Ashthorpe 38-inch Beginner Acoustic Guitar Package (Black), Basic Starter Kit w/Gig Bag, Strings, Strap, Tuner, Pitch Pipe, Picks

Very nice quality guitar with nice accessories for the kiddos looking to start playing. It's definitely a step up from the cheaper kid guitars but is at a good price point. It has a great sound quality and is decently loud for its size. I think the weight is heavier than a cheap plastic one but nothing a 7 year old or older couldn't handle.

I bought this as a Christmas present for my son, and honestly it’s been one of the best gifts we got him. Since Christmas morning, he’s picked it up every single day to play. That alone says a lot. He was so excited when he opened it and couldn’t wait to start strumming. I love that it came with everything he needed right away, so there was no frustration or extra things to buy. It actually made him want to keep practicing, which I didn’t expect. Now it’s just part of his routine he grabs it, plays for a bit, and shows us whatever he’s learned. From what I can tell, it looks and feels like a true guitar, just a bit smaller. Not too thick to fit under his arm and definitely adjustable based on the players height. The size is perfect for him, it sounds good for a beginner guitar, and it’s held up really well even with daily use. It’s been really nice seeing him get genuinely interested in learning something new instead of losing interest after a day or two. If you’re looking for a Christmas gift that doesn’t end up collecting dust, this one was a win in our house.

Perfect guitar for beginners. The size is perfect for my small hands as they are pretty stubby, and the color is amazing. Came in one peace so nothing was broken, and the tuner works great. It's been over 2 months since I got it and it's still amazing. Worth the money.

Great guitar! i bought this for my grandson's birthday, and he loved it! He is a beginner guitarist, and this guitar was perfect for beginners. it was thick with three C's and was really tuff. I thought the feel of the guitar was very homely and felt like it would go well in an HGTV bedroom. It came with a tuner, which was extremely helpful, since my grandson is a horrible guitar player. The strap fell off, but we won't worry about that... overall, a great example of modern human engineering, and art, would definitely recommend if you can breathe.

So freaking cool! I had no idea you could buy an acoustic guitar on Amazon until I seen a guy who got one for Christmas. My son has been wanting one forever so we got this one and it's awesome! The price is affordable but it looks expensive and it sounds amazing!

My 10 year old wanted a guitar for Christmas and this one was great! For the price I wasn’t expecting how good the quality is! easy to use comes with strings and pics, values for sure there and has a few accessories in case you need them and bag.

Do not buy this guitar. It sounds and looks great, but it can’t be tuned. Other people have noted this in their reviews, but I assumed that they either were not musicians, were inexperienced at tuning, or perhaps didn't realize that new string go out of tune quickly until they stretch out. Actually, they knew what they were talking about. These guitars are not tunable. Teaching someone to play guitar on an instrument that can’t be tuned, is like teaching someone to drive using a car with poor wheel alignment and malfunctioning steering. • I bought two 38" guitars, a blue and a sunburst version. Both had the same problems. If the strings are in-tune when they are open (no chord being fingered) then they will be out of tune when a chord is fingered. If you tune the guitar so that a particular chord is in-tune, then when the strings are strummed while open (no fingers pressing down on them) they will be out of tune. This appears to be due largely to the excessively high action (height of strings over the fret board) of the guitar. When a string is pressed to the fret board, it stretches more than it should, changing the pitch inordinately. I think there are other contributing factors as well, perhaps the frets are slightly misaligned, but I can’t say with certainty. It would not add to the manufacturing cost to eliminate these problems. It is simply a question of basic design and precision. • Excessively high action (height of strings over the fret board) makes fingering chords more difficult. Even for me, playing certain barre chords close to the nut (top of the neck) was a challenge. Standard chords that children will be taught first are all playable, but slightly more difficult than they should be, especially for little hands. • Sound quality, or tone as some people refer to it, is very good. I was surprised. While the guitar does not sound like a Martin (gold standard), it has a bright, snappy sound with plenty of resonance and overtones. It is a steel string guitar (instead of nylon like many starter guitars) and this makes a big positive difference. I enjoyed playing it in this regard. Given the price, it is excellent. I believe that the people who complain about the tone of the guitar, are really hearing the dissonance of poor tuning. If the guitar is tuned perfectly for a single chord, which is possible, it sounds great—pretty cool actually. • The paint jobs are great for kids. They are bright, colorful, and shiny. There are a few minor blemishes and imperfections, but so what. Given the price, they are wonderful. • Electronic digital tuner o Looks nifty, but it is not high quality. After tuning with it, I still needed to make small adjustments by ear. Not a good situation for a beginner player, but probably it is fine. To be fair, a Peterson electronic tuner (gold standard) costs as much as this guitar. o After turning it on, the user must select from chromatic, violin, guitar, bass, and ukulele. It remembers the selection the next time it is turned on, but it is easy to change the selection inadvertently. This is a poor design for children. But almost all tuners are like this. It is an inexpensive way for the manufacturer to provide value. Practically speaking, it is just a nuisance. Most people buy a tuner for a single instrument. o The single control button is extremely awkward and difficult to locate and press. Just a bad design. o Before it can be used, a paper tab needs to be removed from the battery. When the tab is pulled (to remove it) it rips, leaving in the battery compartment paper which still must be removed to activate the device. This happened on each tuner that came with the two guitars I bought. A very, very tiny Phillips head screw locks the battery compartment door. A jeweler’s screwdriver is needed to remove it. • Pitch pipe does not work well at all. A horrific little device, it is difficult to get sound from it. Looks like something they threw-in in a desperate and misguided attempt to compensate for the fact that the guitar cannot be tuned properly. • The guitar comes with a single instruction page (front and back) of useful information, which includes valuable instruction about traditional ways to tune a guitar. While well done, one gets the feeling that it is again a desperate and misguided attempt to compensate for the fact that the guitar cannot be tuned properly. Bizarrely, one side of the page also contains diagrams for fingering many different barre chords. Barre chords are for advanced players. Diagrams of basic chords that beginners need to learn first would be far more useful. • One must conclude that the people who are satisfied with these guitars and don’t return them are themselves not musicians, or don't have a good ear for music. Even an amateur musician should deem these guitars unacceptable.

This guitar is fun for the littles, especially if they want to copy an older sibling or a parent, but it's not a viable instrument for a child interested in learning music properly (unless you're willing to invest time in fiddling with stuff normally left to a luthier or guitar tech). As a toy, I'd probably give it 4.5 starts. As an introductory instrument, I'd give it 1 star or maybe 2 at the most. If you are looking for a "toy" instrument that your child can strum on and bang around, this will suffice. It's lightweight and has a decent strap, makes sounds, and comes with the extras you'd expect in a beginner guitar kit. However, if you are looking for an affordable beginner/student instrument for your child, I would recommend an actual instrument manufacturer that produces 1/2 scale and 3/4 scale instruments like Yamaha (their APXT2 acoustic 3/4-scale guitars are fantastic quality for the price point). You are simply not going to find a decent instrument in the $50-$60 range unless you hit a home run and find a used instrument from a reputable manufacturer on eBay/Craigslist/FB Marketplace/your local music or guitar shop. Entry level student guitars are typically going to be at least $150+ for steel string and $125+ for nylon string/classical if buying new. ISSUES: - TUNING: similar to most toy stringed instruments, the strings constantly drop out of tune, especially in the lower registers, even with continuous stretching and retuning to break in the strings. For an instrument this small, tuning up to G or A will help keep the tensions better, but the strings/tuners still tend to slip. The tuners appear to be plastic finished to look like metal. - ACTION isn't terrible (not the worst I've seen on toy guitars), but still a little high. - INTONATION: This is one of the deal breakers. As you fret higher up the fingerboard the pitches go sharp and don't stay in tune. The distances between the nut to 12th fret and 12th fret to saddle are close to equivalent, so it may be an action issue or a fret placement issue. If you want to have a fun DIY luthier project to mess around with, then maybe this is a good starting place. Perhaps fiddling with the nut and/or saddle height would correct some of the tone issue, but I doubt that's something you want to do. I haven't checked fret spacing, but there's a chance this isn't tonally salvageable unless it's refretted. - FINISH: decent finish, but there is overspray from the body color on the base of the neck. I could see some value in using this to teach basic notes and open chord shapes, with the caveat that you may have difficulty having those notes sound at the correct tuned pitch (and chords may sound dissonant). As a toy, it's decent value, and better quality than other options. As an instrument for a child earnest about entering into wonder and joy of the world of music, it sounds bad and won't provide a serious experience. The time, effort, or money you'd have to spend to make this playable would be better invested in an actual student-grade/entry-level guitar.