Baja Telecaster makes it an option that you would love.

Fender Classic Player Baja Telecaster Electric Guitar – Technical Specification Table