Monoprice Retro DLX Plus Solid Ash Electric Guitar - Natural, With Gig Bag, Ash Body, Maple Neck, Professionally Set-up in the US - Indio Series

I am very pleasantly surprised at how good this guitar is. It arrived set up very well, with great action and near perfect intonation, (as perfect as you can get with the three-barrel bridge). I think that the three- barrel brass bridge gives the guitar an authentic vintage look but also helps recreate that classic tele tone. The Wilkinson pickups sound great, and the tone and volume pots respond very well and operate smoothly. I must say that I like this guitar better than the two Mexican Tele's that I once owned and, is close to rivaling my "71 American tele! The neck is not as good as the ones on those guitars but, the frets are well dressed, with no sharp edges the only thing negative, is that the top three frets are not playable, which is not an issue for me since I don't play that high on the neck. Maybe a tweak of the truss rod would fix that. In all, an amazing guitar for the (ridiculously low) price. I look forward to trying some other Indio guitars.

I just received mine last night and I have to say I am pleased with what I received. I bought the blonde one. The fret ends are very smooth, there really wasn't any imperfections with the body's finish. I like the grain on the neck and headstock, the fretboard looks very nice. One complaint, no big deal though, is the back of the neck is a tad bit rough. But it is not a big deal because I'm planning to sand in boiled linseed oil to make it a smooth satin finish. Now, I do not know if this is stock with all of these DLX guitars, but mine came with a strap and a cable for the amp. Granted they are low end, but they will work, I don't need anything fancy right at this moment. So that was a plus.

I purchased the blonde Retro DLX plus a couple of months ago when it was on sale for $140. I wanted a maple neck / maple fret board and was willing to not get the string through body. Most people say this but I could not believe how great this guitar felt right out of the box. I had gotten a black Indio Boardwalk guitar about a month earlier that also exceeded my expectations but this Retro was at anther level. The maple neck / fretboard was better than expected. It plays great, sounds great and stays in tune pretty well. When it went on sale again for $130 I bought another one as a Christmas present. The second one was also perfect out of the box. The SoCal luthier has been on point on the guitars I have received from Monoprice. I have also purchased a couple of the stage right 5 watt tube amps that I love, the 1x12 cabinet, a bunch of cables and all the pedals. I can not say enough about how impressed I am with the quality of all products I have received.

There are few things in the guitar world more beautiful that a natural finish, ash, T style guitar & this one does not disappoint. Rosewood neck & tort guard are icing on the cake & don't forget the gig bag. For this price (I did get it on sale) the guitar is a steal. The guitar was fairly well set-up when it arrived & after a little tweaking it is a joy to play. There are too many pluses to mention, so I will mention the two minor items I found: First, the guitar is heavy, but that often happens with ash guitars & I am man enough to deal with it. The second item is that the saddles do not fit well (too wide) & this causes the strings to be unevenly spaced. A quick remedy is to file the ends of the saddles. Another is to spend about $10 on a set of 3 compensated brass saddles, my choice.

Got this guitar because I wanted an ash tele. Overall the wood ,neck and finish on mine are excellent. The hardware is acceptable. Tuners work fine, no problem there. Pickups are not bad but I changed them. The neck is straight and frets level. Feels good and frets good. Had to adjust truss rod as there was no bow in the neck. It was fine after adjustment. I wanted a black pick guard But replacement didnt work. Holes didn't line up which was disappointing. I would have to say that for the money it is a good buy especially for a ash guitar.

Excellent build quality. Setup was pretty close out the box. Really nice action and super playability. The neck feels great and the body looks great. Surprised by the sound of the stock pickups. Highly recommend if you want to check out an ash tele without breaking the bank.

It is a quality made guitar. Beautiful Ash clear coated with satin sprayed Maple and Rosewood neck. Good action, straight neck with solid feel. The 15.7 radius takes a bit of getting used to but a Gibson is a 12 degree radius so it is not a big jump. It looks and plays like a quality Tele. I ordered Fender locking tuner machine heads and will need to drill the two mounting screws for them but that is expected. It comes with standard tuners that work well but I need the 18:1 ratio for holding tune during a set of songs. Solid bridge with steel tuners work fine but will probably upgrade to heavier Brass metal down the road. Comes with Alpha 250 pots and decent 3 way switch. That will be upgraded to 920 D 4 way with CTS 250 pots. The Alpha pots sound fine but it needs a treble roll off and other Tele tricks of the trade to step up its sound. This was a project guitar, but to be honest, it plays well and sounds good out of box. Comes with Ceramic magnet pickups that are decent sounding. Not as articulate as ALNICO pickups but actually rounder and more musical sounding. Great full sound from the bridge but can use a tighter neck sound. The two together sound good and solid so I will use them for the time being. The flatter neck is fast and the vintage feel of the frets are nice. There are no dead frets or buzzes and the action is fine. The Rosewood fretboard feels nice and looks to be solid. Usually you see Maple necks on Tele's but I wanted the Rosewood and generally up the price considerably on most Tele models. I will probably bring the pickups higher and bring the strings down a shade. Mostly personal preferences. This is not a Custom Tele or top of the line model model but is a great workable musical tool. I would not hesitate to mod it and play shows with it, as that is part of the plan. This guitar plays as well as most MIM fender series Tele's and sounds comparable It is a big step above entry level but the neck and Ash body are worth the investment to make a Custom Tele. Enjoy this guitar and keep it in your Tele collection as the foundation of a parts caster with all the features you want.

I love it. It looks great and was very playable right out of the box. Sounds and plays great with good neck action. Only criticisms are it?s very heavy and the neck and headstock have almost no lacquer. Fretboard is good. I was frankly shocked at the quality of such an inexpensive guitar. Very close to my ?premium? brand guitars. Would definitely buy again.

I like the guitar. It sounds good, plays well out of the box, and looks as expected (as the pictures showed). It arrived on time - actually I think it may have come a day early. I have only 1 complaint of the guitar: the nut wasn?t installed true in the slot. It?s shifted over to the 1st string side of the fretboard slightly leaving a void in the slot on the low E string side of the fretboard. I feel like the strings are therefore shifted slightly to the 1st string side. If I weren?t expecting to change the plastic nut for one of bone I would probably contact customer service to request correction. Otherwise I enjoy playing it.

I purchased the Retro DLX Plus with modification in mind, and I thought it would have a bathtub/universal neck rout like the standard Retro DLX. It does not. There is no middle pickup rout either. That's what I get for assuming the more expensive Retro DLX Plus would offer the same degree of pickup versatility as the less expensive Retro DLX. Reaching out to Monoprice in advance would've spared me a bit of disappointment. Oh, well. For now, the plan is to take it to a local luthier and have a universal rout added. With that said, the satin finish on the neck is nice and the swamp ash body on my guitar is beautiful. The intonation is pretty good considering the vintage-style barrel saddles. There weren't any sharp fret edges on my guitar, but it didn't ship with paper between the strings and the frets. As a result, all of the frets were pretty rough, particularly under the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd strings. It was bad enough that I send the guitar back. The RMA process was relatively straightforward and painless, and I received a replacement Retro DLX Plus about two weeks later. The second guitar also shipped without paper between the frets and the strings. The frets were in better shape, but they'll still need a polishing to take care of the mild grittiness. I gave Monoprice some feedback on this, and hopefully they'll address what seems to be a minor shipping issue on future production runs. The neck pickup is as good as I expected on a $200 guitar, but the bridge pickup is quite serviceable for crispy power chord rocking. My plan is to replace the electronics, just because I'm in to that sort of thing, but they would work just fine for someone getting started. Also, just as an FYI, this is first guitar I've ever had that required me to loosen the neck screws just to get the pickguard off. Apparently this is common on necks with overhanging fretboards on T-type guitars—there is almost no wiggle room in the neck pickup rout. I've been spoiled by the restringing ease and stability of locking tuners, so that's the first modification I made. The great news is that Gotoh SG-381 MG-T locking tuners are a drop-in replacement for the Retro DLX Plus—no drilling required. All in all, this is a striking, inexpensive guitar that's perfect for someone looking to add an upgradeable T-type to their collection. Even with the gritty fret issue, it was well worth $200. If they get that sorted, it's a five-star purchase all day. Good luck!