Lyons Classroom Guitar – Cheap And Cheerful

Body And Neck:
Hardware:
Sound:
Value:

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A classical guitar at around 60 bucks can’t be any good… right? Not necessarily. Of course, in this super-affordable classical range you can forget superior tonewoods, expert craftsmanship, and solid electronics, but with this Lyons Classroom guitar, you still find a very useful nylon-stringed instrument that will appeal to complete beginners. Produced by a budget Washburn subsidiary – named after one of the original partners, George W. Lyon – this guitar is designed to withstand a beating in the classroom. So is it worthy of home use?

Body & Neck

To begin, the Classroom guitar comes in several sizes to cater for the smallest of hands, including quarter, half, and three-quarter sizes, but we are reviewing the full-sized model, which is perfect for teenagers and adults of all sizes. It’s an attractive and aesthetically clean non-cutaway classical guitar, made with laminated wood – featuring a laminated spruce top, finished in a natural gloss that shows off the grain. The painted maple neck is also highly-glossed and flat, with 19 frets and dot inlays on the side of the neck. This Chinese-made instrument shows fine craftsmanship with a few imperfections and flaws here and there, but – for the price – can be expected. With school classrooms the intended destination, the durability is naturally very good, and for home use this guitar could last you a long time.

Hardware

There’s not much to get excited about in terms of hardware, but the components are all satisfactory and allow you to get good use out of the instrument. There’s a standard oblong rosewood bridge, synthetic saddle and nut, and – on the slotted headstock – six standard tuners, which do the job asked of them. Tuning stability could be better, but after the strings have been stretched it holds its tune relatively well. Finally, the Classroom guitar comes with a gig bag. It’s a little flimsy, but very convenient for transporting the guitar to and from practice sessions/school.

Sound

You won’t find a sound as sweet as a $1000 Cordoba, but for complete beginners or players wanting a guitar they can throw in the back of a car, the sound won’t bother you too much. We notice it can be a little flat in tone, yet it still sounds decent – the full-sized model is resonant enough and individual notes are clear, meaning it is worthy of your first chords and scales.

Conclusion

We’ve established it is cheap. We’ve established it is not flawless. But we’ve also demonstrated that this Classroom guitar is a sensible purchase for complete beginners – perhaps those who aren’t sure about guitar and just want to give it a go, or something to keep lying around for a quick practice session. It lacks finesse, and may be something you’d want to ditch as soon as you progress further than the beginner stage, but it looks and sounds like a classical guitar should, and offers very good value for money.

For more info about the Lyons Classroom Guitar, click here.
For more  acoustic guitars for starters, click here.