Features:

  • Solid top guitars offer richer sound with a greater dynamic range than laminate or ply tops. This means that high frequencies sound sweeter and low frequencies are fuller.
  • Fishman Isys+ pickup system provides a warm, natural tone, while its built-in chromatic tuner ensures that you are always in tune and sounding your best.
  • Feel secure playing your new Guitar anywhere you go like lessons, rehearsals, or to jam with the heavy-duty Gig Bag.
  • All Idyllwild guitars are professionally setup by our master luthier here in Southern California before they are delivered to your DOOR.
  • Buy with confidance with our 30-day money back guarantee and 1-year warranty.
Beautiful craftsmanship.

My daughter loves the feel of this guitar. It's not too big for her to use as she is a small adult.

Five Stars

I enjoy this guitar, sound is great and easy to play Thanks Monoprice.

Monoprice does it again

Nice bright clear spruce top tone, quality Fishman Isys electronics, excellent materials, finish and setup. I'm pleased with my guitar and recommend it for anyone looking for high quality at low prices.

Quality

I got this to replace my very first acoustic that I got a year ago. Mine was set up perfectly, and I've really been enjoying it. I have some strings to replace the D'addarios, but I honestly enjoy the brightness of them.

Great Guitar!

This is a great guitar! The sound is amazing, nice full bodied sound. Seems to be well built

Great value and quality

I am an absolute novice at playing guitar but, at 41, I decided to do something I’d always dreamed about and learn to play. I first ordered a cheap Chinese Gibson Maestro and I had a really tough time with string tension, and getting good sounding chords. I almost gave up but I had the chance to try out a Yamaha classical guitar and the lower tension nylon strings were a dream. However, as much as I enjoyed the Yamaha, it wasn’t mine. So, I searched for one with great reviews that wouldn’t break the bank. This one went on sale for $50 off and had a couple good reviews on YouTube so I took a chance. I couldn’t be happier! It came with a set of quality D’Addario strings preinstalled, a nice low action, and it’s nearly as easy to form the chords as the classical guitar. If you’re an absolute novice like myself, you can definitely do far worse. I consider this a really great deal on what feels and sounds like a quality instrument. I can’t compare it to more expensive guitars but I can say, if I had to choose again, I’d happily pick the same instrument.

Great set-up and tone!

My acoustic guitar was set up nicely...low string action, good frets, and seems to be blemish free. Nice Spruce top and electronics give good tone whether played without amplification or attached to a coffee house sound system. The guitar is very comfortable to hold and play. Tunes nicely and remains in tune - quality strings were attached.

A winner!

Beet acoustic I have ever owned, and at less than half the price of my previous ones. Trying to justify getting the cedar top as well. Update 6/26/18. Succumbed to getting the cedar top as well. Even better sounding, and really pretty! I can sit there and just look at it and marvel at the value. Currently, this cedar model can be be had for under $200 delivered.

Perfect Right Out of the Box

I was looking for a good, but relatively inexpensive, warm-sounding electric-acoustic cutaway guitar to play around with in my apartment and, if asked, maybe play a gig or two in town. This guitar has everything I could dream about in a new instrument. To begin with, although it doesn't say, the tuning heads look like Grovers. I didn't check the gear ratio, but a cursory tuning up feels like 16:1, maybe even 18:1. The neck is straight, frets are small and polished on the edges, and the body is finely crafted. I like that it has a polyurethane coat which, of course, makes it fingerprint and stain resistant. The Fishman electronics work fine, too. One thing I am extremely grateful for is this - typically, when I've bought acoustic guitars in the past, the first thing I do is remove the bridge, sand it down to a good, playable height, and put it back in the guitar. For the life of me, I don't know why guitar manufacturers always use these high bridges which makes pressing down the strings difficult. The fact that this guitar's saddle is also compensated (designed for a longer 'B' string') is a plus. Idyllwild also had the good graces to place the second strap button where a lot of acoustic guitars normally put it aftermarket - on the side of the lower bout of the neck. Lastly, I'm glad this guitar came strung with a set of high quality D'Addario EXP strings. It doesn't say which set was used but it feels light, perhaps 12-53, which would make it EXP16. All in all, a good purchase with no modifications necessary.

great value for a serious musical instrument

I've played guitar for about 40 years off and on, sometimes professionally. Now I frequent some pretty intense jam sessions and have felt the need for a real e/a guitar to supplement my sound. Bought this because it was about the same price as converting one of my Martins to electric/acoustic -without cutting holes in a $3k guitar. Online reviews were encouraging, too. Guitar arrived 2 days earlier than promised. Nice! Close inspection found no blemishes on the finish. This is a lovely guitar. Light -colored solid spruce top that will probably darken with age, Sides, neck and back are of, I think, sapele wood just like all those expensive Taylor guitars. The fretboard looks like Indian rosewood. Maybe it is. All-in-all, a very handsome combo. The multi-ply body bindings look sharp. The black binding on the neck and headstock looks like ebony (it isn't). The soundhole rosette is real inlaid wood and lends the whole guitar a 'southwestern' vibe. Very close inspection found some minor file marks on the neck - but the frets themselves were perfectly dressed and smooth. Intonation is spot on. The neck shape is very comfortable and is easy to play. Machine keys repeat the black highlights on the guitar and function smoothly. Looks very sophisticated. Observing the action as I removed the guitar from its very nice gig bag it looked like it was set for an electric guitar - very low action. I knew it would buzz like a Black and Decker... and it did. Quick use of the supplied allen wrench and a counter-clockwise series of small turns to the adjusting nut easily reached via the soundhole alleviated that problem quickly. NB: to beginning guitarists - I saw a video of this guitar where the owner, opening and playing this guitar for the first time, states that he is 'trying not to panic that it is not in tune". Don't be that guy! Guitars shipped through the mail are subject to many climatic and physical stresses. It will not arrive in tune. The neck on many guitars will likely need adjustment. It isn't tough and don't be afraid to do it. There are many tutorials on-line, but if your guitar strings are rattling against the frets just loosen the neck a quarter turn ccw at a time. You don't even need to slack the strings when you loosen the neck. Give the neck a few minutes to settle, retune, and you'll notice the rattling is less or gone entirely. If you are still getting some noise loosen it a bit again. Over the course of a few days you may need to make more small adjustments as the instrument responds to your climate conditions. This is normal. Strings take time to stretch in and stabilize and you'll have to retune fairly frequently when using new strings.. That's just the way it is. To make a guitar sturdy enough to not be affected by weather conditions would require such a bulky, heavy instrument that you'd be better off putting strings on a wooden palette and playing that. After making my neck adjustments I tuned up the strings using the built-in tuner, Very simple to use, accurate, and has a nice feature that automatically cuts the external feed when you turn on the tuner. Keeps audiences from having to listen to you tuning up. Easy peasy. Make sure that you turn off the tuner when done or it will drain your battery. Also, unplug the guitar cable from the jack when you are not playing so as to preserve battery life. The included 9volt was probably just installed for testing purposes. It will die quickly. My first strums surprised me with how much projection it has...very nice. But the sound??? Arrrgh!!! To me it was very harsh and full of grating high harmonics. I know that they use D'Addario strings (great strings! I use them all the time). But I suspected that these strings are the 100% brass ones. On the Idyllwild cedar top guitar they would sound perfect because the cedar lends a dark, mid-rangy tone just crying out for the high-end sparkle of these strings. Spruce tops are naturally much brighter in tone and these strings' added brightness was too much for me. I solved the issue by restringing with D'Addario Phospher Bronze strings (I always have a variety extra strings around for my 8 guitars). That was the trick!! The sound became just what I hoped it would be. Plugging into an amp I found the Fishman system very easy to use, has useful equalization, and the 'phase' control acts as a contour button to boost highs & lows for a richer sound when played at low volumes. I haven't gigged with it yet (tomorrow night!!) so I don't know how effective it will be in reducing feedback. Sounds great at home in the studio, for sure. For the past few days I've been playing it all the time and really enjoying the heck out of it. The only 'issue' I've had with the guitar is that I encountered a very firmly stuck bridge pin on the low E string. I had to resort to pliers as the regular tool couldn't hack it. No problem now. If you are buying this guitar as or for a beginner have no fear...this is a serious musical instrument and will not impede learning in any way. My advice to Monoprice would be to change the standard strings to the D'Addario Phosphor Bronze (I think this is D'A's most popular string set) or even the D'Addario Silk and Steel strings as they add warmth to the sound of this guitar. I also think that they set the initial action too low; I suspect that they set the action to a standard measurement when they'd be better off (IMHO) by adjusting the necks to a playing standard. Given that the target market for this guitar is more heavily weighted to the newbie, the inclusion of a very short (index card) description on how to adjust the neck at home would be very useful. I bet that that alone would greatly decrease the number or RMA's they have to take in. Now if they take this advice from me and it helps them sell more of these very worthy guitars to the point that they want to send me a new guitar as a thank you, I wouldn't mind. In any event, I am very happy with this guitar. I think I'll tell everyone at the gig tomorrow that this is a custom-build. I bet they believe it. I hope this review helps you in making a decision. And I hope your experience is at least as good as mine Update: Performed at a big jam session 2 nights ago. No feedback problems at all. At the end of the show the sound man told me that I really sounded '[fantastic' and that I had a 'very rich guitar sound'. Gotta love that!.

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