Customer Reviews

Fender Starcaster Acoustic Guitar Pack with Accessories - Natural

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a very nice guitar package for beginners. The guitar itself is solid and holds the tune well. The overall package also represents a fantastic value. Everything one needs is there, including a tuner, a stand, picks and even spare strings. The instructional DVD is quite nice as well. I have no problem following the courses so far. The lessons only cover the basic chords, but still enough to get one started.

The price here fluctuates, but tends not to be very competitive. Some buyers have even received used guitars posing as new. Check out overstock.

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There must be a few versions, because some seem to have a stand and some not.
Mine was made in Indonesia, not China.

The construction and sound at this price is very good.
The assessories are poor to fair. Get a Korg CA-30 chromatic tuner which is not a lot of money.
Change the strings to lighter gauge coated strings. They are worth the extra $.
I highly recommend this for a beginner or player with limited funds.
I changed out the stock Fender strings which sound okay but leave a lot of corrosion on your fingers.
I have been using a lighter (11-52 and 12-53) gauge coated Ernie Ball set which I like.

After awhile, three weeks, I started getting a fret buzz on the two highest strings when fretting near the nut (low) end.
After some messing around with the tension a bit, I noticed that the nuts holding the tuners were loose and tightened them which helped. That could be because I live in a very dry climate and the wood shrank.
Loosening the tension rod about a quarter turn solved my problem.
Going to the lighter strings probably relieved some force on the neck, so caused a slight "hump" in the neck.
Loosening the tension rod allowed the neck to flatten.
If you have buzzing at the frets, try flexing the neck back and forward.
If the buzz goes away when the is neck flexed forward, loosen (to the left) the tensioning nut.
If the buzz goes away when you pull the neck back toward you, then tighten the nut.
Adjust in 1/8 turn steps or you can really damage the instrument.
There may be a slight dead spot, play, between tightening and loosening when adjusting the tension.
If you do not understand this then do not attempt the adjustment.
Take it to a music store if you are not handy.
Even expensive guitars can need adjustment due to humidity, string changes, or high action, so it is nothing to criticize this guitar about!

As far as the missing stuff, obviously open box, no tension adjustment, and other comments of a negative nature, I wouldn't accept any of that either, nor would I try to correct it twice. If the guitar played and looked fine, I wouldn't send it back. The assessories are not a deal maker. A decent guitar is. Fender should pay more attention these complaints. Just because it is cheap doesn't mean it has to be crap.

Mine looks, works and sounds better than I would have expected. The action is pretty good too. It is not a Taylor or Martin. If I wanted one of those I would get it from a music store.

I used to play in band a long time ago, know a little bit about guitars, suggest you avoid this one, it's just not worth the money (and three-stars is being generous). For starters, it's made in China. It's been my experience that musical instruments made in China or Korea are inferior (Japan OK). This one lives up to that reputation. Sound is fair at best, no neck adjustment (strings buzz against frets), quality just not there. I have an older Yamaha acoustic that's probably now in the same price/quality range as this one, and I would rate it superior. I had done research on Fender electric guitars a while back, bought one made in Mexico, it's just fine, but I remember at the time people warning against Korea/China-made Fender guitars. It appears they were right. No axe to grind here, but this one is just not worth $150. I'm going to send back and order the comparably-priced Yamaha - have never had a problem with Yamaha anything.

For less than a $100, you get the guitar, picks, a strap, an electronic tuner, extra strings and an instructional DVD. It's good enough to start learning and summer nights around the campfire. It's definitely not great but for the price it's unbeatable. If you plan to carry the guitar around, the gig bag is really bad, consider a case.

I know nothing about guitars so I did do a little research before purchasing this for my almost 14 year old daughter for Christmas. She plays other instuments but has wanted to learn the guitar for some time and this seems to be a great item to learn on. It is a great value without being a cheap toy. The dvd leaves a little to be desired, but my daughter has gone online, mostly to utube and found some videos to learn the basics. I am happy with this purchase and so is my daughter!

very nice, better than i expected for 150 dollars, great for some one learniong guitar, my 15 year old son really loves it, the finish and materials are what you would expect from fender.

the fender guitar was exactly what i wanted for my daughter. it's in beautiful shape and high quality sound. it's a joy to listen to her learn to play!

If you are looking to buy this guitar, that probably means you are a beginner. I am writing this review to help you out a bit. Wanting to learn guitar really is a great thing, and you will be very glad you did if you stick with it. It is a very rewarding thing to know how to do. If you buy this guitar, though, it will make things extremely difficult for you.

Let me explain. Trying to learn on a guitar that is this inexpensive is very hard. This is because these guitars are VERY difficult to play. The action will be really high (which means that the strings will be really far off of the fretboard), which makes holding the strings down much harder and more painful than it should be. It will also have low quality hardware, which will make it hard to tune and keep it from staying in tune after you work to get it there. The strings will be prone to a lot of buzzing, which is especially annoying as a beginner because you may not be able to tell if it is you or the guitar that made the mistake.

At this point, your main concern should be finding a guitar that is easy to play. I promise you that this starcaster is not. There are a lot of things that determine the quality (and price) of a guitar: quality of woods, quality of construction, durability, etc. As a beginner, though, you really only need to worry about playability. If you are serious about wanting to learn, I very strongly suggest that you invest in something with a nice, low action. It will flatten out the learning curve tremendously. You will be very grateful to yourself later on if you save up a bit and get something closer to the $180-300 range. There are quite a few companies that make decent guitars for that price: Seagull, Epiphone, Art and Lutherie, Washburn, Luna, and more. One of the main reasons why so many people end up giving up when starting to learn is buying a cheap 'beginner pack' that came with a junk guitar. I have seen it happen more times than I can count.

Take it from somebody who had to learn this lesson the hard way. There was a time when I bought this beginner pack. I have been playing guitars for several years now. I own four of them. I really do know what I'm talking about, and it would have made things so much less miserable if I had just bought a slightly nicer guitar to start with.

i bought this for my fiance for christmas because he wanted to learn how to play guitar- it was a fabulous deal- i went on craigslist and ebay, where the same guitar (but used) were going for much more.

Had a crack on the backside near the neck when we got it. Cost me $35 to send it back. It was received by them on July 20, and I still do not see the refund on my credit card. Never again.