eMedia Essential Guitar Pack - Full Size, Black (Open Box)

OK, I got my kit for $35. A guitar. For $35. Plus spare strings, 2 picks, and Mac/PC tutorial software. How can you complain? (Well, app-based tutorial software would have been nice, but you can spend a few bucks for that elsewhere, if you like.) So, I get my kit and tune the guitar. Tunes OK, I guess. What do I know? I've never touched a guitar before, but it tunes. (Tuning quickly goes flat, but I assume that's just normal until new strings finish stretching.) Then I start trying out the tutorial software. Open string (no frets pressed) examples work fine. Pretty soon I get to learning about the frets. First couple go fine, but then I get to the G and B strings, and I find that when pressing the 4th or 5th frets, the guitar sounds like a toy. Looking closely, I can see that the strings are contacting the lower frets -- the neck must be warped. I show the guitar to a friend, who confirms my assessment. I start a chat with Amazon support. They want a video that demonstrates the problem. Great. I quickly put one together and upload it to Google Photos, and share a link. Nope, Amazon support agents can't access links. It's got to be an email attachment. While I'm trying to figure out how to shrink the video to a size that can be reasonably attached to an email, the support agent comes back and claims that the problem I'm describing will heal itself as I play the guitar more! I put my foot down, and point out another review of this product that's complaining of a warped neck. A warped neck is not likely to spontaneously get better. It's much more likely to get worse. Making a long story short, a replacement guitar was shipped promptly. It arrived intact. Aside from some minor finish defects (Who cares? It's a $35 guitar!), the strings all tune, and all the frets play properly on all strings. Yay! Now I can proceed with my lessons... Bottom line: If you're not in a hurry to have a working guitar, and you're willing to be assertive if necessary, this is the least expensive way to get started with an acoustic guitar. When you get yours, tune it right away, and try playing all the frets on all the strings. If any of them sound funky, insist on a replacement. Amazon will issue you a prepaid UPS label to return the defective guitar, and will promptly ship the replacement.