I repair musical instrument for a living and you should all be forewarned… You get what you pay for. Don’t expect me to fix your shitty clarinet or flute you got off some website because chances are you will be back at my repair bench within the week for another fix. Brand name is the only way to go when it comes to musical instruments… don’t let some sweatshop slave use a lead-based solider on your flute.
What he said! I can’t even imagine what corners were cut to produce a guitar for under $70, but cheap musical instruments only frustrate beginners even more. It’s hard enough to learn to play without dealing with sharp frets, lousy action and untunable intonation.
OTOH, Seasoned players who want to give the bar a Hendrix/Who “destroy your instruments on stage” kind of show? This woot’s for you!
Let me be number three to say, JUNK! I have over 40 years on guitar that includes teaching and sales. You want something to hang on a wall in your den or bar, OK. You want something that will stay in tune, be playable and give reasonable service, run as far as you can from this stuff.
In all seriousness, how bad can one of those ukuleles be for $20? I’m thinking of getting one to mess around with and have my kid sing a few simple songs with. If not, what is a decent ukulele?
I get what you’re saying about those other guitars though.
Karl
Really, really unplayably bad. A $70 guitar will at least get you somewhere (but nowhere great), the $20 ukulele will not tune and will have unreplaceable simple fishing wire instead of strings. Really.
There’s some passable $60-80 Oscar Schmidt ukuleles on Amazon. And go for the very most popular “concert” size instead of these sopranos (which are so small that they feel like a dinky toy at almost any price point).
a makala dolphin from a place that does setup like ukerepublic is safer althogh they may also send out a lemon.
the drum kit doesn’t look bad…
“Pro”… hmmm.
Drum kit is “pyle pro”… nuff said.
Also, cheap electronic heads are the worst thing on the whole planet to hit on. It will make your entire experience just suck from the second you sit down.
The only way to go for electronic kits are v-drunms with mesh heads (Roland) but those suckers are pricey. A basic kit is $800 with a single mesh head snare and hard rubber pad everything else… of course the quality of their rubber heads is miles better than whatever is put in a cheap set.
You also need to be very careful with cheap heads, they can’t take much abuse at all.
On the flip side, you could just buy two of these kids, have twice the pads to hit (make one big combined kit) and then when they start to die, just keep swapping pads around with what good ones are left.
ok a question for all you “experts”:
if I buy those bongos, will I understand physics?
the drum kit is also sold under other names elsewhere
I bought one of these Kona acoustics last time. The frets had rough cut metal on the ends and after 30 minutes of playing, my hands were literally sliced up from sliding them up and down. Avoid.
For $25, I bought it for fun and to decide if I want to learn how to play it. No point in splurging when you are deciding if a hobby will stick. Splurge once you know.
Please read the various reviews available on the internet before making any purchase. http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-Pro-PGAKT30-Beginner-Acoustic-Accessories/product-reviews/B004BXLVO6/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
You see, if you have an instrument that can not be put in tune or hold tune, you have an instrument that can not be successfully played by ANYONE. If it can not be played, you can not learn to play on it.
Surely you’re joking, werdwerdus
Okay, so, fair warning: I’m a mediocre player, but I own and love ukuleles- 4 in our house. I own a very nice Mainland concert uke that I adore and I also own a snot green Mahalo soprano that I bought off Amazon for about $25. The snot rocket is a totally reasonable instrument, and is my go-to for annoying my friends around our firepit because I don’t care if it gets scratched and I don’t need it to be loud. You CAN get totally reasonable, inexpensive ukuleles that are not toys and I’d recommend this route if you are just getting into them. I’ve not played these specific ukuleles but: it’s a uke. There’s not a whole lot to screw up.
Biggest complaint I hear is that cheap ones won’t stay in tune, which is true when they’re fresh strung. However, I’m also a violinist and fresh strings ALWAYS take time to settle, so retuning a new instrument didn’t strike me as an insurmountable barrier. Settling may take longer on an inexpensive instrument, but my crappy Mahalo holds tune just fine now with minimal adjustment each time I pick it up.
Take home: you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on a ukulele to get a perfectly serviceable instrument. Buy a snark tuner and a chord book and go to town. If you decide you love it, THEN invest in something pricier. Mostly I just want everybody playing the ukulele because they’re awesome.
These are pretty good deals for the Amps. You can’t really go wrong with that.
The electrics can be set up and likely will be able to have some beginner play in them.
However, if you want to get the acoustic… don’t. If you want to learn the guitar, then buy a pricier Seagull or a Yamaha. You will not be able to learn on these guitars. The better the guitar, the easier to learn, flat out.
Karl you can get a Rogue uke at Guitar Center for roughly the same price and while it is easy on the pocketbook its is a far superior instrument
Hey guys Let me relate some relevant info. I got one of the Peavy cheapo models on here a while ago. Seemed like a solid why not moment as I always wanted to play. It was crap. I ended up on Amazon , reading reviews just like everyone here is saying to do and ended up with several low end guitars that are actually decent learning instruments.
Fender, Gibson, Washburn all have value lines, Squire,Epiphone, Oscar Schmidt respectively. You will pay a bit more but as long as you don’t take the absolute bottom of those lines you end up with a pretty decent leaner instrument.
One bit of advise however, take any decently reviewed instrument you get immediately to a music shop that does setup on guitars. The guy here charged me 40 bucks to do the setup adjust the action so its lighter and replace the strings with good ernie ball super slinkys( For the love of god don’t be cheap use good strings. You fingers will tank you.) and I have had professional musicians tell me that the instrument sounded awesome and as where I got it. It floors them wen I tell them it was a 180 dollar guitar from amazon.