Musical Instruments

Ukuleles in this offering are pretty disappointing… I’m interested in how a $25 tenor uke sounds, though.

I play acoustic guitar and husband is giving me an electric guitar for my b-day but I don’t want to spend more than $250 in the whole kit (guitar + amp). But I am clueless. Does anyone know if these amps are any good? (I am not considering these guitars though, I think I am getting a squier).

Thanks

If there is a Music GO Round where you live you may want to see what they have in used. I picked up a Marshall ministack for $150 from my local one.

Unless you were incredibly lucky, it’s probably from the Marshall MG series. Those sound like a box of bees.

For casual playing, I’d recommend the Roland Micro Cube. They’re approximately $130 new.

I purchased the banjo listed here. It is alright for a starter and that is what its intent is so that is fine. I do not believe it was originally $300+ though. I took lessons and the first 3 were spent “fixing” the instrument. The neck was not set, not even close and the head was out of wack. My teacher was very disappointed in everything about it.

an Of Montreal reference? Buhhhh???

Just a suggestion, try out the Fender Mustang Mini.
It is great for practicing, traveling and learning. It also has different amp type sounds you can choose from and program. I paid $99 for it at Guitar Center, you might find it cheaper online.
I bought my grandson and “Acoustic” brand amp for $49 and it sounds awesome. I also own a Fender Frontman and it sounds like CRAP if you use the distortion. It’s OK on the clean channel.
Hope that helps.

I have the equivalent of the Squier you’re probably talking about, the same beginner-style Strat-knockoff as in this sale. It was my first and only electric. It’s served me well, I got it almost 15 years ago and it’s still fine today, have just changed the strings many times. I got it at a local music shop - it plus a crappy amp for $200 (or somewhere in that neighborhood). The amp eventually died a few years later, but I had already bought a much nicer Peavey before then so didn’t care. If you don’t care about the sound that much, just want to play electric to fill in gaps in acoustic every once in a while and learn if you even like it, I’d recommend that route and just upgrade if you find you like it (used guitars in good shape sell ok). The sound of a cheap amp is crappy - but you can better it on the cheap with a decent pedal from Guitar Center rather than going full-on with an expensive amp and/or guitar.

Is electricic better or worse than electric?

Definitely better. Smarty pants. Iit’s fixed.

Anyone know how a basic electric drum kit like this would be to learn on?

Hi Woot Staff:
Is the PylePro PGCKT40 (Classical guitar) electric? I see a cord that plugs into an amp in one of the pictures for it. Kindly clarify. Tnx!

Hi All,

I have been playing music for about a decade. I stick mostly to guitar. For those wondering about quality I can almost guarantee you will be disappointed by everything in this event. The Acoustic guitars are possible worth it if you want to learn a few licks without spending a ton of money or want a “campfire” guitar around that you don’t care about getting scratched up. Stay away from any of the electric guitars and amps. The Drums will probably be the biggest disappointment of all. If you want to get into playing music, spend a few hundred dollars or borrow a friends until you are certain you will use it!

I have to agree with jbopray. I’ve played guitar for 12 years. If you are wanting to get into guitar, buying cheap will make you NOT want to continue. Especially when it comes to acoustic guitars. Cheap acoustic guitars typically have a problem that the action (meaning how far the strings are from the neck) cannot be set correctly due to either warping of the neck due to materials or poor fretting due to poor mass production. I probably would have quit playing when I started had my dad not decided to also play and bought himself a nicer guitar that I would play one.

Electrics are a little less finicky because the strings are way lighter, so it is still pretty easy to play, but if you play on an ESP LTD Deluxe and then play a Squire, you will notice how the neck feels cheap and the tone is more difficult to tune in. Cheap guitars also may have the intonation issues or neck issues as well.

That being said, you don’t have to spend lots of money to get into guitar. You can pick up a used Epiphone Les Paul guitar for under $250 used from pretty much any pawn shop. Epiphone is hit and miss though, so have somebody with you who can play it. When they’re good, they’re good, when they’re bad, they can be awful.

For amps, I don’t know much about the ones that are offered here, but my brother recently bought a Line 6 Spider 15w that he has been really enjoying. Lots of nice tones can be made with that amp. You can pick one of those up new from Musician’s Friend for $100.

Just know, that if you pay $100 or less for a guitar, you are probably going to be not happy with the quality.

Not to be a pile on bummer, but I’ve been playing guitar for longer than i haven’t (about 30 years) - and I’ve also worked at a music store at Christmas time. We would get these cheaply made instruments in like the ones shown here just for the holiday shoppers, and 75% of them would come back as unplayable. The others were probably abandoned. The biggest problems you run into are warped necks on acoustics, sharp edges to the frets on electrics and none of them would stay in tune no matter how hard you worked at it due to the super cheap hardware and tuning pegs. Spend another $100 and get a decent ibanez or something similar that will hold pitch and not tear your fingers up, or have already become firewood or boat paddles because the necks are horribly warped.

I really appreciate the people who are taking the time to give some insight on these instruments. I really know nothing about guitars, so I wasn’t sure what to think.

Maybe I’ll end up looking around for a used instrument. My nephew (he’s only 10, so something like a $500 guitar would be way over the top) had expressed some interest in learning, so I was thinking about getting something like Rocksmith and a guitar so we could play around together when he visits. That probably makes an amp a non-issue, but figuring out the guitar part is waaay outside of my expertise.

I want to know how they get a 6 foot speaker into that little amp! (features tab)

Needs more cowbell.

I think the manufacter just threw in a starter set in the event that it was an electric acoustic. Classical guitars normally do not have electronics installed into the sound board of the instrument.