Grote Electric Solid Body Guitar Modern-GST For Beginners (Arctic White)

Liked the thick neck and the light weight. Set up decently out of the box. I will change the strings first but the ones in it aren’t terrible. The pickups are a nice combination of tones. I would recommend this as a nice guitar for a good price. Would make a nice solid base for a mod. Grote is my new favorite brand.

What $100? Well, the first guitar I received had a defective neck. The fretwork was poor, and it was cracked along the top. Amazon promptly sent me a replacement. The second guitar is incredible. It has a nice, bright tonewood body, a roasted maple neck with a roasted maple fingerboard. The pros of this guitar are its very bright sound. It’s excellent for thicker strings, giving you that cutting vintage tone. The second neck I received is beautiful, smooth, straight, and plays fast. The electronics were fine; I didn’t need to touch them. It’s a great project guitar. The cons are that it might not be suitable for beginners because the neck is very thick. However, if you have larger hands, this is a great starter guitar. It played very well right out of the box. However, I wanted to use this professionally, so I made a few changes. I added Dopro locking tuners, Fender and Lace sensor pickups, and a Fender vintage tremolo. The fretwork was minimal, but it plays and sounds like a dream. few adjustments to the bridge and neck, and it’s as good as my professional guitars. It certainly has its own personality, different from any other guitar I own.

Wow, am very surprised how good this guitar is. I saw videos about the cheapest guitars on amazon saying they were very good but may need setup. This one was on sale for $87 and reviews were most pretty good but a few negative. I tried my luck and won. Out of the box the strings were all very loose. No big deal, it easily tuned up and stayed in tune for hours. There wasnt a single problem, no high action, fret buz, bowed neck, crappy tone or anything. I have 4 other electrics all like $200 guitars except an epiphone les paul like a $500 guitar. And this grote was sounding better than all. It practically played itself as I jammed for hours in amazement. Its very light and it looks beautiful. It has 2 switches and plenty knobs to adjust tone. The nice tone and staying in tune for hours was a great surprise. Cheap guitars may be a bit of gamble and some may get a dud, but i figured I’d ship it right back if it were. Time will tell if this guitar holds up but so far this is an amazing deal.

OK, I returned this item so why a 3 START review? The guitar as a whole is surprisingly good for the $85.50 I paid. It looks good, sounds good, but had one major issue. A crack in the body at the neck join. This is not solid wood; it is a composite. It looks to me the slurry of wood-product they made, dried, expanded, and cracked. Also, the tuners were horrible, BUT for a sub-$100 guitar that's expected. If you think you'll get top-notch hardware on an $85 guitar, think again. This would have been a good mod platform. The pickups sounded really good. The humbucker is splitable and it sounded good. The paint was an awesome color. It looked cool. It played well. It had a nice medium neck and a beautiful fretboard. The frets were well done. It would have been a FIVE STAR if not for the body crack. Too bad. It is certainly worth a shot if you want a cheap, but good guitar or a great mod platform.

What on earth? I do YouTube guitar reviews and recently reviewed a similar Grote HSS guitar (the Standard S) and even though that one needed some work, I love it. See the review on Scuttle Productions channel. I ordered this one in two colors, coma red and mocha (I think) and WOW. They arrived in two gigantic Amazon boxes with two small guitar boxes inside. One box was damaged and the interior styrofoam was busted. BUT, the guitars do not seem damaged as far as I can tell upon initial inspection. The necks are two different shades of roasted maple. One is sort of pale, yet dark and the other is very dark -- unlike the corresponding necks in the photos. But, I like them both and I like the variation. These have lesser features than the original Grote. These don't have stainless frets with rounded edges and the inlays are much simpler. The do not come with gig bags and the truss rod adjustment is in the headstock, as opposed to spoke wheels at the neck heel. That's OK, though. Both have absolutely gorgeous body finishes. The red is satin and the mocha is glossy, which I wasn't expecting based on the pictures. There are minor imperfections in the finishes, but more by feel, not really visible. The necks feel pretty good. They are not glossy, but are a bit rougher than I'd like. I might sand them with a fine grit, but I don't know if that would compromise the dark finish (stain vs. roasted?). The frets are polished quite well. I don't think I'll polish them. The ends are not sharp. I have not noticed any buzzing or high frets yet, but I haven't played them much. The action is good, probably 1.75 mm at the 12th on both and the bridges are set well. My original Grote needed a shim, badly, but these do not. The logo on the headstock is off the edge on one. There's not a simple fix for this. Check the video for my original for a very funny story about the logo on that one. The pickups are OK. I think they may be a downgrade from the original, but I haven't checked the specs closely. I would consider replacing the pickups and electronics eventually. But, I think a beginner would be completely happy with them. They function very well, but don't sound amazing. I usually replace strings on new guitars, but these ones feel new and acceptable. They'll be fine until I decide to change them. Overall, I think the value is amazing. The quality is impressive. I don't mind the lower specs, because this still beats just about every other option, even at a somewhat higher price point. They look absolutely fantastic and they feel good to play. They are light guitars, maybe 6 pounds. I am impressed. I'll publish a video in a few weeks or so. See the channel info above.

Quality guitar under $100?! This is a MFing awesome buy! The matte black color is bad ass! Roasted maple neck paint looks freaking clean AF! Tuners are surprisingly decent but that’s an easy upgrade. Stays in tune for the most part. Pulled the strings and polished/oiled the frets. Again surprisingly smooth and polished up good. It’s dry AF so I oiled her up. Adjusted the HSS to my liking. New strings. Lowered the action and she is GROWLING! She is super light and durable. A great buy for beginners to pro. A great axe to mod also!

Had read some good things about Grote guitars so orderered this Pawlownia ST, when it went on sale $70, as I wanted to get a project guitar but also a guitar I can take to parties and gatherings without getting nervous. I unpacked it, let it stand till the following day and truly "I played it straight out of the box" However, that not to say there weren't a few things that needed improving. The neck had too much relief, but this is the same as all the guitars I have bought online, that were $200 plus, as they normally ship from Southern US to my Northern location. I quickly adjusted the truss rod and fixed this. I will also adjust the string heights at the bridge and intonate when I change strings. The fret ends were excellent, in fact I can see the edge of the neck sticking out further than the frets in places, suggesting they sanded the frets before installing on the neck? Different but hey, whatever they did worked well. Fit and finish were very good, only very minor blemishes, equal to my guitars 3 times the price. The deep grain pawlonia wood looks great through the translucent blue (with a hint of turquoise) hard finish, very attractive. The plastic nut is cut perfectly. I have not experienced this with some of the more expensive guitars. Tuners work, but tighten and losen as you turn them. Guitar need constant tuning , new tuners will be the first upgrade with new strings. Tremolo bar supplied but tremolo was screwed down tight, so no tremelo sounds until, claw, springs and tremolo adjusted. If this was your only guitar, pick ups would sound fine, however although adequate to make music they do not sound as good as the ones in my Squire Strat. More fun changing P U's. In conclusion, worth every penny, don't know how Grote do it at this price. Very light, don't worry about the Pawlonia, Fender makes the "Empress" Tele out of the same stuff, so really great for beginners and young axers. Will play out of the box to get you going but will benefit from a full set up. Down the road, with skills and experience improving, make it a project, make the guitar grow with you. Tons of fun, I am really enjoying mine!! Will probably buy more Grote guitars in the future.

Compares well to my Squire Bullet Strat, both give the impression of being "cheap but plenty playable". Fit and finish are reasonable with nothing glaringly out of place. Fret ends actually finished a little more nicely than my Squire; slightly fatter neck profile than with slightly wider frets. Tuners feel weirdly inconsistent but seem to at least hold tune. Pots and switches are solid, pickups aren't half bad if nothing to write home about. Super lightweight but still has a nice, resonant strum to it. Not a bad deal at all for the price. To anyone planning on using this as a mod platform: it has H-S-H routing under the pickguard and replacing said pickguard is going to require a little tinkering. I used a "standard" 11 hole replacement off Amazon and about half the holes didn't line up at all so you'll need to drill some new ones in the body which isn't a big deal. There are also some extra holes drilled next to the pots to keep them from rotating. Finally, you're going to need a Dremel or something similar to carve the neck cutout a little bit deeper. I basically just laid the old pickguard over the new one and drilled/carved where necessary to make the neck cutout and control notches line up. Not a bad little project as long as you've got the tools to do it.