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Comments
For the money they do look to be exceptional value but it would be interesting to see how good the setup is on them out of the box. It's certainly worth a punt and Argos, from my experience, do have a decent returns policy for counter sales.
I have one, though it's from years ago, and every aspect of it is much worse than in what I'd call a normal guitar.
If someone was poor and could only afford that and didn't already have a guitar I'd say get it as it's infinitely better than not having a guitar.
But someone who can afford better and is just trying to be a penny pincher isn't going to get the bargain they expect.
After some cleaning and basic setup It plays ok and is certainly not rubbish. I'm also sure that it's not a patch on an expensive guitar but as I'll never own an expensive guitar it's not an issue for me.
Your not gonna get a custom shop guitar for only a few quid but they are not unplayable junk either.
Like I say, it's just curiosity. I'd not be asking if it was a bogus brand, but its Squier/ Fender.
Squier/Fender don't have any special ability to squeeze extra out of a bottom end material budget, they're just a business and want the "guitar my kid will give up in a couple of months" money along with all the other markets they make money in.
Looking at the photographs, some of the hardware is cheap 'n' nasty. It can be upgraded. A bit of DIY fettling to nut slots and fingerboard edges should improve the playing experience.
At £89, I would think of the Argos-supplied guitar in the same way as a charity shop or car boot sale find EXCEPT it will not have the evidence of abuse or neglect.
The fixed bridge is infinitely preferable to an unstable ultra-cheap vibrato. For my tastes, through body stringing would improve matters. (Another DIY task.)
That said, if it wasnt a Squier I'd not be looking at Argos.
I think you could be correct on this point but it is a concept that really irritates me. Any product should be fit for purpose at any price. If you can not build and sell a playable instrument for £90 then you should not be selling a piece of crap at that price.
If it's your kid's 20th fad of the year then it will limit the money that will be wasted when they give it up but, again, will be tuneable so they can sample actually playing music.
But if it's for someone who can already play the guitar to any level, or an adult who isn't just having a month-long fad, at that price level it's quite a small number of pints of beer, starbucks coffees - or whatever else we spend money on without thinking - to get up to something that is massively better.
I.e. if you have a Mexican Fender you could spend many hundreds of pounds on an upgrade and barely notice any difference but at this level you're talking 20 pints or coffees worth to get an Affinity which is a big jump in quality.