I’ve been wanting another guitar project but since Covid DIY kits have trebled in price, so I decided to get a cheap acoustic, that I can grab and play rather than dragging out the amp etc
Sooo the Martin Smith W100 currently £39.99 on Amazon came into my life, which is a full size dreadnought style guitar 39 inch, comes with spare strings, strap and picks and a free set of tutorials online or a 30 min free lesson with a teacher…
If you compare it to an unbranded supermarket guitar it’s a lump better, my grandson got a similar priced guitar from Asda and it’s junk, after a few hours tinkering the W100 is an ok guitar…
That’s the problem though it needs fettling, out of the box it has no tension on the neck, I could of shot arrows with it there was so much bow in the neck, after 3 days of adjusting and letting it settle, adjusting that truss rod was probably the scariest thing I’ve done on a guitar, it’s now flat-ish. the action is a wee bit high but the intonation is only a midge’s sharp which really surprised me.
The tuners work but there is “nothing happening” changing direction but it stays in tune, strings seem ok, maybe a bit to heavy for my liking, the frets are low and need need the edges dressing.
The finish is shiny but there is the odd issue here and there, the inside looks decent, there’s no glue all over
I can see it being a great chuck it in the car and go camping guitar or something to practice with, but I’ve seen these for over £64 and for a beginner it would be a bad choice because of the need to fix it first, a shop may not even touch it or it’s going to expensive,
So for me it’s going to do it’s job and it’s getting nicer all the time but for a beginner no I wouldn’t recommend it, out of the box it would very counter productive