Donner DST-100S 39 Inch Full Size Electric Guitar Kit Solid Body Sunburst, Beginner Starter, with Amplifier, Bag, Capo, Strap, String, Tuner, Cable, Picks

My son loved it. He is a beginner

I'm by no means a professional muscian. I played an acoustic guitar for years and decided I wanted to get an electric guitar, so I looked at multiple items here on Amazon. I'm sure a lot of people are looking at these beginner packages and I can tell you that after getting two of them, I have learned a lot. First of all, the Donner package is really much better than the Lyx with the exception of the amp. The Gig bag is padded, and has backpack straps. The cable is much better, and has a velcro strap so you can pack it up. The strap is ok and the tuner is like all the others and probably all made in the same place. The guitar is very nice looking and this one has the HSS configuration which is great. The mini amp is cute but not very functional except to use at home. It definitely works and can produce some sound but not a lot and it's the kind that some people strap to their belt and play. The Lyx amp is an actual amp and is surprisingly good. From reading the other reviews, it appears it is hit or miss whether you get one that has been set up. I did not. My first pick was the Lyx and it had a few issues, which I reviewed on that product so I sent it back and got the Donner. When I opened the packaging I was impressed with the quality of all the parts, and then I tried to tune it. I tried everything, including purchasing a maintenance kit with all the measuring devices and nothing I did could get the low E string to stay in tune. It would tune as an open string and then if I tried to intonate it ( use the 12th fret, which is E an octave higher), it was sharp. I then tried the whole scale on the string and all were sharp. Ok, so these guitars need to be set up properly and so I went through the process with the help of YouTube and tried to get it to intonate, but had no luck. The B and high E worked fine, but the rest of the strings were not tunable. I even adjusted the pickups to make sure they were not interfering with the tune. Thinking maybe it was me I went to the local Guitar Center to look at a Squier, and it had the same issues. However, when I took it to the in house luthier, he was able to intonate it (using the same process I had done) in a few minutes. Having become an instant "expert" through YouTube, I decided it could be one or more of several issues: the strings, the tuning pegs, the nut or the frets. At that point, I decided it wasn't worth the effort. It's a beautiful guitar, with nice features but if it needs to have new strings ($5 to $10) and then if that didn't fix it, I'd need to take it to the luthier for a professional setup ($50) and maybe change the tuning pegs ($60 for Grovers). I'm sure it could be made to work, but at the end of the day and spending an extra $120, I think it would be better to just get a Fender Squier in the first place. You can get one for $179 on Amazon but it's just the guitar alone. If you want the Gig bag it's another $30 plus $30 for a mini amp, $10 each for tuner and strap and another $10 for capo and picks and $10 for a cable you have a much better package for $120 more than the Donner. Plus, you now have an actual Fender Squier, and I'm thinking the quality control on a Fender even one built in China like these are, has much better quality control. So, if you just want a package and don't want to bother with the other stuff, the Donner is I believe a higher quality package than Lyx, and you may get lucky and have one already set up. But, if not, you may spend an extra $120 on upgrades and a setup.

I bought this guitar to learn how to play during the pandemic, I have zero experience playing guitar so I didn't want to spend a lot of money on it. The guitar is very nicely packaged and included a lot of extra goodies such as a tuner, a capo, strings, picks, a bag, a strap, and a tiny amp. I'll start off on the amp, it is tiny, like portable Bluetooth speaker tiny, but it sounds pretty good both clean and with distortion. I'd use it for practice sessions but never for any performance. The rechargable battery makes it quite compelling so I don't need to find a power source. Good item. The guitar body is very high quality, the neck is made of an excellent wood, it is smooth and the frets are not sharp. The body is modeled after the Stratocaster and looks fantastic and just holding the guitar gives a high quality feel. Now for playing and sound, first thing you do, take the strings off, they are terrible, with these strings the intonation is way outta whack where anything above fret 12 is too flat. And don't use the extra strings in the box either, get a set of Made in USA strings like D'Addario Nickel Wound XL. Second is to change the tuning pegs, the ones included keep slipping and have way too much play before they move the string. I would find they lose their tuning quite often during play and would need retuning. The included nut is a soft plastic and too deep which I changed out for a Tusq nut. For looks, I decided to change the pickguard to a black pickguard. Be warned that the screw positions on this guitar are mostly DIFFERENT than a Fender Stratocaster, so be prepared to drill holes, but the pickup holes inside the body can accommodate two humbuckers if you want to upgrade those. After rubbing some lemon oil on the fretboard, the dark wood looks fantastic. Finally for my next upgrade, I want to upgrade the pickups to Alnico V pickups, the included ones are "fine", but they pick up a lot of interference during play and don't really give the best possible sound. If you plan on upgrading this guitar, be very careful when removing the neck. Pull upwards, not outwards or you could chip the finish. In the end I spent quite of bit of money and time in this "starter" guitar to upgrade it to my liking, but I learned a lot along the way, and the body is high quality that the upgrades will be meaningful.

I don't know jack about guitars, but this looks and sounds like one! The amp is tiny, looks like something Barbie would plug her guitar into. 🤷 Sounds good though!

First off, I RARELY write reviews, but I figured that this one deserved it! When you are buying a guitar, amp, cord, capo, picks, strings, strap, gig bag, etc...all for just over $200 Canadian, you aren't necessarily going to expect much in terms of quality. Boy, was I wrong! Guitar looks and sounds great, gig bag is good quality and all other little accessories are, although basic, great quality! The amp is awesome too because it is powered by battery, you can basically bring it anywhere! Also, since it has an AUX output, you can practice while wearing headphones so you don't wake anyone up! Lastly, I know Donner is not a well known name in the guitar industry, but the customer service I received from them was great! Prompt and friendly responses for an issue I THOUGHT I had with the guitar. Again, as I mentioned, I am a beginner guitar player and I didn't know that the Humbucker pickup is supposed to be loose! When I noticed it was loose, I contacted Donner directly and they promptly replied and asked me to send them a video of the issue. After I sent it, their technical team got back to me to let me know that this was completely normal for a Humbucker pickup...also, after some Google research, I found it was normal as well. Either way, the response time and friendliness was impressive. I've only had the guitar for about a month now and I couldn't be happier! I would definitely recommend for someone who either is a complete beginner and doesn't want to heavily invest in anything expensive just yet...OR I would even recommend it for an experienced player looking for a "beater" guitar that they don't mind banging around a little bit. A+++++++