Best Semi Hollow Body Guitar Under $1500 (Jan 2023 Update)

I've wanted a semi-hollow for some time and I took the plunge to get this one. It's a very nice guitar that looks good and plays well. I was initially suspicious because of the price, as other guitars in the range did not play so well to me. Anyway, I had the store do a setup to ensure everything was fine and had the strings on I like to use. I change my own strings, of course, but I don't have tools for doing a proper setup. Good thing I did. Their Technician/Luthier CONNER, was very, very conscientious about his work, even fixing a slightly raised 14th fret. He was very meticulous in his inspection and work. If you don't have a semi-hollow body ax, this would be a good choice for the money. I have not had it long enough to say much about the two split-coil switches for the humbuckers. Maybe they'll turn out to add some good sounds as I play more. My only significant gripe is that the back of the neck has a standard gloss finish. If you play guitar, you probably hate that, as well. But some light sanding and oil should improve the playability.George

This was for my son, a late beginner, to add to his Ibanez s521. This was ordered online, not bought off the wall. It comes very well packaged for shipment and arrived with zero scratches or damage. The strings that it has are actually OK and I may keep them for a bit. I am not a huge fan of the gold metallic but it is the kid's preference, and the finish seems nice. I did not see much of the paint covering part of the binding in places as some have remarked, and the binding seems to be pretty decently done. The only really startling indicator of low build quality on ours is the very rough finish on the insides of the f holes. There are places that the paint has small runs in it and you can tell there was cost savings. There are guitars in the price category that are much better finished in there and I would have gladly paid a couple of extra bucks for this. At least they could have painted it black on the sides of the holes, like they did on some of the other colors, to hide it somewhat. On the gold, it is just jarring. I may do just that, after it is out of warranty of course. It is sad because there aren't any other significant issues on mine. The fret ends seem pretty nice and there really isn't any lifting, sprout, or sharpness on any of them. I am intermediate, so I can't really say authoritatively how the tone compares to others objectively, but to my ears it sounds pretty good especially compared to some others in the price range, like the stock Ibanez pickups. Seem to have clarity and not muddy. Like the neck profile. Neck required a slight loosening of the truss rod to straighten and the action was easily lowered to 1.5mm at the 12th fret low e without significant buzzing. The treble bleed does its job and single coil option is nice too. It won't sound like my strat but it does give some versatility. The guitar is very fun to play with its neck profile and radius once I did my mild setup on it, and hard to explain, but I don't want to put it down once I start using it. Despite the one flaw, I still think it is a good buy and recommended.JM

A great es-335 from Epiphone, especially with the alnicoV humbuckers, coil splitting, and quality control all around. I did very little set-up to get nice low action; I must also put on some new strings, loop-tie them, with some stop bar adjustment. I like this glossy ebony finish, but used steel wool on the back of the neck to take down the stickiness. Clear mellow sound with a bit of woodiness on the neck pickup; good for rhythm, CCR, country, jazz, and classic rock. The bridge pickup gives me more attack; good for clear chicken picking, and with pedals heavy distortion chunks and leads. With the coil split, I can almost get a Tele sound on the bridge pickup. The neck shape is sort-of D shaped; I prefer the rounded C-shape of the 1950s Gibsons. Great guitar at a super price on deal of the day sale. This is one of those rare very low priced yet quality guitars worth buying and playing.Professorchill

Who knew Monoprice sold quality guitars! I ve been buying cables,adapters, and lots of other stuff from Monoprice for years. I had no clue they sold guitars. This ES335 clone came next day shipping at no extra charge and it plays like a dream. I m a professional musician, so I can tell you that for $199 you ll never get another guitar like this for the price. It s fully binded front and back. A beauty. I m going to shave a couple fret ends, but they re really not that bad. A killer deal.Jillian

I was excited about getting this guitar because I am so impressed with the Idyllwild acoustic I purchased last year. I was very disappointed with this Boardwalk hollow body electric. Almost all frets had sharp unfinished ends that needed to be filed and polished. The nut was improperly cut for the strings making it impossible to stay in tune. The pick guard was attached with oversized screws that were not properly tightened because they were too long. Needless to say intonation had to be adjusted. No amount of truss rod and bridge adjustment would clear some fret buzz when set to normal string height at the 12th fret. If this guitar went through your California set-up shop someone should be looking for a different career. The general fit and finish is pretty good and the electronics seem to be ok. I’ve been playing, maintaining, and repairing guitars for over 50 years and was able to make this guitar playable. If someone without my knowledge would have returned it as unplayable.Larry

As an owner of 3 other Indio guitars–Cali Classic, Retro Classic, and Helix–I know the quality of the Indio line, but I was unprepared for this beauty. Frets level and smooth, D'Addario strings, flawless transparent red finish, flawless binding–body and neck, set neck, decent tuners. Great playability. I LOVE THIS GUITAR!William

I am rating it based on the price point expectations I had before ordering. It is a really great guitar. You have to expect that it will come with some defects and issues. Small paint/binding issues, some glue and wood chips loose inside the guitar that I took out. The guitar wasn?t set up well on arrival. I did a string change and truss rod adjustment to get rid of some fretting out on the first fret. The components are cheap, input Jack was broken shortly after my first show with it. The guitar itself is solid! Well built, stays in tune. Neck is very thick. I would purchase another even with issues. I wasn?t expecting a perfect guitar just something that I can play hard and maybe replace some components down the road.Cory

Very nice looking guitar. Set-up pretty well out of the box with fret ends nice and smooth. Needed slight intonation. Unfortunately the shipper basically smashed the box and the three-way toggle switch was damaged and not functional. Rather than send the guitar back I pulled out the switch and was able to repair it. Finish around the switch hole (under the retaining ring) was slightly damaged/cracked and had to repair that as well. The guitar plays and sounds quite nice and other than a small kink in the binding where it joins the neck (smooth and under the finish) it is a pretty guitar. Has a minor rattle somewhere that I can't locate (not string buzz), but doesn't come through when amplified. All in all, I am happy with it and its well worth the price.Michael

This is a nice guitar. It?s well made, has a beautiful charcoal burst gloss finish, and has the wonderful mellow sound of a semi-hollowbody guitar. The blacked out hardware is a nice touch. I learned about this guitar from the guitar gear bloggers on YouTube. They ALL gave it great reviews. Some of the older reviews mentioned that the fret ends needed more polishing, and there was some nitpicking about the size and font of the Indio logo. More recent reviews indicate that these issues have been addressed. MY Indio guitar has polished fret ends and it APPEARS to me that the logo is a bit smaller. The fit and finish are EXCELLENT, so perhaps Monoprice has listened to customer complaints and has tightened up their QC. The BIG news here is the PRICE. EVERYONE, myself included, is STUNNED by how INEXPENSIVE this guitar is. The $250 list price is a STEAL! The YouTube bloggers claim that this guitar will go head-to-head with other 335 style guitars costing 3 times as much! I agree.Kevin

Having previously owned this guitar I would say that for a beginner to immediate guitarist looking to expand his/her collection or looking for something that can open up your tonal range to blues and classic rock. This would be the perfect guitar for you. If you are a professional looking for a project guitar this would also be a good choice. I do not recommend this guitar over any of the hollow/semi-hollows offered by PRS, Gibson, Taylor, and Godin. Hopefully I offered a realistic point of view for potential buyers. This is a great guitar but having a 335, JA-15, Multiac Jazz, and SC245. I modded my Hag with piezo from graph tech, gibson p/u's, schertler tuners, new wiring and jacks, tusq. nut upgrade and made this thing sound like a beast but at the end of the day I spent 3 times as much upgrading it than I did paying for it and I was still a little let down when it was all said and done. The viking has a pretty standard layout of two tone and volume knobs with a three way switch. These semi hollows are not expected to have more options accept the occasional piezo or synth options (godin, carvin, prs to name a few). I can't subtract points for Hagstrom hitting the mark in this department. This is a vintage designed guitar so extra features are not asked of it. You do however get what you pay for with the tuners, nut, bridge…etc. Less expensive guitars may sound ok but at the end of the day you have to spend 400 or more just to even try and compare it to a higher end semi hollowbody. Most people will think I am crazy for rating this a 6 but after reading the other reviewers compare this guitar to PRS and Gibson I must strongly disagree that this guitar does not come close. You have to consider a lot more when reviewing a guitar. Wood types, builder quality, components, and finally out of box conditions. By reading these reviews people are complaining about getting it set up or crooked parts or input jacks falling off. I dare somebody to tell me PRS does not do a significantly better job with out of box condition. So my quality is low because I am comparing the Viking to a PRS/Gibson and not an Epiphone or other more equivalent company. Value I would say is right where it should be. This is a less expensive guitar offering decent tone and workmanship. However, there is no excuse to have consistent complaints of out of box condition, therefore I can not give a perfect rating. It is priced just right for what it is worth; unlike Gibson studios which are way over priced as well as Fender American series guitars.Vintageman

This guitar is poorly made and has a very cheep feel. The sound is interesting and I like the tone, but a good epiphone in this price range would be a much better value. I'm very thankful for Guitar Center's return policy. I ordered this guitar on Guitar Center's website and returned it to my local store.Brian

Great guitar listed as used (Hagstrom Viking). Bought it for about half the normal price. It wasn't used. It arrived in mint condition, hanging tags, plastic on the pickups pick guard and tuners. Brand new. Thanks.rickholly

Bought this guitar as a gift. He loves it and so do I. Came with a very nice hand written note from Mr. Ash himself. Easily the nicest guitar I've ever played. Service was really good too–made it very easy over the phone to purchase and send to a local store just in time for the holidays!Mike D.

This is without a doubt the best guitar that I've ever played. The guitar sustains like crazy and it screams when you do vibrato. If you have not tried out a PRS, you need to. I can't put in words how great this guitar is. I own a masterbuilt custom guitar that is 3 times the price of this one and the PRS puts it to shame. Build quality: 5/5 Feel: 5/5 Sound 5/5Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

I first started playing guitar around the age of 15. Recalling the first experience of being on the stage was definitely thrilling. I remember that I sometimes forgot to breathe while playing, often switched to a wrong pedal, and even had to bend down to pick up the pick I had dropped. I got this PRS 509 after seven years of playing as a christmas gift, and things worked out way better while jamming in my bedroom. An awesome gear don't make you a professional guitarist overnight, but I still feel awkward and curious about where that courage and skill have come from at all of sudden. I probably will have this guitar with me for the rest of my life.Patrick

Very good stainless steel fret nice body not heavy very nice orginal pickups it's cheap but not bad i owned headless i don't have any problems with bridge or setup until now. Thank yououdai jawad

I bought this item for my daughter for her birthday and she loved it, it came to our door on time, it was playable and very attractive, unfortunately a relative with a drug problem stole it within a day and we haven't been able to afford a replacement. It would be wonderful if BCP would be willing to ship another to us, but either way, very good product. I'll buy another one in time when we are able to afford it.Steve H.

I would give it 20 stars if I could. I’m not going to say that I can even play guitar. I am still trying to learn. I have a Stratocaster that I have been learning chords and following the lessons in a book that is instruction for learning scale. But the semi-hollow body has such a wounderful tone that I have to get better. It is so Inspirational that I have been practicing more than I ever did with my strat. LOVE IT! Thank you.Ronald P.

Arrived safely, Tuned it up…Good. Truss rod adjust cover swings away for access. I did adjust mine a touch. Frets are polished..some..but ok .
fun to playRalph Nothhelfer

This guitar exceeded my expectations. Plays and sounds awesome right out of the box. I thought I might have to do some upgrades but after playing it for awhile now, I'm not touching anything on it. "This was a steal"😎😎👍👍.mason Williams