California Classic - Solid Body Electric Guitar - Red
You know it when you hear it. That distinctive California Classic sound made famous by artists like Dick Dale, David Gilmour, and Ritchie Blackmore. Whether it is the surf, blues, psychedelic rock, country, or classic hard rock, this California Classic Solid Body Electric Guitar from Monoprice is the perfect axe for your daily practice and performance needs.
This full-sized, 22-fret guitar features a double-cutaway body made of basswood, a bolt-on maple neck, a rosewood fingerboard, and chrome machine heads/tuning pegs. It uses three single-coil pickups in the bridge, middle, and neck positions. A five-position selector switch allows you to use each of the three pickups individually, while the 2 and 4 positions combine the neck and bridge pups with the middle one for that distinctive "quack" sound. A tremolo/whammy bar is included for note bending.
Before it gets shipped to you, each Monoprice guitar undergoes a setup, tuning, and inspection process by Master Luthier Roger Gresco here in Southern California. The setup ensures that the neck is straight, the action is right, and that it will stay in tune. Additionally, it comes with everything you need to get started, including strings (installed), the tremolo/whammy bar, a heavy-duty zippered black gig bag with shoulder strap, and a truss-rod wrench.
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Average User Satisfaction Rate
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 | | Rating:  (8 out of 10) | Reviewer: sp from Knoxville, TN | 3/11/2016 4:19:10 PM |
| | Respectable Guitar for the Price |  Pros: Good fit & finish
Decent fretwork and smooth fret ends
Pickups are decent
Plays out of the box
Solid value at this price point
Cons: Nut slots are the right depth, but the top of the nut is too high
Red color is "creamier" than website images
Tuners are okay, but some have a lot of play in them
I ordered the Red California Classic and I'm rather happy with the quality of the guitar for the price. Overall a respectable guitar at this price point. I purchased it as back-up for my Epiphone Les Paul and so I could have a guitar with a tremolo.
My 4 stars are based on the value of the guitar vs others in this price range ($75-$299), not the entire universe of ($300-$2000+) stratocaster styles guitars. Fit and finish were better than expected. Fret ends appeared to have been filed down and smoothed, which is great. Factory strings are decent enough that you can play around right out of the box. Pickups are great given the cost. Neck wasn't warped.
The tuners have a lot of play in them, which is not good, but they seem to work okay. The red colored guitar doesn't look exactly like the picture - it's red, but it's not the candy apple red that the picture might have you believe. In-person it looks like more of a "creamy" red for lack of a better description. The nut slots are cut rather deep, I believe that they are cut to the correct nut height for decent action, however probably as a cost-cutting measure they didn't go back and file the top of the nut so that the strings aren't buried down so deep, which could lead to pinching and tuning problems.
If you are thinking about wanting to play guitar, but don't want to make a big initial investment this would be a good starter guitar, but if you stick with playing you'll like pay much more for your next one instead of upgrading this one. Also, if you want a back-up guitar to take around to friend's houses or one the road, this is would be a good choice.
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| | Rating:  (10 out of 10) | Reviewer: Neil from Grand Rapids, MI | 2/15/2016 6:28:09 PM |
| | Great value! | Pros: Nice finish, neck feels great!
Quality and substantial feel
Really good action, very easy playability
Stays in tune very well considering it has a tremolo bridge
Cons: For this price, no Cons at all.
Purchased this guitar for a backup to keep at the cottage. Didn't like toting my expensive one back and forth, risking damage each time. All I can say is, Wow! Purchased the red model and the finish is really nice! For a sub-$100 guitar, I can not believe the action / playability of this thing. Right out of the box, the action is low with no buzz on any of the frets. I have not had to adjust a single thing to improve the action. I've never used it through an amp, other than with headphones via RockSmith on a PS3, so I can't comment on that aspect of it's performance. I was worried that an inexpensive guitar with a tremolo setup would be a pain to keep in tune. I removed the tremolo bar, but did not lock the bridge. Understandably, the initial tuning requires a bit of back and forth, but once tuned, it actually stays in tune quite well. I would not hesitate to recommend this to anyone looking to purchase an easy playing, inexpensive guitar. It is easily worth twice what I paid for it when compared to what else is available near the same price point.
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| | | Rating: (10 out of 10) | Reviewer: Gary D. Lucas from Minoa, NY | 9/17/2015 8:22:15 PM |
| | Yup, it Works! | Pros: Works and looks good!
Cons: For the price, none.
So here is the scoop from my perspective. I'm not a guitar player, I'm a drummer. But, wanted a back-up guitar at my house for practice and to learn a few things on the guitar myself. So, I didn't tell anyone in the band I was ordering this guitar because I didn't want them to have any preconceived notions about it. So when they showed up for practice, I asked them to try it out. They didn't recognize the "M" logo on it, so they had no clue where it came from. Both guitar players played it, and to me it sounded like they were playing their guitars to me. When I asked them how it "felt" one said "it's pretty good" the other said "it's okay". I then said it was a new guitar and asked what they thought would be a good price for the guitar. One said it played like a $250 guitar and the other said $200. When I said I paid under $90 including shipping and tax, they couldn't believe it. They said it's a steal at that price. So, for the price, it's a 10 star value. Now, would it work for a "real" gig? Who knows, I can't make that call. But for learning or as a back-up for a real show, I think you probably are not going to beat the deal. I wouldn't have spent this much time on a review if I didn't think it was worthy. However, I can't speak to the longevity, but this will not get heavy use. I will update if something happens. Oh, and I paired it with the red flames guitar strap. Looks great!
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| | | Rating: (10 out of 10) | Reviewer: pizza1 from ALPINE, CA | 8/9/2015 3:01:53 PM |
| | Quality at a crazy price | Pros: Smooth frets, great intonation, nice red finish and good sounding pickups
Cons: At this price none
I play mostly acoustic but wanted a strat style electric to plug in and have some fun. After reading all the reviews I figured this was a small enough investment to take a chance and I was not disappointed. Look this is not an American Fender or a MIM Fender but it is certainly as good or better than many upper end Squier's without doing any mods. I love it the way it is and mine was setup very nicely out of the box. The bag it came with is not the greatest but at this price it serves its purpose. I have to agree with many others that I don't know how they can make money on these at this price. I give it 10 stars because of the price to value ratio and as far as resale value, for 70.00 if I decide to upgrade I will probably pass this on to a kid that really wants to learn. Monoprice rocks.
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| | | Rating: (10 out of 10) | Reviewer: Anonymous from Denver, CO | 7/20/2015 1:16:56 PM |
| | Red California Classic | Pros: - Perfect glossy finish and a great red - it looks great
- all controls seem to work as they should
- frets are very smooth, neck seems straight, no buzzing
- a great guitar for the price
- arrived in perfect shape
Cons: - nothing major - the stocks strings weren't great, the pickups were set a bit high, and the action was also a bit high on some of the strings, but a new set of strings and a few easy minor adjustments made it very easy to play
This is my second Monoprice guitar having also purchased and reviewed the Route 66. I am very happy with both guitars. My Route 66 had some rough fret edges (they could use a bit of rounding on the edges), but the fret ends on the California Classic are very smooth. The action was a bit high initially on some of the strings, and the low E string was a bit off in terms of intonation and that string was hard to tune. I replaced the strings and lowered the action down to what Fender recommends for a strat which was easy to do. Intonation now seems excellent, action is good, and I don't have any buzzing on the frets. All the controls seem to work fine, and the finish is great. I am not an experienced player, but for someone starting out like myself, I can't imagine a better guitar for the money. It does seem to have a nice clean tone, and a very different sound as compared to the Route 66.
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(94.07%)
rated by 54 user(s)