Description
Review of the Joymusic 38 inch Blueburst Beginner Acoustic Guitar Kit
The Joymusic JG-38C is a 38 inch steel string acoustic in a blueburst finish, built from basswood with an okoume neck and a cutaway body, and sold as a bundle with a gig bag, a digital tuner, a capo, a strap with a pick holder, a spare set of strings, a cleaning cloth and six picks. It is aimed at a beginner or a player with smaller hands who wants a reduced size instrument with the accessories already in the box.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- 38 inch reduced size body. This sits between a child’s guitar and a full size dreadnought, which makes it easier to reach around for a smaller player without dropping to a genuinely small instrument.
- Cutaway body. The scoop in the upper bout gives the fretting hand access to the frets nearest the body, which is where most beginners find a standard dreadnought blocks them.
- Comprehensive bundle. A digital tuner, a capo, a spare set of strings, six picks, a cleaning cloth, a strap with an integrated pick holder and a gig bag are all listed, which covers a beginner’s first months.
- Okoume neck. A stable, moderately dense hardwood that machines cleanly and is widely used on affordable acoustics, so the neck is the better specified part of this guitar.
- Geared tuning machines, which hold pitch far better than the friction pegs found on the cheapest instruments.
Cons
- The listed product dimensions of 89 x 43.6 x 11.4 inches are impossible for a 38 inch guitar. Those numbers look like centimetres entered into an inches field, so no reliable packed size can be taken from this listing.
- The fretboard is listed as plastic. That is not a normal fingerboard material, and if accurate it will wear and dent far faster than rosewood or a treated hardwood. It is worth confirming before ordering.
- The specification table gives a pickup configuration of “Combination” and a bridge system of “fulcrum”. Both are electric guitar terms, and neither belongs on a guitar the description sells as purely acoustic with no electronics mentioned at all.
- The listing gives 38 inches as the size and 25.5 inches as the scale length. Those are two different measurements of two different things, so the 38 inch figure describes the overall length of the instrument rather than anything about the neck.
- Top, back and sides are all basswood laminate, so there is no solid top and the guitar will not open up with age.
Detailed Product Description
The top, back and sides are basswood. Basswood is soft, light and even grained, and it is the standard budget body timber across both acoustic and electric instruments. On an acoustic guitar the top does nearly all the work of turning string vibration into sound, and a laminated basswood top is a long way from the solid spruce used further up the market. It produces a quieter, more compressed sound with less bloom, but it is also stable and hard to crack, which suits a first guitar that will not be humidity controlled.
The neck is okoume with a scale length given as 25.5 inches. That is the standard long scale used on full size dreadnoughts, which is a slightly surprising figure alongside a 38 inch body and is another reason to treat the numbers in this listing carefully. The body is a cutaway design, meaning the shoulder next to the neck is carved away so the fretting hand can reach the highest frets. Body shapes and what each one is good at are covered in the guide to guitar body shapes.
Six alloy steel strings are fitted with geared tuners. Steel strings are harder on new fingertips than nylon, and anyone concerned about that should read the comparison in the guide to nylon versus steel string guitars. The finish is blueburst, and the listed instrument weight of 4.63 pounds is plausible for a reduced size acoustic.
Nothing in the description mentions a preamp, an output jack, a battery compartment or any electronics, so despite the pickup and bridge entries in the specification table this should be treated as an acoustic guitar that cannot be plugged in.
What Comes with the Product
- The 38 inch cutaway acoustic guitar in blueburst
- A gig bag
- A digital tuner
- A capo
- A strap with a pick holder
- An extra set of strings
- A cleaning cloth
- Six picks
No stand, string winder, hard case, instructional material or online lesson access is listed, and the tuner’s battery is not mentioned either way.
Who It Suits
This suits a beginner with smaller hands, or a younger teenager, who wants a steel string acoustic that is easier to hold than a dreadnought and arrives with the accessories already included. The cutaway also suits anyone who expects to play lead lines rather than only strumming chords.
It suits less well a full size adult who wants volume and projection, since a reduced size laminated body gives up a great deal of both. It suits less well anyone who needs to plug in, and it suits less well a buyer who wants a specification they can rely on, because several fields in this listing contradict each other. Worth comparing are the Ashthorpe 38 inch acoustic package, the Smartxchoices 38 inch bundle and the Lankro A10 38 inch kit. The wider selection sits in the beginner starter kits section, and what such a bundle normally contains is covered in the guide to what is in a guitar starter bundle.
How to Maintain
Use the supplied cleaning cloth on the strings after every session. Alloy steel dulls quickly from skin oils, and wiping down is the cheapest way to extend the life of a set.
If the fretboard really is plastic as listed, treat it differently from a wooden board. Do not apply fretboard oil, which is formulated for open pored hardwoods and does nothing useful on a synthetic surface. A dry cloth is sufficient.
Store the guitar in the gig bag rather than leaning it against furniture, and keep it away from radiators and sunny windows. Laminated bodies handle humidity swings well but finishes and neck joints do not.
Tips and Recommendations
Check the string height at the fifth and twelfth frets when the guitar arrives. Guitars at this level frequently ship with the action higher than it needs to be, and that is the main reason beginners give up. What can be adjusted and what cannot is set out in the guide to guitar action and setup.
Put the capo to use early rather than saving it. A capo lets a beginner play songs in their singing range using only the handful of chord shapes they already know, which keeps early practice interesting. Its uses are covered in the guide to the guitar capo guide.
Confirm the electronics question with the seller if plugging in matters. The description and the specification table disagree, and an acoustic electric would be the safer purchase for anyone who intends to amplify the guitar.
Product FAQ
What size is this guitar?
Thirty eight inches overall, with a 25.5 inch scale length listed. The 89 x 43.6 x 11.4 inch dimensions in the table cannot be correct for an instrument this size.
Is the top solid?
No. Top, back and sides are all basswood, and no solid construction is claimed anywhere in the listing.
Can it be plugged into an amplifier?
The description mentions no electronics at all, although the specification table lists a pickup configuration. This needs confirming with the seller.
What is the fretboard made of?
The specification table says plastic, which is unusual enough to be worth checking before ordering.
