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 have only had the guitar for about a week so these are my initial thoughts and impression. The Basics: Two piece solid ash body, maple neck, rosewood fret board. Came with a padded gig bag and adjustment wrenches. Weighs a bit over 8 pounds, but it's not boat anchor weight by any stretch of the imagination. The guitar feels solid and has a very resonant body. Workmanship: Outstanding fit and finish ! ! ! The neck has a satin finish, the rosewood fret board looks like a really nice piece of wood. Finish on the guitar is perfect. The frets are dressed nicely with no fret sprout or rough edges. Hardware: Has a really nice (and very adjustable) Tremolo style Wilkinson bridge. Not sure what company made the tuners - they are non-locking - but at first blush they seem to stay in tune fairly well. Ceramic pickups. Knobs were a little stiff at first; but they seemed to loosen up after awhile. Cream colored three ply pickguard, knobs, and back plate. I think the cream color compliments the finish very well. Playability and sound: Has a flatter radius neck compared to Fender Strats. I'm going to guess it's close to 12 inches. The frets are narrow and not very tall. It took some getting used to the neck but after playing it a few times it started growing on me, The neck is very playable. The pickups sound OK. I compared them to an 80's MIJ Squier Strat that I have. They seemed not quite as bright. I think the Ash body makes for a little darker tone though. Bottom Line: It is a fantastic value and worth every penny.

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!

Great guitar and well set up. Plays really well.only complaint is the tremolo could have been set up better ,it was decked to the body and would not budge ,but after some utube videos I learned how to adjust it. It?s well worth the money and I love 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!

I really like the feel of this guitar. It plays way better than the price point might suggest. I knocked one star off for two reasons. The first reason is the guitar I received has the ugly paintbrush style logo, not the more sleek one pictured in the photo. And honestly, as silly as it sounds, I got the cherry burst instead of the natural ash, because it had the cooler looking logo. Second, the neck sits inside the body about 1mm. Not a biggy, but it kind of bugs me.

It was packed inside a thin foam bag that extended the full length, a small foam block was over the switch lever, and the bagged guitar was inside a relatively thin but padded gig bag. That was inside a cardboard box. It made it just fine. First look, I was impressed with the finish quality and the wood grain is very nice (ash body on this one). The fret ends are nicely finished. I have not checked the frets for leveling but they appear to be pretty good. The fret surface is matt, but that will wear smooth with a little bit of playing. It came with D'Addario strings. Strings are pretty light, may be 9s. The string trees on the headstock will be replaced by me. The strings do not slide under those trees very well when tuning. That's an easy replacement and inexpensive. After tuning, I plugged it in my amp. Played it a little and decided it needed some setup (fret buzz). I adjusted the truss rod slightly to get a small gap at fret 9 when holding the string down at 1 and 22. I set the bridge height to get the action I wanted, adjusted pickups for height (they were a little too close to the strings), and set intonation (that was close on some strings). After that, it sounded much better. For the price paid, I am very satisfied. Don't let the setup scare you off. Youtube has setup videos. Anyone can probably do it. I would give this five stars if the setup had been better and those string trees had been better.. Another positive; the tremelo was already properly set up. Bottom line, I am very pleased and I plan to keep it a long time.

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. : )