Indio Cali Classic Electric Guitar with Gig Bag-Blue

Lets start with this: Don't expect a $500 guitar. It's not. It is a very good value for the money. Do you not own a Strat style guitar? Strat curious? This guitar is a great way to see if that style suits you. It hits all the points you should expect. As to the guitar itself, there are some drawbacks. You'll need to expect to do a bit of fretwork if you want to make the guitar play better than it's price. Nothing serious, but you should expect 3-4 high frets. This is my second Indio. Both had some high frets to work on. The one drawback you'll probably want to deal with immediately is the string trees. I spent $10 on some roller string trees and it helped the tuning stability IMMENSELY. Unlike some strat-ish guitars, you can't remove the string trees. There just isn't enough angle in the headstock. You need the trees, and you probably need better trees immediately. Bottom line here is that it's a good guitar for the money, and it's a nice platform to mod up. It's not ready to compete with a real strat, but as budget guitars go, it's a notable entry.

I purchased this guitar a little while back and was amazed at the quality for the price. The color is awesome and it plays very nicely. I'm sure I'll purchase another one soon. Barry K.

Guitar looks good and is playable but has many sharp frets overhanging the edges of the fingerboard. The deluxe version would probably be worth the added cost just to avoid needing extra work.

I got this for an insanely low price on sale. The guitar looks great, very nice finish. It needed a good set up fortunately I can do that myself. I filed the fret ends, leveled and polished the frets, and now ifs fine. It's going to be a mod platform. I will strip off the finish and redo in nitro, then relic it, tex-mex pups, new wiring and locking tuners.

It is a crime not to buy this at this price. Im highly satisfied with this guitar.

I knew what to expect, but it was much better!! As a guitar tech, after some fretwork and tweaking of the electronics, it plays very well. Great modding platform! Neck and body are both solid! I would definitely order again.

the pickups sound great! The finish on the body is cracking after just a week of owning it. the neck has bad fret sprout. the 1st fret on the low "E" buzzes pretty bad.

Got this guitar at a super low price. Figured it would be good for an upgrade project. Despite all the good reviews, I was still surprised by how nice it really is. Finish is flawless, action is spot on. Only thing keeping this from five stars are the sharp fret ends; some careful filing will fix that. I will probably still upgrade the strings, tuners and pickups, though the guitar is acceptable as is. This would be a great choice for a first guitar, providing you get rid of those sharp fret ends.

If you buying a first guitar and are going for the most inexpensive one you can find, this may be it. Please if you are giving it to your kid or a newer player, be responsible, shell out another $50 to get it properly set up. Have someone who works on guitars adjust it so it can be played easier. Otherwise you are giving yourself or your child some hurdles when learning. Otherwise, it's a cheap guitar. There is plenty of room after getting it setup, or at least put decent strings on it, to add newer and better parts. I believe thats what many people who are buying this are going to do.

Pretty nice for an inexpensive guitar! Love the color and finish. Slight buzz but that's to be expected with single coil pickups. I like it.

Overall a good value for the money, but needed some after-purchase attention to create a satisfying instrument. The 22nd fret was slightly raised and needed to be hammered back down. The nut material is very cheap. The slot for the low E string partially wrapped around the upper sides of the string, as though the slot had been drilled from the side rather than cut from the top. Changing the nut was a chore, as the original nut was a very snug fit and was glued very securely to the headstock side of its groove. I found the glue was mainly near the low E and A strings. It's a flat bottom nut. I replaced with a Graph Tech model 5010-00. The ends of that Graph Tech need to be sanded down to fit in the 42mm width, but the string spacing is fine for this neck. No major fret sprout, but the shoulders of the frets were sharp in some places and needed to be filed. The screw holes for joining body and neck are threaded through the body, which is wrong, only the neck holes should be threaded.

Really nice guitar for the price I paid. I donated it to our local music conservatory. The only downside was that the back of the neck felt a bit unfinished. I little bit of sanding and it would be fine. Otherwise it was perfect. I can't help but give it 5 stars even with the neck imperfection simply because of the price. It was set up well and intonation was pretty close. Great job Monoprice!

This Cali Classic is a winner! Normal set up required as with any new guitar, but sounds and plays wonderfully. The only minor drawback was the need to file down approximately 25% of the sharp frets, kind of expected with a guitar at this price. Gig bag is a plus, and like I said, the guitar is an overall winner and keeper!

i would have liked to keep this but it was damaged in shipment. return was easy.

Guitar showed up in pretty rough condition from neon stored for a while. BUT? a little 0000 steel wool on the frets (rusty) rolled the edges of the finger board and adjusted truss rod and action and this little beauty is an INCREDIBLE VALUE!! Came from the factory perfectly intonated. First time I've EVER seen that in a guitar at this price point. Not saying they are all like that?. But this one was and it was a pleasant surprise! Plus it has a prettier than normal maple fretboard with a little figuring which adds a lot of character.

The TL;DR; after some work, setup, and new strings, it is a really solid guitar for my kid, and I might even take it out for a gig myself! The good: - Fit and finish is great for the price. There's a tiny blemish in the otherwise solid paintwork, and the back of the neck was a bit rough. Other than that really nice. - Plays pretty well after the work I put into it - Sounds really OK. I do not yet feel the need to upgrade the pickups or even the electronics. pots are smooth enough and not scratchy. yet. - intonation, neck relief, and action height were pretty good out of the box! This all is unbelievably great for a sub $100 guitar. Props to monoprice! The bad: - fretwork. Guitar arrived very cold and the neck was a little shrunk so frets really felt like they were sprouting. After a couple of days it became much better, but still the fret edge work was very rough so I spent some time filing it into submission after getting a couple of nasty cuts from the frets. it was also really not polished. After filing the edges I ran some 0000 steel wool and a polishing compound and it's now OK. I'm going to recheck level now that it also had enough time to acclimate. - back of the neck was rough. Nothing that some light sanding and fretboard oil can't help - Saddles were pushed to one side so the high E string was falling off. Initially I thought that the neck is offside but it was just the saddles being offside.

Blue is really nice. Delivered in perfect condition. I did a little set up to my liking and installed a bone nut. These guitars are a great value. Excellent upgrade platform.

Great price-Quick shipping-Action was a little high-cosmetically perfect-Love the blue color-No sharp fret ends-Just did not like the way it sounded-But that is personal taste- Definitely Worth a Try

This model had a beck that requires significant dressing to make it playable. I was going to re-neck it however I purchased another Indio product with a rosewood fingerboard for les than the cost of re-necking. I must admit the tone from these pickups is fantastic. The scooped out sound on position 2 is better than my real strat. If you are looking at this guitar as a serious playing instrument buy a new new neck and tuners. This one is going to my grandson who just started playing.

I am 85 years old, I have played guitar since I was 9, I still play in a 5 piece country band.. I retired from engeering in 96, since I have been doing guitar setup and repair,over the years I have had at least 50 or so different types and brands of guitars including a USA strat ,this guitar sounds and plays just as good, i do not see how they can make any profit selling guitars at these prices,, the gig bag would cost you at least 30 dollars, I paid 89 for guitar and bag. , so you better buy one before they wake up and raise the price!. Enough said.