Esteban Starlight Acoustic Electric Guitar For Sale (2024 Update)

. Now let me set the scene… I am a guitar lover (I can even play a little too) and a quality professional so My expectations are somewhat higher than most looking at this product. An absolutely beautiful instrument, this is my second SA360 and although they are no longer. Made in Japan, be assured they have not lost any of the build quality or attention to detail. The guitar was really well set up, is great to play, feels good in the hand and sounds the bee’s knee’s. If you are looking to start out in guitar playing get yourself an Ibanez Gio to start as a first upgrade from that, then the SA series is where you want to be at.Timbo

I really liked this little guitar, BUT…I read the reviews and decided to buy in-store so I could play the guitar before buying, and I'm SO glad I did. I went into my local Guitar Center and played THREE of these Martin LX1E guitars, including one that had been specially unboxed so I could try it after two others failed my examination. All three guitars had a very pronounced buzz in the frets. It was not that noticeable when I played them acoustically, but the buzz was very noticeable when I plugged them in to an amp. I even tested the amp with other guitars, to make sure it wasn't the amp. It wasn't. Its a great little guitar, great tone and very playable, BUT my advice would be not to buy this one on-line. Play it first. Play up and down the whole fretboard, and plug it into an amplifier and play again. I have been playing for more than fifty years and have never experienced playing three brand new Martins that were simply not up to snuff. Weird!Tele Playr

The guitar itself can have five stars. Nothing wrong with it. The problem I have is that it is not the old LX1E lefty that Martin used to make and I used to own. It is advertised incorrectly here as containing the Fishman I-sys electronics that contained a volume, base/treble controls and a phasing button for feedback. It also no longer contains the tuner. This is basically the LX1 Little Martin with a Sonitone pickup under the bridge and tone/volume control in the sound hole, which I despise. I prefer the old version where the tuner and controls were on top side (as shown in the picture variety). This needs to be updated!!! I now have no tuner on this guitar when I fully expected one. I would recommend the Little Martin guitar but it needs to be advertised correctly.Jules

I bought this guitar for my son so he can have a smaller guitar to lug around in school. We were surprised when we received the product that the pickup that was installed is a Sonitone pickup instead of what's advertised – an Isys T preamp. The Isys preamp has a tuner, phase and tone control whereas the Sonitone is built into the sound hole and only has the volume and tone control. I brought this up with customer support saying I only wanted the product that I thought we were buying. I received excuses and a repeated offer to return the guitar. We chose to keep it because we need it and like the Martin sound. However MF does not stand up to what they advertise and could not provide a reasonable explanation why the product was switched. Even as I write this review, the description still says it has the Isys pickup. Good luck to future buyers and know that you are buying a different product.Pasigenyo

Guitar looked fine when I received it. Bought it on sale a little over a year ago and the guitar has developed a haze or blush under the finish that cannot be "buffed out" and looks horrendous. Everyone has told me it is from putting on the finish while the wood still contained moisture. The guitar has a 2-year "repair" warranty but I have to pay to ship both ways and there's no guarantee they'll even do anything. When they receive it they'll decide if its a manufacturing defect or not, which it clearly is. Then, If "they" decide it is, they couldn't tell me exactly what they would do. Is MF going to repaint and refinish the whole guitar, or try to buff it out anyway leaving it in worse condition than when I sent it? Or do absolutely nothing after I pay 40 for shipping both ways? I honestly don't care what their policy is, this is unacceptable, They sold me a defective product and it should be replaced at their expense. I have 2 Electric Ibanez guitars, but I'll never spend another penny at Musicians Friend or on Ibanez.MetalTeK

I twice received this guitar in sub-standard condition. The first one had two scratches and one polishing mishap, all of which were under the final gloss coat (so they couldn't be fixed). I called to request a replacement, was assured that problems like this were unusual, and that they'd send me a replacement right away. When I received it, it was worse than the first. There was a very visible semi-circle indentation about two inches below the sound hole, almost as if they went to stamp the sound hole there and then repositioned the machine. Because I had a gig that weekend and needed a guitar I had to keep one of the blemished versions (I kept the first one), and Musicians Friend did refund me a little money, but it was still quite disappointing. That being said, the guitar itself has a beautiful tone and plays with ease. The onboard tuner is convenient and accurate and I have no complaints about the overall performance.B&B

Cost is cheap hence your not going to get a quality built instrument in return. The company cheapens out on everything: Wood, pickups, tuners, wires, knobs etc. Save your money and just buy a made in USA Gibson which will 10 lifetimes longer than this throw away junk. Not worth it!ENGlishJELLo

Awesome it contains everything that I needed for my guitar Only 1 issue How do you tune it? Some advice or buying a book to help in that area would be good I looked it up on google.Reviewed by Absolute Music custo

I can't believe the sound quality on this guitar.. It sounds like an orchestra.. Beautiful.. I purchased this after having a go on my mates.. And for that price. It beats my more expensive guitars in sound quality the build and looks.. I recommend this guitar to professionals.. Performance for beginers..richardh4473

Bought second hand along with brand new epiphone texan and play chord more frequently. I feel as if cheating on my wife . Great guitar. … definitely recommend.normaniscute67-6

I’m a 54 yr old,pro player & guitar instructor, I’m always interested in budget guitars to suggest to students. I’ve found some feel cheap,or play horribly. This brand is quite the opposite, it has a solid feel, low action, rich bass and sparkling tone. I know those terms are tossed around a lot,listen to the demos on YT, this guitar sparkles like a nice acoustic should. The finish feels wonderful,it came with everything,a tuner, strap, extra strings,and a gig bag. The kit even came with a battery and a wrench to adjust the height of the action. The wrench works well, Ashthorpe has videos showing how to use it, The ELECTRONICS are what makes this instrument much better than the other budget acoustics on Amazon, It has a strong, rich equalizer onboard,u can do or subtract treble, or bass..or midrange..or the super high frequency string noises can be lowered or raised w the presence control. It has a volume control and a battery tester with LED right onboard. This electronics and preamp package is what you’d expect on guitars $300 or higher..It’s not Fishman or a famous brand, but it may as well be, it feels the same. I’ve owned over a hundred guitars, probably closer to 200 and I’ve never seen an acoustic electric with this kind of tone, feel and quality electronics in this price range..ever, if this guitar had no electronics,and was not electric-acoustic at all..it would still sell like crazy at this price. It’s almost hard to believe you get SO much for your hundred bucks. I have had acoustics where the case alone cost more than this guitar. Buy this model if you are considering a few different ones.. the thinline Ashthorpe makes is a smaller body, good for small hands, petite ladies or teens.. but the full size dreadnaught has the rich,thick bass u can feel in your body. The tone is better than the thinline,but a dread body can be big for some smaller people. The thinline was small and comfy,little more sparkly and less bass, but this model has the tone. And the way they laser etched the logo on the navy blue headstock is classy,it gives the whole guitar the expensive,modern vibe I go through guitars fast, I buy, sell, trade.and give some away to students…and I only wind up w the ones I LOVE. And I still have my Ashthorpe Dreadnaught Blue burst,it was a gift from my parents,.and has special meaning to me, Just buy this one,thank me later! forget the budget brands u see on Amazon..Ashthorpe users all leave great reviews, and for good reason.. the customer service is top notch too, a nice lady named Jennifer took great care of me when I had inquiries,and replied to my emails the same day, super quickly.Kevin G.(.I.

I purchased the guitar to play bottle neck slide on . Right out of the box it was easy to set up . Tuned up no issues. Nice action height , and really good sound . I would highly recommend the guitar . A real bargain for the money .Kevin

I’ve been a guitar instructor over 30 years, I’m a pro player with album credits on Warner, Gergen and more.. I’m 54 and playing since I’m 12 I own two Ashthorpe acoustics, this one in a dark butterscotch finish,and a full size dread in blue burst, The thinline has that tone like one of the smaller bodied guitars..bright,sparkly and up front. The body is not as thick as a big acoustic like my dreadnaught, but it is a full scale length adults acoustic.. they just made the body thinner for smaller folks to feel more comfy, The electronic package is superb,get it for that alone,you can plug in delays and effects, phase shifter and compressors, reverbs.. use the PA system or a small amp and play coffee house gigs, without the trouble of putting another Micah the guitar. The EQD section and the onboard controls are well made, useful and the eq points are musical and just right. It’s amazing how intuitive these designers were, they got just about everything right… the feel, the neck, the tone, the electronics..the finish.. it came with a strong gig bag ,not padded but rainproof and strong, like the nylon Tents and backpacks are made from..also a good electric tuner that works nicely,a cable,picks, a strap,extra strings..everything good quality and usable for a pro..maybe investing in a set of more expensive strings will help, the sets they provided sounded ok.but I’m guessing some high end strings would improve sound too,(Martin,Diaddario,Ernie Ball..etc) If u want something light and comfy, yet adult scale length with a pro feel and gorgeous woodwork, they’re out there.. but in this price range? There’s nothing available with the electronics package like this.. It’s so much fun playing with effects through an amp, this company is really awesome,they have instructional videos on YouTube and the customer service was polite,efficient and very pleasant.Kevin G.(.I.

I bought a Luna wabi Sabi folk in January 2022, after looking for a cheap Yamaha to keep at work. The Luna was a bit more expensive but it felt and sounded great and I liked that it had electronics and a tuner. After 3 weeks the frets grew sharp to a point where it became unplayable, slicing my index finger. I humidified and filed the frets down. Then frets 1 and 12 started to buzz. Looking down the fingerboard, I can see frets have begun to rise out of their slots. My local shop said the guitar was not worth the repair, understandable. I decided it was unplayable, so I raised the nut to use it for slide and Dobro playing but when I changed the strings, I noticed that all of the tuners had a lot of play, I tightened the ring nuts on 5 out of 6 tuners. I pulled it out of it's case this morning to see the top has cracked clean through, from the sound hole along where the top meets the fret board. It wasn't dropped or damaged and it lived in a humidified guitar room.

I own several vintage acoustics and high end guitars and I treated this guitar as I would any other instrument I own. Very poor quality that could be excused if it was a $100 guitar but it's not.Gregory Tellier

In the words of Mark Knopfler, "Loving guitars means you've got to love the cheap ones as well," and so, in that spirit, on the hunt for a cheap, fun acoustic to add to the collection, and with Musician's Friend reward points to spend, Wabi Sabi, the concept of finding beauty in imperfection just made this kinda irresistible. The whole point of this guitar I guess is that the solid spruce top is classified as "B-stock" thus making a solid top acoustic available in a price range where laminated tops are far and away the norm. But why are these solid spruce tops regarded as lesser? Apparently because, well, cosmetic imperfections. In other words the grain is irregularly spaced, and there are a couple of wavy, knotty patterns that have no impact on the guitar's sonic quality. But it's a solid spruce top nonetheless. Mahogany neck, very smooth and has a nice feel. Laminated mahogany sides and back. The fit and finish are actually very good. Satin finish, a bone nut. Nothing earth-shattering, but all very attractive and, best of all, straight out of the box, this guitar required very little effort to get dialed in. The intonation was spot on across the fret board, and the action was lovely, 2mm on the low E side and about 1.5mm on the high E side. Unlike many acoustics at this price point, playability is a non-issue. It's a joy to play. Tone-wise, this is basically a folk or orchestra model, and so it's simply not designed to project like a dreadnaught, but what it does offer is very good. I would describe its tone as warm, woody, with a rather mid-rangey voice, definitely not boomy at all on the low end, nor brash or harsh on the treble end, but nicely articulated and very well balanced across the fingerboard. The lone notable flaw was a slightly high 4th fret which caused some very minor buzzing at about four different touch points on the neck. Depending on your comfort level with such things as dressing a fret, this is either a big deal or not. For me, it's not a huge issue, but I buy inexpensive guitars with the idea that they will require at least some tweaking, and for me at least, this one required much less than most. I have only tested out the electronics briefly but was able to dial in very musical, highly usable tones with little effort through a cheap acoustic DI and amp with a touch of reverb. Overall, this guitar feels like a keeper. It's a player. It sounds good. The setup was far better than expected, it required very little effort to optimize and, unlike many similarly-priced guitars, it holds tune very nicely. I can't really say anything bad about this guitar.David

First of all, the Wabi Sabi Grand Concert Acoustic Electric Guitar is a cutaway. The photos on the Musician's Friend page shows the Wabi Sabi dreadnought (I have uploaded a photo of the guitar I received from MF and perhaps they will post the proper photos after reading this). The design around the sound hole, the color, neck and headstock are all the same as the dreadnought. That being said, this guitar exceeded my expectations right out of the box. It is solid, maybe a bit heavier than similar guitars in this size. Also, I would not know that the top is made from "B-grade" wood- the finish is tip-top and it feels good in hands. Appearances aside, this guitar plays comfortably and sounds as good or better than most solid tops I have played. The spruce is perhaps a bit brighter than my past acoustics (usually mahogany-topped) but it handles the low end like a dreadnought and strums with a full, rich sound. The neck is fast and smooth, the tuners are quality and the action, on arrival, was low without any detectable fret buzz. Plugged in, the guitar sounded balanced but overloaded my Behringer practice amp unless I kept the pre-amp leveIs lower than what I was used to (the equalizer on the preamp offers 4 level controls and volume). Perhaps pre-amp volume should be kept lower than similar acoustic-electrics but I will defer that one to more experienced opinions. In conclusion, this guitar is a steal for money and I look forward to practicing and playing out with it at an open mic.Andyboy Georgia

The Silvertone 633AVS is a nice instrument. However the action is too high. It's going to need an adjustment to make it playable on all the frets. I'm not a luthier. And luthiers aren't cheap. New guitars should be setup in the factory before being sold ! And the dealers should make sure they are setup too !edog85