Very pleased with the overall experience of purchasing this guitar. The guitar arrived in a timely manner and the guitar was set up fairly well out of the box.

This is my third (and ironically most expensive) Monoprice guitar. And the least impressive
. The other two were great. No issues. Arrived well set up. And cost a third less than this one. This one arrived with no setup at all, strings too high to play, Intonation not set and some significant cosmetic issues, the worst being a tone control that did not fit the recessed pocket and rubbed, (mounted crooked I assume) rubbing a rough spot in the fancy maple veneer. More damage to the veneer near the middle pickup, mounted crooked. I appears the veneer was knocked off by someone installing or adjusting the pickup.
. If you can get past all that, it is an OK guitar.The pickups sound good. Neck and frets are relatively well finished. A few sharp edges. Although the neck is much fatter than I expected. Not a skinny strat type neck. Frets a bit gritty. Fingerboard a bit rough.
Like everything else, the tuners are just OK. marginal. A bit tight but they work.
With the exception of the previously mentioned issues, the finish looked good. Binding, paint all excellent.
With some work, I got the action to a reasonable level, which seemed to improve the intonation. The D'Addario strings are excellent. Sound good, easy to bend. .
Plays OK but but not worth the $60 to $80 premium over the tele and les paul clones I bought. I have both of those and they are excellent. This is a C grade guitar. in the Monoprice Universe.

For a beginner guitar this is so much more. Don't let the price fool you this is a serious guitar. Fit and finish is great the hardware is quality and it plays beautifuly.

Love it plays great sounds awesome

Let me preface by saying, I’ve purchased 3 guitars, 3 amps, and various other items from Monoprice, and they have all been great values. The guitars only needed minor setup tweaks but were generally good right out of the box.

However this is a cautionary tale when purchasing this particular guitar as “Open Box”. The $30 savings ended up being an enormous waste of my time and money.

THIS guitar is fundamentally flawed and a piece of trash now. I admit I like purple shiny guitars (big Prince fan) and the finish on this guitar is what got me! I wanted a purple project guitar to make my own so I changed the nut, added locking tuners, put 3 Dimarzio pickups with switching for each. I have some expensive tools and luthier skills so I hoped to make this something special. In hind site not sending this guitar back for FULL REFUND was a huge mistake. Below are the issues this guitar had.

1. Sharp fret ends. The worst I've ever seen. No Problem tidy them up with file.

2. Many Uneven frets. A Big job, but I have the tools and this problem can be corrected. Had to do this with expensive Gibson's before.

3. Chipped headstock, Nothing a black Sharpie couldn't cover up.

4. Now Here's the Biggie that should have clued me in. Trem Cavity and Claw not properly aligned with Trem (see pics).

Had hopes for Wilkinson Trem but most floating Trems give me problems when bending strings or alternate tunings so I'd block it off for a "Hardtail".

5. NOW HERE'S THE "COUP DE GRACE"! 2 Point Trem Pivot holes out of alignment. Not having these right will make the guitar unplayable. Only option is to remove bushings, plug holes, and redrill. This is not an option since it will look ridiculous unless you have the paints and finishing products to cover it up.

Moral of the story, Beware of OPEN BOX. There are some reviews here by players with Luthier Skills mentioning similar issues with this. I purchased this guitar in 2019 and worked on it in bits and pieces over time so I don’t expect any action by Monoprice, but just hope they have a “good batch” for others considering this guitar.

I've only had a few minutes to tune it and play it but for the money...it absolutely fantastic. I own 15 other guitars , mostly original Fenderrs, Gibsons and Washburns....I wanted a couple "knock around " guitars I could leave in the studio...This one and the Telecaster copy are both really good guitars! Feel, look, tone and play-ability are excellent for the money!!!

The Helix Flamed Maple looked good, was well set up, plays and sounds great.
Shipping and product, 5 stars all the way.

Very fast action and sounds great! Very nice looking axe! E string alittle buzzy but not that bad...…..5 stars!

For the price it is a great starter guitar. Unfortunately, we have had repeated problems with the pickup selector switch on 2 different units. Monoprice's return policy has been easy and generous, but one of the guitars also had fret buzz problems and had to be returned.

Would really like to give this a high review, but can't due to the quality problems.

This is cosmetically a beautiful guitar but quality is measured in thousandths of an inch.

The slot for the low E string was cut too low, causing .003" clearance over the first fret and buzz on the open E string. There is no cure for this and I had to replace the nut.

There is no way that this guitar passed through the hands of a luthier in Southern California, and Monoprice should stop repeating this lie.