I Tested 1-Star Guitars (again)

Added: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00]A while back, I tested the most absurd one-star guitars I could find on the internet. Well, I found more. And if those guitars from the last video were bad, these new ones are a disaster. And at the end of this video, I'm comparing the worst one-star guitar on the internet to the best five-star guitar.

[00:00:16]Starting with this $70 guitar that came with this tiny amp. Speaking of amps, Ray said, "Amp is not safe. The amplifier burned with the first use. One star." Well, now I'm scared for my life.

[00:00:30]Thanks a lot, Ray. Similarly, Vaso said, "Amp exploded from first plugin, had a little lightning inside and bad sound, and amp stopped working from that second. Awful product. One star. Let's plug it in and hopefully I don't die and the whole world doesn't explode."

[00:00:51]Nothing happened. The amp did not explode. What about the actual sound of the guitar? See, that's where my buddy James comes in. James said, "This guitar is junk. Total trash. Horrible action tuners, pickups. You get what you paid for. I returned it. One star. I'm going to strum it. Let's see how it sounds."

[00:01:09]The amp is not exploding, which is a good sign. Let's really test this by seeing is there fret buzz on the 12th fret on each string. Let's do it.

[00:01:19]No fret buzz at all. That means the action is good. Lastly, James said that the pickups were trash, too. So, let's test them out. First, let's test the bridge pickup and let's hear how that sounds.

[00:01:30]The bridge pickup was good. Let's test the middle pickup. Now, the middle pickup sounds completely fine. Lastly, the neck pickup.

[00:01:41]Everything sounds normal to me. Now, let me turn on distortion with this tiny amp and let's see how it sounds.

[00:01:55]That didn't sound that bad. I give this guitar four stars. This next guitar in this box has five one-star reviews showing pictures of the guitar arriving broken.

[00:02:11]So, yeah, we're going to open it on video together and see if it arrives broken. And while we open it, Louis said, "Do not buy. We have bought this guitar twice and both came broken. If I could give zero stars, I would. This is ridiculous. One star. And Lewis left this photo.

[00:02:30]The headstock is literally cracked in half and a tuning peg broke off. It's like they threw the guitar off a bridge before they shipped it to him.

[00:02:40]Unfortunately, the same thing happened to my boy Ronald. Ronald said, "Arive damaged. One star." Look at the photos he left.

[00:02:50]I wonder what this guy had to say about it. Both reviews showed proof of the guitar arriving broken. So, let's see if mine did. Here's the guitar. It's wrapped in plastic. I'm so excited. Did it come broken or not? Let's see. Okay, it's right here. Let's take it out of the cloth.

[00:03:08]Wa! Look at that. Guys, this guitar is far from broken. It's beautiful. Nothing is broken. Nothing. The neck is completely fine. No cracks. The finish is so nice. So, the two guys who got their guitar broken in the mail, they just got unlucky. But how does this guitar sound? See, that's where my buddy Victor comes in. Victor said, "Frets are so messed up, it is unplayable. The first three frets on every string don't play. One star." Right away, we have to test if what Victor said is true that the first three frets on all of the strings are unplayable. All right. First fret, sixth string.

[00:03:50]I knew that wasn't going to be true.

[00:03:55]All the first three frets on every single string worked perfectly. But of course, we have to turn on distortion.

[00:04:01]Let's hear it.

[00:04:06]This thing sounds so sick.

[00:04:11]I give this guitar five stars, but this guitar is nothing compared to the end of the video when we test out the worst one-star guitar on the internet versus the best five-star guitar. Stick till the end. The next onear guitar we have is a carbon fiber guitar that has the sound hole in a weird spot. Jay Conti said, "Unplayable beyond the seventh fret. Action too low. Needs a bridge adjustment. Another bait and switch product from Donner. Stop buying crap from these dropshipping feal merchants.

[00:04:40]One star. Donner, if you're watching this, I'm not affiliated with him. I'm not. Please sponsor me. Next. Jim said, "Big disappointment. Played it for 10 minutes and couldn't get past the horrible sound. Barely tuned the high E and it broke. Poorly set up. Returned it the same day. One star." So, we have to test if this guitar is unplayable beyond the seventh fret. if the action is way too low, if it needs a bridge adjustment, if the high E snaps while tuning it, and if it just sounds awful.

[00:05:07]All right, first let's get this thing in tuned and let's see if the high E snaps.

[00:05:11]Okay, we're tuning the high E. Let's hopefully it doesn't snap like the review said, and it did not snap. The guitar is in tune. Let's test it out.

[00:05:20]First of all, Jay Conti said the action was way too low, guys. The action on this guitar is way too high. Look, I don't know if you could see from here, but it's like a whole inch off the fretboard. Next, does this thing need a bridge adjustment? I'm looking at the bridge right now, and you guys be my guest. It looks completely fine to me there. There's literally nothing wrong with it. The main thing Jay Conti said that it was unplayable beyond the seventh fret. So, let's just do a C bar chord and let's hear how it sounds.

[00:05:49]This action is way too high that I can't make the bar chord sound good all the way. You see these bottom strings are muting every time. Okay, let's not try bar chord. Let's just do some picking and let's hear if it's unplayable.

[00:06:06]I mean, it sounds okay. But still, that action, man, is killing my fingers. So, is this guitar unplayable? No. But beyond the seventh fret, it kind of becomes unplayable. You could still play it, but you definitely can't play any chords past the seventh fret because of how high the action is. But at least it could still play.

[00:06:26]I give this guitar three stars. Now, we made it to when we compare the worst rated guitar versus the best rated guitar. This is the lowest rated guitar on Amazon. And this is the highest rated guitar from Sweetwater. This is a headless travel fingerboard. Dude, I don't even know. It cost $180. And this is a vintage 1961 Cherry Gibson SG costing $2,000.

[00:06:54]Damn. I just want you guys to hear the difference between these reviews.

[00:06:58]Starting with the one-star guitar, Rosanna said, "I would have given zero stars if Amazon would let me. This product is a piece of garbage. Several strings broke on the first tuning. The pickup does not work. And the website shows headphones plugged straight to the guitar, but this is not possible. It is bulky and is poorly made. It was made in China and you can tell. Do not waste your money. One star. This is why this is the lowest rated guitar on Amazon.

[00:07:24]According to Rosanna, nothing on this thing works. And for the five-star guitar from Sweetwater, Taylor said, "This was my first Gibson guitar, and boy did it live up to the hype. It sounds incredible. It feels incredible.

[00:07:36]Hell, it smells incredible. If you're on the fence, don't hesitate to grab this masterpiece. It plays like butter. stays in tune great with perfect intonation.

[00:07:47]Five stars. So, I guess the highest rated guitar comes with it smelling good and it playing like butter. First, we got to see are the strings going to break on the first tuning. Do the pickups not work and if you can't plug in headphones into it. Okay, let's plug it in and hopefully the world doesn't explode. Okay, it's plugged in right away. Let's hear how it sounds right off the bat. This is really weird to hold because the tuning pegs are at the bottom. They're not up here. All right, so let's tune it and let's see if all the strings break. So I have to tune it like this. I'm using my thumb to pluck it and my right hand to tune the pegs because it's just so uncomfortable to hold. Yeah, guys, this thing is so hard to tune. I'm literally just like tapping the string with my left hand and then tuning it with my right because you can't play it and then tune. Who Who made this design? Okay guys, we ran into our first problem and now I know why this guitar is worth one star and it's the worst way to guitar. Listen to this.

[00:08:41]E string good. A string good. D string good. G string good. B string.

[00:08:53]High E string.

[00:08:56]It literally sounds like a sitar, but the sitar is crying and it doesn't want to play. So if you try to play a G chord, this is what you got.

[00:09:05]The bottom four strings worked perfectly, but the B and the high E are unplayable. I'm going to very quickly switch to the SG from Sweetwater, which is the highest rated guitar in Sweetwater. And just hear the sound difference. G chord sounds bright as day. Sounds amazing.

[00:09:22]But if you try to play a G chord on this guitar, oh my gosh, I've never played a guitar so that sounds so bad. Oh my gosh, guys.

[00:09:32]I see the problem. the high E and the B are touching the pickup. I don't know if you guys could see it. I'm gonna zoom in right here. But yeah, they're touching the pickup and that's what's creating that buzzing sound. I hope you could just fix this by raising the action on the bridge. But still, a guitar should not come like this, especially for a beginner that will have no idea how to fix this issue. And guys, I'm looking around and there is no headphone jack at all on this guitar. Instead, it has this weird like black thing. Is this supposed to be a stand? What is this black thing for? I don't know. But at least you could still play.

[00:10:12]Just holding this five-star guitar from Sweetwater. It makes me feel so grateful to play a good guitar. And guys, tell me, why does it low-key like compliment my outfit? Damn, I look good. There's no issue on the high E and the B. Guys, just look at it. This thing is freaking beautiful. The SG shape is so good. And even like the headstock with these tuning pegs, literally comparing this thing to this thing, you shouldn't even do it because this is such a joke compared to this guitar. But there's still three things we have to test with this guitar according to the five-star review. We have to test if it smells incredible, if it plays buttery smooth, and if it stays perfectly in tune. So, does this guitar smell good?

[00:10:53]Ooh, it does. Yeah, a little too good. I'm not going to lie. Now, does this guitar play buttery smooth? Let's find out.

[00:11:10]Oo, this guitar smells great, plays buttery smooth, and it stays in tune perfectly.

[00:11:24]Now I see why this is the highest rated guitar on Sweetwater. I give this one-star guitar one star and I give this five-star guitar five stars. Big shout out to Sweetwater for sending me this SG. Sweetwater is actually my favorite and the best place to get guitar gear from. I'll leave a link to this SG and all my gear that I use from Sweetwater in the description. Thank you again, Sweetwater, for this beautiful SG. Well, anyways, that was fun. Click this video to watch me play the cheapest guitars in the world. Subscribe and express your universe.