S300 Review

3 single coil pickups, vintage tremelo, white scratchplate, 5-way switch.

Features:	6.4
Sound:	5.6
Action:	7.6
Reliability:	7.8
Impression:	7
Overall rating:	6.9
Users rating:	6.8
Comments:	16

overall: 9.6

Featured review by: Punk_MetalOrHC?, on september 06, 2005

Price paid: $ 189

Purchased from: Local Shop

Features: It was made in 2003 in China. It's a black and white Strat copy and has 21 jumbo frets. I kept it completely standard ('cause I know nothing about customizing). It has 3 single coils (it's a Strat). The hardware is pretty good for the price. It has a volume knob and 2 tone knobs and a tremolo. The pickup selector is a little noisy. The tuners stay in tune for a pretty long time. The only downsides are that the guitar is pretty heavy and the strap buttons aren't so good either. // 10

Sound: The sound is pretty good (but of course not like a real Strat). You can play any kind of music on it from clean to punk and alot more. It's a little noisy. Especialy the higher strings can be buzzy sometimes. But it's not that bad that it gets anoying. // 8

Action, Fit & Finish: It was in good condition when I got it. I only had tighten one of the tuners 'cause it was loose and one of the pickups was to low. There wasn't anything else wrong on it. The finish on this thing is just amazing. Everything looks great. The action is good. Soloing can be a little harder than on an Epiphone or something but it's still good for such a cheap guitar. You'll just have to get used to it. It has jumbo frets too to make things a liitle easier. // 10

Reliability & Durability: I played gigs with it without a backup and it has never failed me. And with all the abuse it has taken it's still in very good condition: it only has a few minor scratches on the back and it fell of a couple on stairs and it only lost a little chip of wood on the head. The tuners will stay in tune for a long time, no matter how hard you play. // 10

Impression: This is a very good guitar I've been playing it for almost 2 years and it still looks like new. I use it mainly for punk, but you can play almost any kind of music on it. I'd say that it's a very good guitar for beginners: it's pretty easy to play and realy cheap (it was the cheapest I could find, that's why I bought it, and I'm still very happy about it). // 10

overall: 6

Reviewed by: joesamsnow, on may 30, 2008

Purchased from: The Music Box

Features: This Stagg has 21 frets, a solid top, and it's neck is made from Maplewood. It has the bodystyle of a Strat, and has a 5 way selecter, 2 tone controls and 1 volume control. It has 3 pickups, 1 of which is a humbucker. The tuners are non-locking. I got this in a starter pack, so it included a gig bag, strap, cable, spare strings and a beginners teaching guie. // 6

Sound: My style of music is rock, and this kind of suits any type of music. It is what I call an allrounder. I use it with my Cheetah 30w amp and Behringer SF300 pedal most of the time. It does give a bit of feedback, but not too much. The sound is full, however there are not many variations to the sound. // 4

Action, Fit & Finish: The action is not spectacular, as sometimes the strings buzz. The pickps are good quality, The bridged and nut have been properly fitted and set up. Some of the fret markers had stains on them, which was quite suprising as Stagg make excellent quality guitars. // 7

Reliability & Durability: This guitar would withstand Live gig's etc, as it is really light. The hardware does seem like it would last quite a long time, and the strap buttons are solid. The finish will last quite a long time, however will wear off eventually. // 7

Impression: I think this matches my personal needs, as it is a low budget guitar, and comes in a pack with most other essentials for only £139.99. I have been playing for 3 years, and this is my first electric guitar. As I have said before, I own 1 FX pedal and 2 amps (30w + 10w), but also a Nevada acoustic guitar for £89.99. If this guitar was stolen or lost, I would buy a different guitar, probably a Gibson SG, as that would suit my style even more. I love the colour (Navy Blue) and finish to the guitar, and also the maplewood neck, as I can slide donw the fretboard faster. I chose this guitar to start of with because it came in a beginner pack, and was on my budget. I wish this guitar had a harder wearing body and finish, but overall, this is a good guitar. I would reccomend this guitar to beginners with a low budget. // 6

overall: 7.2

Reviewed by: HeartRaz0r, on february 15, 2008

Price paid: $ 126

Purchased from: Local Music store

Features: My guitar was made 2001 in Japan. It has 21 jumbo frets. It has this white scratch plate, wich doesn't look that nice anymore if you play sometimes on it. It's a Strat style piece of crap, with a Vintage tremolo and crappy pickups wich are getting really noisy. You have a pickup selector, volume and 2 tone knobs. Mine came with a gig bag, a cable, and a strap. It's not very good but have some awesomeness for a cheap guitar. // 6

Sound: It suits for classic rock, wich I play, and using wah and delay is nice on it. On brighter sound it gets noisy and well, it can get really noisy if you turn the volume up. It hasn't that much variety cause it's hard to get heavy metal sound with that guitar. // 7

Action, Fit & Finish: It's rly great finished for that money you pay, but it could be better. The tone knobs are loose sometimes, and if you use the tremolo, the strings are doing some noises you don't want. It needed a bit setup at first, but then it stays in tune for weeks, I rly like that. // 5

Reliability & Durability: You won't play Live with that, but I did. It was a mistake, on stage I changed the guitar. It will last, but if you abuse it, not anymor. The strap buttons suck a bit, and get loose after a while. I would never use it on a gig without a backup. Well the finish is good enough to last, and you'll be satisfied of it. // 9

Impression: I'm playing mostly all kinds of rock/metal/punk and it just suits to punk and rock. I own some other useless guitars, this one is the jewel of useless guitars. I should ask for a Epiphone Les Paul Special before I bought this one, it was an mistake. If it weere stolen or lost I wouldn't even search it anymore and I had a very good reason to make my parents buy me a new guitar. I hate it's noisy pickups sometimes, but that depends on wich amp you play. My favourite Feature is, that the gutiar stays in tune for weeks and during using/abusing tremolo, wich surprises me. I compare it with some Ibanez beginner guitars, but this one should be better than them. I wish that it had an Humbucker in bridge position and an licensed Floyd Rose, than it could be the perfect beginners guitar. // 9

overall: 8

Reviewed by: guitarist5001, on january 07, 2008

Price paid: $ 220.4

Purchased from: Nearby shop

Features: This guitar is a Strat copy so it comes with all the features you would expect from a Strat, 5-way selector, volume knob, two tone knobs, whammy bar. I haven't customised my Stagg at all (I have got no idea how). But the thing that sets this guitar apart for me was that I bought in a pack with a tiny ten watt amp, bag, a set of strings, pitch pipe for only 290 AUD. This is great value even if I have had to replace the amp due to it's awful sound. // 7

Sound: I use a large 50 watt amp with this guitar and it suits the style I play (alternative to heavy rock) fairly well. And it produces a fairly good sound in this style. This guitar can also be used to generate sound from a very clean sound to a heavily distorted one. And it handles these styles with some skill. It's starings are also fairly easy to bend for a rather highish action guitar which adds to genre versatility. // 8

Action, Fit & Finish: This guitar was completely flawless when I bought it. With absolutely nothing wrong with it as you would expect with a new guitar. This guitar is fairly high action but I am used to that from years of playing with acoustics. A problem I found with it though is that when the wahmmy bar is used it puts the guitar out of tune very fast but this is understanable given the price of the guitar. // 9

Reliability & Durability: This guitar will definatly withstand Live playing it is a very solid guitar! The hardware seems like it will definatly last as there really is not much that could go wrong with this guitar. I've had this guitar for just over a year and nothing much has gone wrong however the socket for the cable is getting a bit loose which is easily fixed but as someone else pointed out the strap buttons allow my strap to fall off very easily which really is annoying. Otherwise this is a reliable and fairly durable guitar. // 8

Impression: I play music by a large number of bands including Coldplay, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. And this guitar matches these styles of alternative rock to heavy rock fairly well. I have been playing for almost 3 years and I own a Johnson 50r amp, a Stagg 10 GA P and a few Acoustic guitars. But when this guitar is matched with my larger, higher qaulity 50 watt amp it is a very good guitar. And for the price I payed for it (roughly 290 australian) it was definatly worth the money. However it is really a beginner's guitar so if it were say lost I would not purchase it again. // 8

overall: 3.6

Reviewed by: daralrmatic, on february 01, 2006

Price paid: $ 189

Purchased from: Drums & co

Features: // 3

Sound: This is a good guitar for real beginners. I mostly play metal like Metallica, Hatesphere, but for that genre the guitar isn't suited then you can better buy an Ibanez Starter Kit. The guitar is best suited I think for like blues or jazz (the genres were you don't really need a super sound). For metal this guitar sucks, it has no full or rich sound only a high tone, wich is verry anoying after a while. // 1

Action, Fit & Finish: The set-up was great for the price of the guitar, afterwards I also could always return to the shop for probs. You have, and that is verry usefull cause after 3 months this guitar starts to have one problem after the other. Tunners get stuck, or stop worcking, and again the sound produced of this guitar is really awfull. The neck is pretty good it's good to like play solo's, but thats the only good thing probally about this guitar. The guitar looks pretty good there were no flaws in the begining except the sound again. There were no loose controls, etc. // 7

Reliability & Durability: If you play with this guitar at first everybody will laugh cause even if you play correct it doesn't sound that good. After a while people will start to get crazy cause the guitar produces these verry sharp high tones. The hardware will last it think it's all pretty good. The strap buttons really suck when I play with it the guitar constanly falls so I just removed the strap and I play when I sit down. The finish is really cool the color like depends on the way you look at it so thats really cool. // 5

Impression: I would say it's a pretty good guitar for a beginner for about a year but then you start to notice the major flaws in this guitar. You can also never get good sound out of this guitar. The best thing about this guitar is the neck and the finish. If it were stolen it would be sad for one minute and want a litle bit of my money back but I wouldn't buy it again. Don't get me wrong, to begin and to play blues/jazzy this is a good guitar but if you wan't to play metallica, dream theater, hatesphere, this guitar sucks. // 2

Comments

[skin]

Yes yes yes!!! i myself have been playing a stagg strat for four years and i am also really inpressed with it, i originally bought it just to say i have a strat but i think it sounds really good, definatly a playable gig guitar. Cool Paul samways

[saberrocks]

This is my first and only guitar, and it's really cool to play with.

[ALEX V)]

this guitar really sucks how can any one say its good for any thing if ppl who say its good play a better guitar youll no how muc it sUCKS

[Discouraged]

This is my first and only guitar too. But no, its not cool to play with. It's really bad. The guy that rated this a 9.6 is a complete fool. There are much better guitars out there. Much better. These things are a mediocre stepping stone for beginner guitarists. But even so, it doesn't, or shouldn't, take them long to discover that it was a waste of money, and that it could have been spent elsewhere, like on a Yamaha Pacifica. No beginner should have to learn to play on one of these things. I wish I didn't have to. But sadly, I'm poor, and cannot afford another guitar to compensate for my excessive lack of judgement when purchasing my first.

[ronan-the-great]

i had one with a humbucker at bridge. first guitar i owned. its the worst guitar i ever played but then most starter guitars are really bad

[Drew_Entreri]

I purchased mine ONLY because I got an extremely good deal. The guitar shop I was going to buy an Austin starter package for 150.00 was sold out of that package. They were beyond nice because they let me "make" my own package. I chose this Stagg and other items for $120, and for that price This was VERY nice.

[Robin P]

it was my first guitar and is my only electric its good for a starter and the sounds decent however i have had to raise the pickups and tighten some bolts but for only 120 with amp its not bad and it does what it says its a starter guitar replica of a strat the sounds good i've found my old amp was shit but i'm now playing through a second hand marshall i got fairly cheap and have come along way in my 2 years of playing perhaps the sounds not bad but its , some people expect the guitar to sound good when they themselves are not so good? Stagg make decent replicas not the highest standard but my stagg electro acoustic is also fine , i will buy something like a les puals or fender strat oneday but this a fine guitar for most purposes and i think its great however im a sucker for the fender label and have already put a fender strap on it i might even change the pickups to see if it really does improve the sound to me it sounds fine? , i can get a decent sound email me to here my back in black cover i've found soloing fine on it , it's me playing along to a backing track and i have the full song in tab form in my guitar techniques magazine.

[Bottom Dweller]

As a bass player I wanted a cheap guitar to beat around on. I paid $85 for mine at a store that was dropping the line. It sounds pretty good but if you ever touch the bar, you gotta re-tune. No big deal to me, I mean I did not expect $2500 sound and quality for $85. I don't see a need to spew profanities and talk about what a piece of crap it is...anyone who has played for a while knows you get what you pay for.

[austinarcadium]

ive owned this for a little bit over a year. when i first got it i had only been playing acoustic for 6 months so i really knew nothing about electrics, or guitars for that matter. so bought it without researching and mostly because of its looks. now a year later i regret my descision. the tone is way to high and i can barely hear any different in sound in any of the pickups. im selling for for hopefully atleast 3/4's of the price i bought it for to get a Hagstrom F-20. its a good beginner guitar, but i dont recommend it if you play more than a year

[Thud]

This was my first guitar. It really isn't that bad for a beginner. It's pointless to go out and by a $500 guitar, and a $250 amp only to find out that you really don't enjoy playing. Overall it's a nice beginner guitar. I learned the basics on this, and then passed it on to two of my friends. I just got it back yesterday, it's a little dirty, but it still looks good. It sounds alright, but don't expect to get any amazing tone out of it.

[Matiurus*]

come on for its price its incredible

[weselow]

Its my first and only guitar and I think I should buy better. But its very cheap.

[Fash]

ALEX V) wrote:

this guitar really sucks how can any one say its good for any thing if ppl who say its good play a better guitar youll no how muc it sUCKS

shut up dude. their not comparing it with something else, their comparing it with strat's so shut up. this thing is pretty good for it's kind. i have one myself and though the neck is a bit thick and it'll wear you out pretty fast (at least for me) it's still pretty good...

[HeartRaz0r]

well one of my favourite guitars, cuz it was my first~... it's rly nice

[joshuahughes34]

I agree with Fash, this alex v dude is obviously a hater of strat copies. this is my first guitar and I have the left handed version, i have played and listened to my friends guitars + some of my dads, and i have to say it is a brilliant guitar, especially for a beginner, i've had it for 1 and a half years and i wudnt trade it for any other guitar at the same price

[mr. BiGG]

i must say that i myself dont find strats to nice looking but ill keep that out of what im about to say now. all in all its just another cheap guitar fun yes worth getting purely cos of how cheap it is but if u can just go abit higher in price because that little skip higher say 200£ makes all the difference