You’re right, Washburn does make some decent mid-priced guitars plus their flagship line of Dimebag guitars.

Having a good guitar tech setup a guitar can make a huge difference in a cheap guitar as long as the guitar’s construction and parts are basically sound. Since I enjoy working on guitars, I don’t mind buying cheap guitars but for someone who wants it close to right out of the box then spending more makes more sense.

I agree that there are some better Washburn guitars out there.

The Squier line has gotten better in recent years because they were facing tough competition from Yamaha, Ibanez and others who were beating the on quality and features. The Squiers I’ve seen recently compare favorably with similarly priced models from other companies. I still recommend against the cheap amps they put in package deals though.

I guess it depends on how serious they are about learning guitar. I think that the Lyon would frustrate most beginners and they would stick it in the back of the closet within a few weeks. A slightly better, but still cheap, guitar and amp combo would be a better platform for learning how to play guitar. But, if they just want to have a guitar in their room to ‘look cool’ then the Lyon will do the trick quite well.