Johnson JG-610-BL-¾ 610 Player Series ¾ Size Acoustic Guitar, Blue

I got this guitar when I was younger & trying out a few different instruments. Among piano & cello, guitar was something I took interest in & wanted to get more familiar with. Some kids I was growing up with played & they inspired interest. This guitar is easy to tune, restring when necessary (through the years I did end up replacing some strings), & the color is an absolute stunner. The 3/4 size makes it great for kids or petite adults to handle ease. Sure there are higher end instruments you can buy- but this one checks all the boxes to get started, has a decent sound, doesn’t break the bank, & is beautiful.

I ordered this for a student; a small girl that had been given a full size dreadnought by her grandfather. Her's is a great guitar but much larger than she could handle. We needed a smaller instrument that she could learn on till she grew into hers. Because of reviews on other places we picked out this one together. Unfortunately she was present when it was delivered. We opened it together and she was very excited (I will admit that the guitar is very attractive). That's the last good comment to make about it. We tuned it, or tried to and she tried to execute some of the things that she had learned. She became very disappointed. I assured her that the problems she was having were issues that we could deal with. I couldn't disappoint her by telling her we needed to return it and look for an alternative. I didn't expect Martin, Gibson, or Takamine tone from this thing. I did expect something acceptable. What we got was, but barely. The issues with this guitar-toy are numerous. The two biggest were these: The fret wires extend beyond the board and they are VERY rough. Running one's hand along the edges of the fret board is uncomfortable. The strings sent with the instrument are very cheap.What we had to do: Fortunately, I have the tools that made it possible to smooth the ends of the fret wires. This is a standard operation when installing or replacing frets. I imagine that this step has been omitted in the factory to save money. For anyone with the tools an expensive trip to a luthier would be required. We re-strung the guitar with a set of high-quality light strings. The strings cost fewer than $10 and the guitar sounded better immediately. The tone of most guitars improve with playing and age. I hope that that's the case for this one. At least now she has something that fits her and that she can use to learn until she grows into the larger guitar. I would NOT recommend this guitar to a friend.