Name: JR
Location: USA
Date: 2008-06-10
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Great Guitar Value
Comment: I have been a guitar player for over 40 years and wanted a knock around guitar out in the family room where I wouldn't be heart broken if somone kicked and put a dent in it. This came up on sale for $99, so I decided to give it a try.
This guitar far exceeded my expectations. It is an inexpensive guitar package but it isn't a cheap one. My daughter who plays professionally thought it was pretty darn good at any price.
1. Shipping. The original box came covered with this sticky back foam protective covering. Guitar and amp were delivered in perfect condition. This new foam covering seems to protect it well during shipping.
2. Guitar. Far, far exceeded what I was expecting.
Body: Very attractive all black color, body and pick guard. Very comfortable. The edge of the upper body where you rest your right forearm is gently sloped and shaped so you don't get that traditional bite into your picking arm from the edge of the body. Well thoughtout and shaped body.
Frets: Slightly on the high side. No buzzing detected anywhere.
Fingerboard/Neck: Inlaid rosewood fingerboard and maple neck. Arrived straight and no bowing. Very good craftsmanship and looks expensive.
Pickups: Humbucking and dual single coils up the body. You can't even buy these parts for this price.
Controls: Single volume and single tone controls. Worked as expected.
Tuners: Pretty good quality.
String length: Each string length is adjustable. Surprised to see this feature on a low cost guitar. To get the best tuning, each string on a guitar needs to be a slightly different length because of physics and the fixed fret positions. This gets you as close as you can.
Tremolo/whammy bar: This design only lowers the pitch for the tremolo effect. You cannot stretch the strings with this design.
3. Amplifier: Again, way better than expected. Built in and adjustable distortion (high gain/overdrive preamp input) Low, mid, high tone controls. Excellent for beginner package. Considering using this as a pre amp for my larger amps. An external speaker plug would have been a nice addition. Enough power to drive larger speakers. For those not familar with amplifiers and speakers, you need 10 times the power to double the loudness. So a 10 watt amp is twice as loud as a 1 watt amp through the same good speakers. 10 watts driving twin 12 inch JBL guitar speakers will drive you out of the room.
4 Accessories: Guitar tuner, picks, adjustment tools, bag, strap. Good enough for beginners and as a back up
Overall: 5 stars for a great value. However the only downside is that I WILL be mad if someone puts a dent or scratch on it.
Name: M. Rocha
Location: Texas
Date: 2007-12-22
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Good quality for price
Comment: First let me get the only negative part of the review out of the way.
This is a pretty big irregular shaped box that it ships in, so carefully check the contents to make sure nothing is damaged from shipment. When I got mine, it was all wrapped in plastic due to the box nearly falling apart. It ships in original packing, so there is no extra protection.
If yours arrives undamaged, as mine did, you will be VERY satisfied with this product. It has a quality 10" amp, the guitar is very attractive, much better than the typical black and white cheapies you see in other guitar packs, which is one of the reasons I bought this one. You have to look cool while rocking, right....
It also came with a learn to play dvd, which is ok for beginners, but not too complicated which is a good and bad thing. You'll learn the very basics, but not much more.
For the price, you wont find a better looking and sounding guitar without moving up a level in price.
EDIT: Wow, fast forward 1 year later! This guitar has held up extremely well, and the amp is still kicking. This is a great way to learn the basics and see if you're willing to devote the time and effort into learning how to play before delving into the more expensive amps and guitars. I have experienced no problems with this guitar, but I have upgraded my guitar and amp since this purchase, so this item has not garnered continuous use for the entire year, more like 8 months of heavy use. I will not sell this, as it is perfect for taking on the road and will serve as my backup kit.
You will not regret this purchase, I certainly have not!
Name: Nikki M. Sherbert
Location:
Date: 2008-01-18
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Great product, esp. for money
Comment: I bought this as a Christmas present for my 17 yr old son. He did a lot of research and picked this guitar out. The box was pretty damaged when I received it, but everything was in perfect condition. He took it out of the box, tuned it, plugged the amp in and everyone in the family played like rock stars the rest of the day. Sounds great and he likes many of the features it has. My brother liked it as well as some of his more expensive electric guitars.
Name: K. Shaw
Location:
Date: 2008-05-11
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Brilliant for Beginners
Comment: This is my first ever electric guitar, though I have dabbled around on acoustic, and I shopped around for weeks before settling on getting the MetAlien. My main concerns were affordability, ease of use, and tuning (for some odd reason, I'm somewhat paranoid about randomly flying out of tune or something...) as well as looks, a little.
- Affordability: for $150, this is an absolute steal for the quality of the product and quantity of start-up materials. I looked at a lot of $199 guitars with less-than-convincing reviews that came with nothing but the guitar and case.
All that is included? One sharp-looking guitar, a really nice amp (which I haven't had time to experiment with, but the sound is good and there seems to be a high degree of possible sound variability from clean to grungy), a very easy-to-use tuner (as long as you understand what string is which note and that turning AWAY from yourself will tighten the string and heighten pitch and TOWARD will loosen/lower), a connector cable for use from guitar to amp/tuner, a whammy bar (FUN to mess with; doesn't seem to kill the tuning much), guitar gig bag (does the job, nothing special), guitar strap (I didn't use this; I went straight to a wider, stronger feeling strap), and three picks (snazzy metallic-looking, substantial). Some basic assembly and playing instructions are included, along with a basic chord chart. A CD was also included, but I haven't, and may never, use it.
- Ease of Use: The MetAlien was a breeze to set up straight from the box and I started strumming away within about five minutes. With this guitar and the Hal Leonard Guitar Method Complete Edition I feel well prepared to be on my way to global rockstar after college. The MetAlien feels like a starter guitar in a confidence-building rather than embarrassing sense.
- Tuning: I play for a couple hours at a time, sometimes waiting a day before practicing again. The tuning stays fine during playing and even is fine a day later, though I would normally tune every time before playing (I just happened to misplace the tuner for a while).
- Looks: The black is nice, to say the least. I'm not a fan of the stratocaster look at all with the huge white pickguard, so this is a more than satisfying alternative. This is a sharp, sharp looking guitar. Other minor things are the rockin' double-cutaway style, the top-set tuners, and the right triangles, rather than dots, marking the frets. All in all it cuts a very attractive picture.
To sum it up? I highly recommend this as an amazing first guitar for a beginner or even practice guitar for a professional musician.
Name: Kari Desipio
Location: PA, USA
Date: 2008-08-20
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Love It !
Comment: I purchased this guitar for my 12 year old son. He had been teaching himself to play on a toddler guitar. He has not put it down yet. We have had this guitar and amp for a month now and all 5 kids playing with it plus mutiple friends, it sounds great. It was delivered securely packaged and ready to play out of the box. The worst thing I can say about it is the strap is not great, but we had our own strap from the toddler guitar, so we just switched them. I couldnt be happier with the purchase and neither could my son. He takes it with him wherever he goes, it's very portable. I would definately recommend it.
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