Poor quality but playable if you use care
Quality: The paint used on the guitar has pock-marks like it didn't adhere properly to the wood. The "binding" was carelessly drawn on with a sharpie pen. The frets look like they were retrieved from a junkyard - very uneven. The tuners are cheap but surpringly they don't rattle and seem to hold the strings well. The 1/2-size Dean Playmate JTJ guitars are also junky but they are marginally better than this (and they cost less! But my daughter had to have red so ... )
HOW TO GET GOOD SOUND Tip #1: Do not tune this guitar to standard EADGBE tuning. Intonation is absolutely dreadful - the guitar will be in tune in the middle of the neck but out of tune everywhere else. Follow the hint you will find in the Dean JTJ guitar reviews: tune up a step and a half to G (G C F A# D G) or even A. The guitar will be higher pitched but surprisingly it will be in tune!
HOW TO GET GOOD SOUND Tip #2: Adults when you play this guitar do not put too much pressure on the strings when you fret them. Use a VERY light touch just enough to make a clean sound. Press any more than that and you will sharp the notes! Small children shouldn't have much trouble with this as they will likely have a light touch anyway.
Bottom line: It's a $40 guitar. What do you expect? If you don't need red (or metallic or black) get the Dean JTJ instead. Otherwise this makes a fun little toy for a very young child (ages 3 to 8 can probably handle it adequately.)
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