Monoprice Cali DLX Plus Solid Ash Electric Guitar | Wilkinson Bridge and Pickups, with Gig Bag, Right Orientation, Light Blue with Maple Fretboard - Indio Series

I've purchased several Monoprice "Indigo" brand guitars, and I've been totally impressed with each one! They're solid instruments. My one complaint is the lack of side dressing the frets. They arrive with sharp ends and need to be ground down to be smooth. A Dremel tool does the job. As a melody or lead player, I also swap out the strings with .008s. The tuning gears seem to hold tunings nicely. Fit and finish is very good. Spend too much more than this and you're just buying high end furniture.

I'm giving this guitar 5 stars because for the money you can't ask for better. Sure you may need to do some setup. You may want to do upgrades but this is the case with any budget or midrange guitar. I'm quite happy with it as it is but if I choose to upgrade later I will still come out way ahead. On the heavy side as it is ash, the sustain is really impressive. Tuning stability is rock solid. As is or as a modding platform you really can't lose!

I don't ever write reviews but this guitar deserves it. I like to buy cheap guitars and modify them. for example, I have two of the Squier Bullet Mustangs. One Is stock and the other is modded to have P90s. This is a cheap guitar that I wouldn't change a thing on. First of all the wood grain is great. Mine is a 3 piece body, but you can see an effort was made to match the grains. The sound is excellent also. Each pickup selection is a unique sound and it really has the classic Strat sounds. One thought i had before purchasing, was maybe I'd replace the neck with a maple neck., but this neck fells very nice and there is no work needed. I'm not even going to polish the frets. All I can say is that it feels and sounds like a very expensive guitar, so much so that I don't think I will care about the brand name.

Out the box.... beautiful! Gave it a slight tuning and plugged it into the amp, happy! Don't read the reviews saying change the swicthes,pots, etc. Just play it! ?The tremelo bridge sells for almost $70 online and you would need to install it and have it properly set up. Comes with great strings and a nice padded gig bag! Take it to a local guitar shop and ask them to show you a similar guitar, equipped the same, and include a decent gig bag for this price. I was going to order the matching "Tele" but they were sold out, and I wanted to use my coupon. Monoprice is the only place for awesome reasonably priced guitars. Put it in the cart and buy it!

I like this guitar. The body of ash stands out. Way better than the Basswood body cheap strats out there. I just wish it had a wider nut width as I have large hands. The pickups and controls seem to be above average for a lower priced strat. This will be my Florida guitar as I'm a snowbird. I had an extra hardshell case that will protect it when I return to Florida in October. Thank you Monoprice!

Out the box the guitar came playable little set-up needed! The neck is smooth, no fret edges plus the sound is great. It has that notable "Strat" sound! you get a lot of guitar for the money. Id recommend this guitar to anyone from the beginner to high end intermediate player. I'm going to get the one in the natural finish to complete the collection.

While I have some criticisms, overall I'm very happy with this guitar. PROS & CONS + Beautiful finish on the body, appears to be 2-piece ash. + Impressive tiger striping on the back of the neck w/ super smooth satin finish. + my guitar came with the new Indio logo. (Sorry to the person who got the old logo. I'd be a little disappointed too!) +/- I'm not a botanist but I'm not convinced it's a rosewood fingerboard, looks more like ebony to me based on colour and grain patters. - fretboard arrived SUPER dry, but an easy fix with the appropriate conditioning oil. - Several small pock marks in the fretboard but don't impact playability. Purely a cosmetic issue - That nut... yikes. The nut wasn't cut properly and was pinching the strings causing major tuning issues. I'm going to replace it with a TUSQ nut but it was barely even playable without a quick filing. +/- my setup was passable. Action was super low, but major fretbuzz, partly due to... - frets not level. I had to spot level about half a dozen places, but I should probably have just done a new level. - Strings were rusty. Like they dipped them in the ocean and left them on the beach for a month before putting them on. I know the first thing you gotta do is swap the strings, but this was just funny. Except that it left a few rust spots on the frets which required a bit of work. + Alpha pots move and work quite well +/- 5-way import style pcb switch, moves OK but I may replace with something a bit nicer + pickups are OK (bridge sounds great, neck sounds a little bland, may replace eventually) and not quite as hot as advertised - 6.2 (bidge) / 6.0 (middle)/5.6 (neck) which doesn't bother me but I can confirm they are indeed AlNiCo (NOT ceramic). + RWRP middle pickup for hum cancelling in positions 2 & 4 but other positions are not very noisy at all + cloth covered pickup wiring was nice to see and soldering was well done + swimming pool rout with room for humbucker upgrades if desired (though pickup cavity is not shielded) + pickguard looks like better quality than others I've seen - machine heads/tuners are not great and should probably be replaced. + Wilkinson VS 50 II K bridge & vibrato is pretty nice. +/- gig bag is surprisingly well padded but the zipper is about as cheap as they come and is frustrating to open/close. But it's a gig bag! Some mixed feelings about this since it took a bit of work to get this even to tune properly, but my plan was always to upgrade this guitar. Slap a new set of tuners on there along with a properly cut nut and this guitar is quickly going to become a favourite. If this is your first guitar or you're not into DIY setups, take this guitar in for a proper setup and you'll feel like you're playing something worth MUCH more than you paid for it.

My guitar has really bad buzz sound even if I am touching strings. I wonder, has anyone else experienced this too?

First off, I've been satisfied with several products from Monoprice. SOme tech tools, outdoor stuff, especially the stage right 15 watt amp. It may the best value of anything they sell. This guitar was an exception though. It came damaged from whoever put it together. Wasn't shipping. In short, the damage could be a one off, bridge pins smashed in and not able to set the bridge up properly. But along with that, the paint scheme was not as pictured, the supposed alnico pickups were the dullest sounding I've heard from..idk. The fret board seemed more like "the color of rosewood" probably a composite. Headstock was not inked identifying any particular neck, but maybe one of any they interchange. Just seemed this guitar was pieced together from the get go. Thye did refund after shipping it back, and that's a good thing of course. I didn't expect a Fender quality guitar for cheap. I did expect an guitar "as described" "as pictured". So I would communicate before hand this is what you will expect if you buy. I'm not bashing monoprice at all really, but the guitar yes, it was really not as good as other Asian made guitars I've bought for similar money. I did want a modding platform but it was just too janky. Buying guitars without touching is tough, not the first time its happened from other sources as well, so just a heads up to be ready for about anything. I do play a Fender and that's a spoiling effect kinda, so I'm trying to keep it objective. I'll buy from Monoprice again likely, they have kept their word, was easy to return, good communication. : )

Large water stain in center piece of wood. Wanted to keep it but the water stain is an eyesore. I wasn't happy with the 9.5 lb weight and the 3 piece body, but the sound was wonderful especially positions 2 and 4 with the alnicos. Great value, but the water stain raised negative comments from the wife and kids. I would be happier with an unstained 1-2 piece ash body with the axe in the 7-8.5 pound range.