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Taking into account that some OTHER reviewers are SENT guitars to them by the company that makes them, you can be guaranteed the company picks one that is a real cherry and sets it up to play well. AND the fact that a good guitarist can make even a crappy guitar sound good, I'm so grateful to have honest people like Elmo to review guitars!
These Indio guitars are the best cheap guitars around. They do need the frets leveled and a pickup swap but to be really good but they have potential as you can see this one used by a good guitarist. I have both the tele and the strat and the necks are really good. They even roll the edges on the rosewood fretboards. Fret sprout is probably dependent on if you live in a dry area. s I don't and I didn't have any fret sprout.
A fact often overlooked is that phoning in a luthier to fix stuff is probably more expensive than the price difference with a guitar that's nice out of the box. We don't all have luthier friends that do this for free after all :)
@heroicnonsense not expensive nor hard to tool-up and learn to do fret finishing!! Stewmac has mre than enough information and Pricey tools..but Temu carries stuff even Cheaper.. for what you need to finish frets.
One of the best things about these monoprice guitars is its body is full thickness so it accepts a better quality full size STEEL tremolo block, and it lends itself in other ways to being easily modified into a really nice playiing instrument. Theres tons of aftermarket pickups and bridges, tuners, nuts etc that fit it so it possible to build it into something really good for just another hundred or so more and again it will accept so many great mods that would easily wake it up, theres videos on this .
I've had a couple of these. Fit, finish, and action were quite good out of the box..... no complaints about the electronics or hardware at the price point. The ONLY thing that made me sell them were the tiny frets. If Monoprice/Indio would put medium jumbos on these, they would have a serious winner at this dirt cheap price.
I’ve owned a ‘deluxe’ version of the Indio Strat for a couple of years, $150 on sale. It’s very nice. I picked up a used Squier affinity (2005, Indonesian) a year later as a project and it’s a great too, thinner, lighter but definitely a step down in quality from the Indio. I think we’re lucky these days, a lot of good quality guitars for not very much cost.
I bought one of these as an experiment and I was rather impressed. The pickups actually did not sound bad and the setup out-of-box was much better than expected. Mine had no fret sprout but it doesn’t surprise me that some do. Only thing I hated was the trem and I’ll be replacing that soon but 9/10 for this price range
Thank you for the review. You convinced me to purchase one. I have huge hands and usually purchase wide nut necks and bolt it on to a body. Since I will not have the fret issue, it should make a good build. I hope, one day, to play 1/10 as well as you. Brilliant!
That Marshall is doing 95% of the heavy lifting, all these newbies are going to be disappointed when they plug into their 1x8 crap amp and sound terrible
I got an amp with my strat I got on offer up a couple yrs when covid started, decided recently to take it out and start learning but the amp kinda sucks, any amps you'd recommend around the 200 price range?
The Monoprice guitars are surprisingly good for the price. I have a Strat that I bought for 79 dollars from Monoprice before they started making the Indio guitars and It plays great and the neck is really smooth with no fret sprouts. Plays and stays in tune better than my Bullet.
A really good, useful review! Some reviewers on CZcams get far too obsessed with minor paint blemishes - which is not only to be expected with inexpensive guitars, but also has no real impact on the guitar's play-ability.
I've watched some of Darrell Braun's videos. He seems kind of positive about everything. So, your review gives this guitar greater credibility of being good. It is cheaper than kit guitars. I think your advice about getting a used one is good. In a few months folks will have their shots and all these guitars folks have bought to while away idle time will be sold. Good Review.
I just bought this very guitar in red beacause it was only $89 with free shipping. I had pretty low expectations but it is such good value. It plays ok right out of the box - I just tuned it and started sturmming and was pretty surprised at it's decent sound. Gonna change the strings and that's about it for now. Doesn't seem like it needs much more than that imo. I mostly play drums and some bass so this will do for me as something to just noodle around on.
Nice, broad spectrum analysis. I’m sure Daryl would find this equally watchable. The Harley Benton comparison certainly rings true. And yes, a guitar if it gets you to play it, then it’s a winner. This color has a certain pizazz to it as well. Thank’s for a great review.
I just bought the exact same one color everything Frets were finished really well and the edges were even rolled so nice surprise !! I'm gonna put a Dual Rail Single Coil in the bridge . Have Kluson locking Tuners already to go . Gonna wait to replace the nut . First thing is to put Proper Strings on it and polish the Frets they feel a bit gritty . So by putting about another $150 or $160 into it I'm gonna have a really nice well made really beautifully painted Metal Shredding Strat copy !! Its got great Bones for the price and fixing it up will be easy and turn it into a damn nice Guitar . If you want a Guitar to Mod up this one is a GEM !!!!!!!
It may be a cheapo strat copy (headstock reminds me of an SX) but your fingers certainly liked it. You were playing lightening fast there Elmo .... left hand was like a spider on speed !
I don’t care how good you are a bad guitar won’t let you play well. All my guitars feel different and impact how you play and mine are perfectly setup. That is a for a perfect setup, with a shit setup or a horrible guitar, you absolutely can not force it to perform and the only thing your magic fingers will do is hurt or bleed. Stop repeating such cliche nonsense, not even your thought, every Tom, Dick and Harry says this.
The Police Siren effect running out of battery had me :D BTW, you sir can make this entry level instrument shine. That was an actual pleasure to see and hear.
For 100 USD, I'd consider ordering that even though I hardly need yet another guitar. I like unusual finishes such as that blue one. If that one is out of stock, I won't order it, lol
The problem with these guitar reviews is that they all seem to shame you into wanting better i.e. expensive guitars. I bought the Monoprice package because it gave me the black and white Strat look that I like. Took a bit of setup but now plays great. Yes I am oogling the Fender Players also black and white with pau ferro fingerboard and almost gave into temptation at a $635 dollar offer. Then my senses came back and I passed. There are plenty of professionals recording and gigging with cheap instruments so why spend so much for brand "F" or "G"? Would I love to own one? Sure, but it will not improve my skills one bit.
After a year and a half on my Indio (which I still love) I've succumbed and am awaiting delivery of a standard Revstar. (Also in blue). It has p90's, stainless steel jumbo frets and a different look. Husband also joined in the fun and bought himself an Ibanez s521 so I enjoy the variety. But my blueburst Indio will be here forever.
@@ellesnyder942 I finally did get that MIM Stratocaster. Beautiful guitar but now that I can make a direct comparison, the Monoprice guitar is that much more impressive. It lives in my office now so I can practice during lunch.
It's $100 + $20 customs + $60 for a luthier setup = $180. And then you'll probably fit a Tusq nut (when it won't keep tune) and a new trem (when the cheap saddle height screws start vibrating out) and then some new pickups... Sounds like a good deal at the start, but with these guitars you can end up spending $450 on what is still fundamentally a cheap guitar. I'd put the $100 towards something better quality but second hand.
Luthier setup? If you have been playing for more than a year you should know how to setup your own guitar to your preferences. Tusq is a preference, other (less expensive) options exist. Customizing hardware or pickups is optional, I know of plenty of guitar players who change out those things on $1500+ instruments. So after that, we circle back to the bare bones of a guitar for $100 vs. $1000s.
I'm looking at one of these right now, Cali Classic HSS in Teal, with the gig bag. $81 USD. To *not* pull the trigger seems like a crime. New, not used.
Luthier friend does all the setup. Comrade Elmo: " *_we_* did a great setup " Also good point with the "if i buy 10 of these... ". QA costs a lot so no wonder its inconsistent or else they couldnt come up with these prices (even tho the CNC machines help a lot with the price).
It seems that everything on this guitar is playable or fixable with minor adjustments. I agree with "fantastic". I've watched guitar reviews for years, and Brauns review was the only one that made me buy one (and the blue burst is killer). Then he did the video on how to make it sound even better. Maybe I'm just cheap, but if he can play that guitar and make it sound so awesome, why would anyone spend more? Because they don't want to sand the fret edges? I think for anyone who grew up in the 60's and had a cheap first guitar, this would seem like a God-send.
I got one on Ebay. In the photo it looks like a three tone burst or a fade, but its just a simple two tone burst. Other than that its just another cheap guitar. Ebay has tons of similar guitars for $70 (except for the color - that's the only unique thing about this guitar).
Darrell loved it sounded good for a cheap guitar but he did upgrade the pickups aswell and the tuners and the bridge spent less than 100 to upgrade all the parts
RebeccaHindle A very wise decision (IMHO). Over the years I've had many, many guitars in all price ranges. I bought my first new guitar back in 1974 (a Fender Mustang), it cost me $225 w/HSC (a pretty good amount of money back in 1974). 2 years ago I purchased a Squier '50s Classic Vibe Tele and have been very pleased at the playability, quality and sound of that guitar. These days I really believe the Squier Classic Vibe Series guitars offer the very best value available anywhere.
@@hkguitar1984 its took me 9 months to save for paranormal offset telecaster but I believe it will be worth it long run just need the shops to open now I found it for £307 in surf green
@@RebeccaHindle check out the Harley Benton ST62 Strat which is NOT their “base” Strat model the ST20, which is the one he had in this video, and is one of the better Strat copies out there! It’s available exclusively through Thomann Music and is their “House brand”, there is no middle man which is why they are able to offer them at such good prices! I have 3 Harley Benton’s which are now all upgraded. They are a good enough base platform to take take substantially upgrades! Thomann also have great after sales service should things not be 100% upon delivery!
I have 2 and can confirm. They are solid. I had to do a lot of spot leveling on one. Pretty much guaranteed they will need a fret polish and end dressing at the least. $30 Gotoh 6 in a line tuners are a drop in replacement. A Wilkenson big block bridge with bent metal saddles is $20. Graphtech string trees $11. If you get these guitars when they are on sale and make the improvements above you will come out with an awesome guitar. If you see some hand wound pickups you're curious about you can buy a guitar like this to try them out. Keep a few configured differently. Give one of them 50s wiring. Why not?
I agree, they are solid out of the box.....BUT..... you need a microscope to see the itty bitty frets. If these guitars had even medium size frets on them, they would be fantastic at $100.
@@scottcummings8602 I also wish they had medium jumbo frets. That is one thing I like about the Harley Benton guitars. And I do kind of expect the frets to quickly wear out. I suspect they are pretty soft. However, I also intend to use these guitars to learn to re-fret so it doesn't bother me. And when they need a re-fret I will use medium jumbo stainless.
@@defectsape -- But.... the problem with Harley Benton is those super flat fretboards that feel nothing like a Fender. If a discount manufacturer could do a 9.5 radius fretboard with REAL med jumbo frets, we would have a winner.
I got this guitar, and it is nice , but i got the IYV thin line tele and it is far supperior , super low action with no string buzz no sharp end frets sounds great . It was made in Vietnam and they have it over the chinese by far .
I actually thought the guitar sounded decent, had I not listed to the opening commentary about the price, crappy fretwork, and poor set up I wouldn't have guessed it was a $100 guitar.
Well done as always. I'd still like to hear the Mesa Boogie sitting there behind you. I think you said it was a friend's Boogie...Be well. Phil NYC Area...
I had watched Darrell's review long before yours and so I was very curious about whether or not you'd go along with his assessment or take the guitar (and hIm ;-) ) apart LOL. But now seeing you basically concur with him tells me that today one can really get an at least half decent guitar for pretty little money (and with some added work like you suggest, one might even find themselves having a _decent_ instrument at a budget price). "Very nice" sounds more germane to my (German) ears, too :-) (the additional "e" makes a difference... :-) ).Thanks. (would probably go for something like this or an Affinity or the Cort or such today instead of the Squier Deluxe I got myself back in ... 2013, which sold at some 400,- EUR; In the meantime, I had some setup done by luthier, swapped out the trem block for a brass one, brass nut as well after two bone nuts and put the Freeway switch in for added humbucker sounds. Not sure now, whether or not to spare another 100,- "bucks" on a Wilkinson trem and locking tuners. Should I...? I have a little review and demo of the Freeway switch on my channel in case you absolutely needed to "kill" 10 minutes.... )
My guess is you could take a lump of firewood out of the woodshed, stick some strings on it and make it play. Most all of the goodness coming out of this cheapie is your skill dude. No doubt in my mind. I'm a little behind you, about 140 years behind....
I tried so much cheap guitars, and to be honest, they always "sucks" in some way. Best experience had with SX VTG62. It cost 1200 SEK (apr. 120€) here in Sweden and it way better than Harley Benton, Bullets, Affinity and so on. P.S. i enyoj your sens for humor. 🙂✌🏻
Honestly good tone on a guitar mostly comes from your abilities as a guitarist, and your amp. Give a guitar like this to Jimi Hendrix, Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Elmo K of course, and it'll sound like it's worth thousands 😀
I've heard their higher priced models, which are still under $200, add even a lot more bang for the buck. For example the deluxe version of this model doubles the price but puts in Wilkinson bridge and pickups and California luthier setup. The Retro model is a Tele for $120 (or $90 on Amazon at the moment) and the deluxe version again bumps to $200. But the offset models start at $150 and have maple neck with rosewood fret and HSS pickups. Considering they offer a 30 day money back guarantee and 1 year warranty it seems hard to beat. They even offer this $100 model in a package with amp for $130 ! Welcome to the age of CNC machines and 6 Sigma processes that basically guarantee a decent product for the $.
Have you ever played a Kramer Baretta Special? Apparently its the best sub $200 guitar out there at $179 USD. Would love to see you put that one to work! I think I want to buy one.
The neck profile on it is absolutely AMAZING! Fret quality is on par with what you’d get on a sub $500 squier. Pickup is okay, not muddy but not special either. Volume pot gets in the way with playing so I pop it off. Trem is the same as a squier but if you lubricants the nut very well then you won’t have problems.
Thanks for the review, was wondering what your thougths were going to be on these bad boys. Recently picked one (two) up, they're going for $79 bucks here in the U.S. which is ridiculously cheap. Got a Tele first and sounded great but had some really bad cosmetic defects, nasty sugar streaks on the maple neck. Monoprice took it back after I submitted photos no prob, and ordered another. The Teles have terrible fret sprout, so bad its like little razor blades, The pick ups sounded really nice, was not expecting that at all! I ordered the Strat and that one is fine out of the box, no fret sprout whatsoever, they stay in tune no prob, they both do. They do have a little bit of a "flatish"/shallow radius on the fretboard but for $79 bucks its a minor thing, great for slide. I actually compared both w the respective Fenders in the $240.00 range and they actually felt and sounded worse that these Monoprice offerings. The last thing I'll mention is that they are perfect guitars for you to hone/practice your Luthier skills without messing up a more expensive guitar. You could technically remove the frets and put in your jumbos if so inclined. I hated the headstock and reshaped it on a disc sander to resemble the Fender, especially the Tele. Throw some tinted nitrocellulose lacquer and you'll have that gorgeous Honey color on the maple neck, looks just like a vintage one. Needless to say I passed on the Fenders, probably made in the same factory, just paying for the name. Cheers Mate!
How thick is that neck at 1f and 12f? It looks thin to me but that could be the radius throwing me off. I know it is 42mm at the nut but I need a thin neck for small hands.
I too bought this guitar based on Darrell's vid. IMO, the man will always use hyperbole instead of being straight with us. That said, I bought it to serve as a cheap mod platform and that's been good. The bottom of the first fret had a burr and I fixed with one or two swipes of a nail file. Next, I replaced the tuners with Wilkinsons, the first mod to make. Replaced the trees with rollers. Replaced the trem system with a Fender, but I'm going to change that to a push-in Wilkinson (MusicLily brand). A friend was selling Amalfitano pickups so I bought them and will put them in. (They're pretty expensive, maybe I should have a pro put them in!) I actually thought the original pickups had a pretty credible Strat-ish sound about them (unlike some others here), which IMO is evident in your video. HOWEVER, the real problem with this guitar is that it will require heroic efforts to intonate. Wouldn't intonate with the original trem, nor with the Fender and I'm sure the Wilkinson will be the same. They just missed the scale length (which may be why Darrell had to Dremel his pickguard replacement). People have said they had to cut the saddle adjustment springs in half to draw it back enough. I expect to have to do the same once the W is in place. Annoying. But it has served its purpose and it's the guitar I play most now. Will appreciate it a whole lot more once (finally!) intonated!
I get comments on that occasionally. I don't know why it's special. I didn't even tweak it too much. One thing that happens is that the speech mic picks up the delay, and the compressor on that channel boosts those delays when I stop playing.
Minns när DB recenserade denna gitarr. Blev nyfiken redan då. Och då jag letar efter ett nytt gitarrprojekt att ägna min sommar åt så var din recension mycket vältajmad 👌. Han har en trevlig kanal, DB. Gillar hans optimistiska manér. En bra korsning för mig när jag letar efter specifika produktioner är faktiskt DB, Glenn Fricker och din kanal. Då har jag en bra grund för min riktning och tillräckligt för att våga köpa något oprövat. Jag kan se mig själv skaffa en sån här gitarr, byta hals och ersätta hela plattan inkl potentiometrar och mickar. Kanske installera ett försteg också, samma som Alexi Laiho har. Det du. En Uunokasteri 2.0 😋. Som alltid håller du en utmärkt diskussion. Ta hand om er därborta i Åbo-land. Vill inte ställa in min årliga Turku-resa igen. Well done, Elmo One Man Army Karjalainen 🙌😊
I got the similar shirt... Just mine says "PRINCESS"... Yes, it was my ex girlfriends shirt... I dont care when Im home like at all... :D ;) It is comfortable. Good vid man.. I do not like that guitar... It is a good guitar tho. Btw. I have one Fender Squier Affinity 2002 - 20th anniversary series... This guitar is nowhere near my Affinity, and i did not even do any setup on Squier nor changed anything. 2002 - 20th anniversary Fender Squier is near real standard Strat. Thing is, this model of mine was manufactured only for a year... Even got rosewood fretboard, not that Indian Laurel wood. I had luck :) Payed 20 euro + a bit of weed LoL :) People are even offering me expensive guitars to exchange but, nope, sounds way to good.
I went Kramer route, much better than the Indio. Trem that actually holds tune even on crazy bends, Alnico noiseless pickups. ACTUAL mahogany body, no fret issues. Guitar center has the VT211 display models for $80, or they retail for $130. Which is worth it since you don't have to do all these fixes and it has upgraded pickups and knobs from the get go...
it's not really.. really .. cheap considering the amount of professional work that has to be done to make it a decent beginners guitar for an new but no vey introduced guitar enthusiast......neck adjustment, fretwork, maybe some missing parts to order form another corner of the internet, import costs for EU members etc. The pick-ups sound the price (cheap..) so better swap them out immediately even though the videoplayer plays and persuases like a pro. So (maybe :-))as a modding platform nice ...but no more than that. Another video of Elmo shows how nice a cheap Yamaha (or Fender...with immediately the most wanted headstock !) plays and sounds for the hard earned or saved buck or euro...take that tip of his. Cheers..i do really like the video's!!
The DLX model has an ash body and Wilkinson bridge for $200. I wanna buy one of those and the OS40 offset (Jazzmaster) Alder body and mod the fuck out of them. You could do like Darrel did and add MiM loaded pickguard and hardware, but I'd go with Seymour Duncan Antiquities in both. Also, I'd fix those fugly headstocks and put CHENDER waterslides on them. LOL
$100 guitar in America on Amazon but...$199 in Canada by a Canadian company? Last time I checked Canadian dollar was 70 cents to 1 U.S. dollar so why double the price in Canada?
Bought a handful of $130 US original route 66 les paul clones that Monoprice (Indio) made that reviews raved about being comparable to upper-tier Epiphone Les Pauls (before Epi improved and now often surpass Gibson's now) intending to mod and still have the parts on a shelf 5+ years later because of HOW DAMN GOOD all 3 of them played and feel and stay in tune for months (action adjustment to taste and new strings aside) and remains my #1 electric over cheaper Epi/Squire stuff I have GFS modded. The reason I bought 3 or 4 was, while USA shipping is free, shipping to Canada was $100 via DHL but shipping 3 was $120 (friend and xmas present) and Amazon pricing seems to price that in. Not to mention mixers/cables/etc I've since bought from Monoprice which shipping was reasonable if you plan a bigger order.
I'm a long time subscriber of Darrell Braun guitar channel and he did say it's a good guitar for the money. Not sure who this Darrell "Brown" guy is though lol. Nice playing Elmo!
Check out more gear videos here: czcams.com/play/PLNaLwTdlpQNFt5yZFJRiFtoHtPJm6bX-N.html
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Taking into account that some OTHER reviewers are SENT guitars to them by the company that makes them, you can be guaranteed the company picks one that is a real cherry and sets it up to play well. AND the fact that a good guitarist can make even a crappy guitar sound good, I'm so grateful to have honest people like Elmo to review guitars!
Cheers!
These Indio guitars are the best cheap guitars around. They do need the frets leveled and a pickup swap but to be really good but they have potential as you can see this one used by a good guitarist. I have both the tele and the strat and the necks are really good. They even roll the edges on the rosewood fretboards. Fret sprout is probably dependent on if you live in a dry area. s I don't and I didn't have any fret sprout.
A fact often overlooked is that phoning in a luthier to fix stuff is probably more expensive than the price difference with a guitar that's nice out of the box. We don't all have luthier friends that do this for free after all :)
@heroicnonsense not expensive nor hard to tool-up and learn to do fret finishing!! Stewmac has mre than enough information and Pricey tools..but Temu carries stuff even Cheaper.. for what you need to finish frets.
I have 2 Monoprice guitars - both Les Pauls. 1 is a 'Route 66' older model, the other is an Indio. BOTH are excellent!
One of the best things about these monoprice guitars is its body is full thickness so it accepts a better quality full size STEEL tremolo block, and it lends itself in other ways to being easily modified into a really nice playiing instrument. Theres tons of aftermarket pickups and bridges, tuners, nuts etc that fit it so it possible to build it into something really good for just another hundred or so more and again it will accept so many great mods that would easily wake it up, theres videos on this .
Exactly! Squirrels are Not the same as Fender body thickness like these..
I've had a couple of these. Fit, finish, and action were quite good out of the box..... no complaints about the electronics or hardware at the price point. The ONLY thing that made me sell them were the tiny frets. If Monoprice/Indio would put medium jumbos on these, they would have a serious winner at this dirt cheap price.
Yeah, bigger frets would be nice.
I agree! Plays and sounds great though!! Can't be any worse than the vintage strats...
Buy a new neck
I’ve owned a ‘deluxe’ version of the Indio Strat for a couple of years, $150 on sale. It’s very nice. I picked up a used Squier affinity (2005, Indonesian) a year later as a project and it’s a great too, thinner, lighter but definitely a step down in quality from the Indio. I think we’re lucky these days, a lot of good quality guitars for not very much cost.
Thanks for the info!
Love the way you play man, seems you got your own sound brother.🤔🤠🤯😇
I really appreciate your Jeff Beck style playing. It sounds really great.. as does your classical shredding. Versatile!
Glad you like it!
I bought one of these as an experiment and I was rather impressed. The pickups actually did not sound bad and the setup out-of-box was much better than expected. Mine had no fret sprout but it doesn’t surprise me that some do. Only thing I hated was the trem and I’ll be replacing that soon but 9/10 for this price range
Thank you for the review. You convinced me to purchase one. I have huge hands and usually purchase wide nut necks and bolt it on to a body. Since I will not have the fret issue, it should make a good build. I hope, one day, to play 1/10 as well as you. Brilliant!
Hope you enjoy it :)
That Marshall is doing 95% of the heavy lifting, all these newbies are going to be disappointed when they plug into their 1x8 crap amp and sound terrible
I got an amp with my strat I got on offer up a couple yrs when covid started, decided recently to take it out and start learning but the amp kinda sucks, any amps you'd recommend around the 200 price range?
It might be a hundred dollar guitar but , you rock it like it was a million !! Awsome
Great guitar if you know how to make a perfect set-up. Every guitar player should do their own set-up. Good call Elmo!😊
The Monoprice guitars are surprisingly good for the price.
I have a Strat that I bought for 79 dollars from Monoprice before they started making the Indio guitars and It plays great and the neck is really smooth with no fret sprouts. Plays and stays in tune better than my Bullet.
Yep. Pretty good stuff :)
Thank you for the only unboxing I ever want to see.
My pleasure! :)
Man, those were some blazing solos!
That paint job is worth $100! 😎
A really good, useful review! Some reviewers on CZcams get far too obsessed with minor paint blemishes - which is not only to be expected with inexpensive guitars, but also has no real impact on the guitar's play-ability.
Thanks!
I've watched some of Darrell Braun's videos. He seems kind of positive about everything. So, your review gives this guitar greater credibility of being good. It is cheaper than kit guitars. I think your advice about getting a used one is good. In a few months folks will have their shots and all these guitars folks have bought to while away idle time will be sold. Good Review.
Thanks!
Maybe the 1%….
I just bought this very guitar in red beacause it was only $89 with free shipping. I had pretty low expectations but it is such good value. It plays ok right out of the box - I just tuned it and started sturmming and was pretty surprised at it's decent sound. Gonna change the strings and that's about it for now. Doesn't seem like it needs much more than that imo. I mostly play drums and some bass so this will do for me as something to just noodle around on.
Nice, broad spectrum analysis. I’m sure Daryl would find this equally watchable. The Harley Benton comparison certainly rings true. And yes, a guitar if it gets you to play it, then it’s a winner. This color has a certain pizazz to it as well. Thank’s for a great review.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Loved the little bits of Yngwie......🙏
Great playing! Thanks for reviewing this guitar. I just ordered a black one.
Cheers!
I just bought the exact same one color everything Frets were finished really well and the edges were even rolled so nice surprise !! I'm gonna put a Dual Rail Single Coil in the bridge . Have Kluson locking Tuners already to go . Gonna wait to replace the nut . First thing is to put Proper Strings on it and polish the Frets they feel a bit gritty . So by putting about another $150 or $160 into it I'm gonna have a really nice well made really beautifully painted Metal Shredding Strat copy !! Its got great Bones for the price and fixing it up will be easy and turn it into a damn nice Guitar . If you want a Guitar to Mod up this one is a GEM !!!!!!!
You make that guitar sing like a $5,000 guitar! Fantastic playing. Great demo!
Thank you :)
The age old saying,
"it's not the cloths that make the.man"
Eric Clapton could make you weep on a hello kitty guitar
Honest review!! Much appreciated 👏 🙏 ☺️
Some absolutely phenomenal licks in there.
Thank you :)
I think you should include the make and/or model of the guitar in the title.
I bought the Tele from Monoprice $79.99 with case full size body and actually great but you have to like smaller frets
It may be a cheapo strat copy (headstock reminds me of an SX) but your fingers certainly liked it. You were playing lightening fast there Elmo .... left hand was like a spider on speed !
Haha :D
I don’t care how good you are a bad guitar won’t let you play well. All my guitars feel different and impact how you play and mine are perfectly setup. That is a for a perfect setup, with a shit setup or a horrible guitar, you absolutely can not force it to perform and the only thing your magic fingers will do is hurt or bleed. Stop repeating such cliche nonsense, not even your thought, every Tom, Dick and Harry says this.
@@bluwng Sorry, which nonsense?
Thumbs up for the "unboxing"!
The Police Siren effect running out of battery had me :D
BTW, you sir can make this entry level instrument shine. That was an actual pleasure to see and hear.
Thank you. The guitar really was surprisingly good.
That's called Doppler Effect. Not batteries running out.
I can hear Howard Cosell now: "Up goes Foreman! Up goes Foreman!"
:D
@@MrPolevaulter hi. How do u get. Your delay sound? It’s exactly what I’m hearing. Can a carbon copy do this? Thanks
For 100 USD, I'd consider ordering that even though I hardly need yet another guitar. I like unusual finishes such as that blue one. If that one is out of stock, I won't order it, lol
The problem with these guitar reviews is that they all seem to shame you into wanting better i.e. expensive guitars. I bought the Monoprice package because it gave me the black and white Strat look that I like. Took a bit of setup but now plays great. Yes I am oogling the Fender Players also black and white with pau ferro fingerboard and almost gave into temptation at a $635 dollar offer. Then my senses came back and I passed. There are plenty of professionals recording and gigging with cheap instruments so why spend so much for brand "F" or "G"? Would I love to own one? Sure, but it will not improve my skills one bit.
yeah, exactly😆😆😆
After a year and a half on my Indio (which I still love) I've succumbed and am awaiting delivery of a standard Revstar. (Also in blue). It has p90's, stainless steel jumbo frets and a different look. Husband also joined in the fun and bought himself an Ibanez s521 so I enjoy the variety. But my blueburst Indio will be here forever.
@@ellesnyder942 I finally did get that MIM Stratocaster. Beautiful guitar but now that I can make a direct comparison, the Monoprice guitar is that much more impressive. It lives in my office now so I can practice during lunch.
@@andredegraaf1643 the revstar shipping date is again delayed.. Indio will get upgraded tuners shortly.
And if nothing else you can use rhat extra saved cash to buy upgrade pickups tuners etc
I could listen to this tremolo genius play for hours
Thanks :)
I really dig this guitar.
It's $100 + $20 customs + $60 for a luthier setup = $180. And then you'll probably fit a Tusq nut (when it won't keep tune) and a new trem (when the cheap saddle height screws start vibrating out) and then some new pickups... Sounds like a good deal at the start, but with these guitars you can end up spending $450 on what is still fundamentally a cheap guitar. I'd put the $100 towards something better quality but second hand.
That's what I usually say in all my videos on cheap guitars. Second hand is great.
Luthier setup? If you have been playing for more than a year you should know how to setup your own guitar to your preferences. Tusq is a preference, other (less expensive) options exist. Customizing hardware or pickups is optional, I know of plenty of guitar players who change out those things on $1500+ instruments. So after that, we circle back to the bare bones of a guitar for $100 vs. $1000s.
Does it matter if its *cheap * if it works well for someone though, really? A guitar is a guitar, value has nothing to do with it
@@Crabfather ...you are correct sir...people confuse cost and value all the time!!
I'm looking at one of these right now, Cali Classic HSS in Teal, with the gig bag.
$81 USD.
To *not* pull the trigger seems like a crime.
New, not used.
Luthier friend does all the setup. Comrade Elmo: " *_we_* did a great setup "
Also good point with the "if i buy 10 of these... ". QA costs a lot so no wonder its inconsistent or else they couldnt come up with these prices (even tho the CNC machines help a lot with the price).
Yeah :D
He Likes it! My first cheap guitar in the 60's was a boat paddle quality wise..Today is Golden age for Inexpensive Guitars. :-)
Yeah. They sure are a lot better these days.
That unboxing joke was incredible
:)
It seems that everything on this guitar is playable or fixable with minor adjustments. I agree with "fantastic". I've watched guitar reviews for years, and Brauns review was the only one that made me buy one (and the blue burst is killer). Then he did the video on how to make it sound even better. Maybe I'm just cheap, but if he can play that guitar and make it sound so awesome, why would anyone spend more? Because they don't want to sand the fret edges? I think for anyone who grew up in the 60's and had a cheap first guitar, this would seem like a God-send.
To answer my own question: because you can't have enough guitars. I just ordered a revstar.
And by the way, mine was well set up right out of the box.
I actually liked my Indio Retro Classic, I did manage to get it to shred very very well! I made a little jam on my channel with it
Cool bananas :)
I got one on Ebay. In the photo it looks like a three tone burst or a fade, but its just a simple two tone burst. Other than that its just another cheap guitar. Ebay has tons of similar guitars for $70 (except for the color - that's the only unique thing about this guitar).
This guy is an awesome player great showcase of this $100 guitar.
Darrell loved it sounded good for a cheap guitar but he did upgrade the pickups aswell and the tuners and the bridge spent less than 100 to upgrade all the parts
Yep.
@@MrPolevaulter pitty you can't find it in the UK i tried gave up and decided it was worth saving for a squire classic vibe or squire paranormal
RebeccaHindle A very wise decision (IMHO).
Over the years I've had many, many guitars in all price ranges. I bought my first new guitar back in 1974 (a Fender Mustang), it cost me $225 w/HSC (a pretty good amount of money back in 1974). 2 years ago I purchased a Squier '50s Classic Vibe Tele and have been very pleased at the playability, quality and sound of that guitar. These days I really believe the Squier Classic Vibe Series guitars offer the very best value available anywhere.
@@hkguitar1984 its took me 9 months to save for paranormal offset telecaster but I believe it will be worth it long run just need the shops to open now I found it for £307 in surf green
@@RebeccaHindle check out the Harley Benton ST62 Strat which is NOT their “base” Strat model the ST20, which is the one he had in this video, and is one of the better Strat copies out there!
It’s available exclusively through Thomann Music and is their “House brand”, there is no middle man which is why they are able to offer them at such good prices!
I have 3 Harley Benton’s which are now all upgraded. They are a good enough base platform to take take substantially upgrades!
Thomann also have great after sales service should things not be 100% upon delivery!
I like the unboxing bit. You should do more of them. ;-)
I might :D
I have 2 and can confirm. They are solid. I had to do a lot of spot leveling on one. Pretty much guaranteed they will need a fret polish and end dressing at the least.
$30 Gotoh 6 in a line tuners are a drop in replacement. A Wilkenson big block bridge with bent metal saddles is $20. Graphtech string trees $11.
If you get these guitars when they are on sale and make the improvements above you will come out with an awesome guitar.
If you see some hand wound pickups you're curious about you can buy a guitar like this to try them out. Keep a few configured differently. Give one of them 50s wiring. Why not?
I agree, they are solid out of the box.....BUT..... you need a microscope to see the itty bitty frets. If these guitars had even medium size frets on them, they would be fantastic at $100.
@@scottcummings8602 I also wish they had medium jumbo frets. That is one thing I like about the Harley Benton guitars. And I do kind of expect the frets to quickly wear out. I suspect they are pretty soft. However, I also intend to use these guitars to learn to re-fret so it doesn't bother me. And when they need a re-fret I will use medium jumbo stainless.
@@defectsape -- But.... the problem with Harley Benton is those super flat fretboards that feel nothing like a Fender. If a discount manufacturer could do a 9.5 radius fretboard with REAL med jumbo frets, we would have a winner.
Love your playing bro, very inspiring.
Thanks a lot!
Gibson has a problem with QC, and they're ridiculously high-priced. I'd rather take my chaces with Indio. Sorry. I couldn't resist.
I love how you play!!!! AWESOME and like the VDS BRO KEEP ON ROCKIN!!!
I got this guitar, and it is nice , but i got the IYV thin line tele and it is far supperior , super low action with no string buzz no sharp end frets sounds great . It was made in Vietnam and they have it over the chinese by far .
Duly noted, I'm going to check out that IYV...
'Unboxing" ha ha Yes I see what you did there. Very good, Elmo, very funny.
😁
I snagged one for just under 50 at a local auction brand new. Using it to practice putting some jumbo frets on and cutting a nut.
shipping to Europe is over 140 dollars plus taxes, where can you buy these overseas ?!
I actually thought the guitar sounded decent, had I not listed to the opening commentary about the price, crappy fretwork, and poor set up I wouldn't have guessed it was a $100 guitar.
Yeah. It was surprisingly good after a nice setup.
Well done as always.
I'd still like to hear the Mesa Boogie sitting there behind you. I think you said it was a friend's Boogie...Be well.
Phil
NYC Area...
There you go: czcams.com/video/ZoQ3-tHi-gU/video.html
@@MrPolevaulter I just checked it out. Thanks for pointing me to it. I'll comment over there...
Phil
NYC Area
I had watched Darrell's review long before yours and so I was very curious about whether or not you'd go along with his assessment or take the guitar (and hIm ;-) ) apart LOL. But now seeing you basically concur with him tells me that today one can really get an at least half decent guitar for pretty little money (and with some added work like you suggest, one might even find themselves having a _decent_ instrument at a budget price).
"Very nice" sounds more germane to my (German) ears, too :-) (the additional "e" makes a difference... :-) ).Thanks. (would probably go for something like this or an Affinity or the Cort or such today instead of the Squier Deluxe I got myself back in ... 2013, which sold at some 400,- EUR; In the meantime, I had some setup done by luthier, swapped out the trem block for a brass one, brass nut as well after two bone nuts and put the Freeway switch in for added humbucker sounds. Not sure now, whether or not to spare another 100,- "bucks" on a Wilkinson trem and locking tuners. Should I...? I have a little review and demo of the Freeway switch on my channel in case you absolutely needed to "kill" 10 minutes.... )
My guess is you could take a lump of firewood out of the woodshed, stick some strings on it and make it play. Most all of the goodness coming out of this cheapie is your skill dude. No doubt in my mind. I'm a little behind you, about 140 years behind....
Thanks 😊
It was the best UNBOXING video ever!!! Thank you :)
Thanks 😊
I tried so much cheap guitars, and to be honest, they always "sucks" in some way. Best experience had with SX VTG62. It cost 1200 SEK (apr. 120€) here in Sweden and it way better than Harley Benton, Bullets, Affinity and so on.
P.S. i enyoj your sens for humor. 🙂✌🏻
Cheers!
As always another 😎 video.. appreciate your opinion! Keep on Rockin’ 🤟🏻🎸🎶☮️
Thanks!
Free shipping in the U.S., super easy returns too.
Very nice review. Thanks for posting.
I think it's pretty good for $100. Stick a good pickup in the bridge and from the sound you won't know it's not a $2000 Fender Strat.
Honestly good tone on a guitar mostly comes from your abilities as a guitarist, and your amp. Give a guitar like this to Jimi Hendrix, Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Elmo K of course, and it'll sound like it's worth thousands 😀
I've heard their higher priced models, which are still under $200, add even a lot more bang for the buck. For example the deluxe version of this model doubles the price but puts in Wilkinson bridge and pickups and California luthier setup. The Retro model is a Tele for $120 (or $90 on Amazon at the moment) and the deluxe version again bumps to $200. But the offset models start at $150 and have maple neck with rosewood fret and HSS pickups. Considering they offer a 30 day money back guarantee and 1 year warranty it seems hard to beat. They even offer this $100 model in a package with amp for $130 ! Welcome to the age of CNC machines and 6 Sigma processes that basically guarantee a decent product for the $.
Have you ever played a Kramer Baretta Special? Apparently its the best sub $200 guitar out there at $179 USD. Would love to see you put that one to work! I think I want to buy one.
The neck profile on it is absolutely AMAZING! Fret quality is on par with what you’d get on a sub $500 squier. Pickup is okay, not muddy but not special either. Volume pot gets in the way with playing so I pop it off. Trem is the same as a squier but if you lubricants the nut very well then you won’t have problems.
Not yet, but I might. Thanks for the tip.
Thanks for the review, was wondering what your thougths were going to be on these bad boys.
Recently picked one (two) up, they're going for $79 bucks here in the U.S. which is ridiculously cheap. Got a Tele first and sounded great but had some really bad cosmetic defects, nasty sugar streaks on the maple neck. Monoprice took it back after I submitted photos no prob, and ordered another. The Teles have terrible fret sprout, so bad its like little razor blades, The pick ups sounded really nice, was not expecting that at all! I ordered the Strat and that one is fine out of the box, no fret sprout whatsoever, they stay in tune no prob, they both do. They do have a little bit of a "flatish"/shallow radius on the fretboard but for $79 bucks its a minor thing, great for slide.
I actually compared both w the respective Fenders in the $240.00 range and they actually felt and sounded worse that these Monoprice offerings.
The last thing I'll mention is that they are perfect guitars for you to hone/practice your Luthier skills without messing up a more expensive guitar.
You could technically remove the frets and put in your jumbos if so inclined. I hated the headstock and reshaped it on a disc sander to resemble the Fender, especially the Tele.
Throw some tinted nitrocellulose lacquer and you'll have that gorgeous Honey color on the maple neck, looks just like a vintage one.
Needless to say I passed on the Fenders, probably made in the same factory, just paying for the name.
Cheers Mate!
Cheers!
Folks who don't like the hook headstock...a Seahawks logo would fit nicely there lol.
Great demo great playing
Cheers!
Best part "trem abuse".
Hey, so why do you recommend it above the classic vibe on your low cost guitars if you are saying it is a gamble? Thanks in advance.
Any budget guitar you buy will be something of a gamble. That's why you should try before you buy.
Did it come with the Queen hoodie?
Haha :D
SUPER! Very good video, thank you very much!!!
I like you sense of humor...:-)))
Glad you enjoyed it!
Stays in tune? That's with $100 right there!
Yep :)
My Fender Mexican strat had an extra hole in the back where someone screwed up so.....
How thick is that neck at 1f and 12f? It looks thin to me but that could be the radius throwing me off. I know it is 42mm at the nut but I need a thin neck for small hands.
Don't know. Never measured it.
I too bought this guitar based on Darrell's vid. IMO, the man will always use hyperbole instead of being straight with us. That said, I bought it to serve as a cheap mod platform and that's been good. The bottom of the first fret had a burr and I fixed with one or two swipes of a nail file. Next, I replaced the tuners with Wilkinsons, the first mod to make. Replaced the trees with rollers. Replaced the trem system with a Fender, but I'm going to change that to a push-in Wilkinson (MusicLily brand). A friend was selling Amalfitano pickups so I bought them and will put them in. (They're pretty expensive, maybe I should have a pro put them in!) I actually thought the original pickups had a pretty credible Strat-ish sound about them (unlike some others here), which IMO is evident in your video. HOWEVER, the real problem with this guitar is that it will require heroic efforts to intonate. Wouldn't intonate with the original trem, nor with the Fender and I'm sure the Wilkinson will be the same. They just missed the scale length (which may be why Darrell had to Dremel his pickguard replacement). People have said they had to cut the saddle adjustment springs in half to draw it back enough. I expect to have to do the same once the W is in place. Annoying. But it has served its purpose and it's the guitar I play most now. Will appreciate it a whole lot more once (finally!) intonated!
Cool ref to my buddy Darrel Braun go 🇨🇦🍁🇨🇦
I wish I could set my delay like this
I get comments on that occasionally. I don't know why it's special. I didn't even tweak it too much. One thing that happens is that the speech mic picks up the delay, and the compressor on that channel boosts those delays when I stop playing.
Minns när DB recenserade denna gitarr. Blev nyfiken redan då. Och då jag letar efter ett nytt gitarrprojekt att ägna min sommar åt så var din recension mycket vältajmad 👌. Han har en trevlig kanal, DB. Gillar hans optimistiska manér. En bra korsning för mig när jag letar efter specifika produktioner är faktiskt DB, Glenn Fricker och din kanal. Då har jag en bra grund för min riktning och tillräckligt för att våga köpa något oprövat. Jag kan se mig själv skaffa en sån här gitarr, byta hals och ersätta hela plattan inkl potentiometrar och mickar. Kanske installera ett försteg också, samma som Alexi Laiho har. Det du. En Uunokasteri 2.0 😋.
Som alltid håller du en utmärkt diskussion. Ta hand om er därborta i Åbo-land. Vill inte ställa in min årliga Turku-resa igen.
Well done, Elmo One Man Army Karjalainen 🙌😊
Tackar! Jo, det ser inte så bra ut här för tillfället. Vaccineringarna går långsamt och nu blir det väl någon sorts utegångsförbud.
@@MrPolevaulter Nä. Jag har förstått det på nyhetssändningarna och samtal med släkten. Det lär väl bli ett tredje världskrig pga vaccinen 🙄.
@@MagisterTuomo Jo, något i den stilen.
Classic Finnish sense of humor, unboxing... love it.
I love the color
I got the similar shirt... Just mine says "PRINCESS"... Yes, it was my ex girlfriends shirt... I dont care when Im home like at all... :D ;) It is comfortable. Good vid man.. I do not like that guitar... It is a good guitar tho. Btw. I have one Fender Squier Affinity 2002 - 20th anniversary series... This guitar is nowhere near my Affinity, and i did not even do any setup on Squier nor changed anything. 2002 - 20th anniversary Fender Squier is near real standard Strat. Thing is, this model of mine was manufactured only for a year... Even got rosewood fretboard, not that Indian Laurel wood. I had luck :) Payed 20 euro + a bit of weed LoL :) People are even offering me expensive guitars to exchange but, nope, sounds way to good.
:)
Can you do the Indio Telecaster!???
Maybe at some point.
Ok Elmo it's not a Floyd Rose lol I think it sounded great tbh
Or is it... :D
Watch out if you live in Canada. You might not get your guitar or money back !
Seems like a really good deal. 😊
I would love to see you do some Jason Becker content
Haven't really listened to him that much, other than what he did with DLR.
How did you feel about the weight of this guitar and the thickness of the neck? I'm looking for something lean!
I just sat down with it, so not sure, although it didn't feel too heavy. The neck was comfy. Not too thin, but not too bulky either.
I went Kramer route, much better than the Indio. Trem that actually holds tune even on crazy bends, Alnico noiseless pickups. ACTUAL mahogany body, no fret issues.
Guitar center has the VT211 display models for $80, or they retail for $130. Which is worth it since you don't have to do all these fixes and it has upgraded pickups and knobs from the get go...
I had a cheap guitar where the back trem cavity was routed out crooked so the springs touched the sides. They refunded my money at least.
Good to hear you got a refund.
I have the hss version and it is in fact fantastic for a strat
it's not really.. really .. cheap considering the amount of professional work that has to be done to make it a decent beginners guitar for an new but no vey introduced guitar enthusiast......neck adjustment, fretwork, maybe some missing parts to order form another corner of the internet, import costs for EU members etc. The pick-ups sound the price (cheap..) so better swap them out immediately even though the videoplayer plays and persuases like a pro. So (maybe :-))as a modding platform nice ...but no more than that.
Another video of Elmo shows how nice a cheap Yamaha (or Fender...with immediately the most wanted headstock !) plays and sounds for the hard earned or saved buck or euro...take that tip of his. Cheers..i do really like the video's!!
Cheers!
The DLX model has an ash body and Wilkinson bridge for $200. I wanna buy one of those and the OS40 offset (Jazzmaster) Alder body and mod the fuck out of them. You could do like Darrel did and add MiM loaded pickguard and hardware, but I'd go with Seymour Duncan Antiquities in both.
Also, I'd fix those fugly headstocks and put CHENDER waterslides on them. LOL
$100 guitar in America on Amazon but...$199 in Canada by a Canadian company? Last time I checked Canadian dollar was 70 cents to 1 U.S. dollar so why double the price in Canada?
No idea.
Bought a handful of $130 US original route 66 les paul clones that Monoprice (Indio) made that reviews raved about being comparable to upper-tier Epiphone Les Pauls (before Epi improved and now often surpass Gibson's now) intending to mod and still have the parts on a shelf 5+ years later because of HOW DAMN GOOD all 3 of them played and feel and stay in tune for months (action adjustment to taste and new strings aside) and remains my #1 electric over cheaper Epi/Squire stuff I have GFS modded. The reason I bought 3 or 4 was, while USA shipping is free, shipping to Canada was $100 via DHL but shipping 3 was $120 (friend and xmas present) and Amazon pricing seems to price that in. Not to mention mixers/cables/etc I've since bought from Monoprice which shipping was reasonable if you plan a bigger order.
Hey if you see this, can you tell me how to buy the guitar only it keeps giving me the option to only buy the beginner kit but I just want the guitar
Don't know. I bought it from eBay.
7:53 Jimmy Page vibe ala In the Light:)
In all fairness even the best 6 point trem would go out of tune with that amount of "proper" abuse. Lol.
I'm a long time subscriber of Darrell Braun guitar channel and he did say it's a good guitar for the money. Not sure who this Darrell "Brown" guy is though lol. Nice playing Elmo!
Cheers!
@@MrPolevaulter Cheers, I had to sub to your channel by the way, love your content and sense of humour!
@@dragan4658 Thank you :)