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Whew. So. I went and actually did it. I bought one of those cheapo chinese knock off guitars. I had been seeing these things a bunch kicking around YouTube - some real pretty looking Strandberg ripoffs. This one is by a company named EART... Which somehow I'm told stands for Electronic Audio Art.... ??
I saw a couple videos on YouTube, pretty much all seemed shady and probably paid reviews. I've wanted to try a headless for a while and I don't exactly have Strandberg money so I pulled the trigger on one of these Amazon copies. The wood and necks looked good enough for me to take the chance. Worst case scenario, it's Prime, so I can return it with almost no hassle. I figured maybe it's good to go? Or maybe it would make a really nice project?
I hopped on Amazon to grab one and OF COURSE all of the Prime ones are out of stock so I went for one of the non prime ones (direct from seller). I opted for the fixed bridge version since I fully expected cheap hardware and nothing is worse than a cheap tremolo. Shipping took a while, at least compared to ebay, zzounds, AMS, Amazon etc... Though maybe we are spoiled now. Ordered April 2nd arrived April 14th.
This has gone long as hell so I'll cut to the chase. I'm pretty blown away but there were some definite issues.
The good:. The wood is amazing. The top, while thin, is heavily textured and color looks good. Love the matte. Love the open grain back. Neck is very impressive. 5 piece neck. Fretboard, no clue what it is, but was UNBELIEVABLY dry. It soaked up a bunch of conditioner. Looks awesome now though. The fretwork is a big thing everyone talks about on these - there is good and bad here. The good being that the ends sure are dressed nicely. They're unusually perfect. I also am happy with the level job. Seems pretty good to me. The pickups sounded great which really surprised me. They are actually wax potted. I will actually use them on another project. Swapped these out for Seymour Duncan Sentient and Nazgul, something I knew I was doing before I even got the guitar.
The bad: There are some some flaws for sure. I found a bunch of glue marks around the frets. Pretty annoying. I found what is maybe some finish spray or a chemical I'm not sure put a mark on the fretboard that won't take oil. The hardware seems to function just fine, however pickup screws were not installed correctly, making the bridge pickup real crooked. The intonation hex screw on the A string was pre-stripped on the head. Thankfully it's in the right spot, but I may need to replace this or something later on down the line. Output jack is black plastic which I found bizarre. Wiring was ok, nothing special. One pot was loose and needed tightening. Learning this new bridge was a real chore, it's a very strange thing. It does work however. You can definitely tune using your fingers, however it does work best to use the goofy winder thing that sticks to the side of the bridge via magnet. Control cavity cover is not perfectly shaped and looks goofy. And finally, the top piece that secures the ball ends of the strings seems attached really hastily to the top of the neck. The two screws holding it in don't match up with the countersink and angle of the hardware. This leaves a little bit of screw head poking out on each screw. Nothing that hurts function but not aesthetically pleasing. I would also like to point out that it came strung up with fake D'addarios. I knew this immediately as a life long D'addario user. A side by side comparison is always fun because the ball colors are never correct. Anyway, stuck some real strings on it, 10s specifically. I also always tune 1/2 step down.
Once the action was lowered, truss adjusted, SD pickups thrown on, and everything wiped and oiled, this thing friggin screams. Wow. It plays so so good for me. The neck reminds me of an Ibanez - real flat and thin. Really enjoying this Nazgul bridge pickup. Sentient neck seems ok.
If you bought this guitar you would have something awesome out of the box. The strings it came with dont seem terrible, but they weren't D'addario either. Otherwise it played, man, right out of box. Setup wasn't perfect, but it would have been fine for a beginner. Def within the realm of acceptable playability. Pickups were good enough, and with an upgrade this thing is a keeper. I will be upgrading the pots and jack.
I paid I think 330 bucks for this. I do not feel like I got cheated.
I have photos, just need to figure out how to post them.
I saw a couple videos on YouTube, pretty much all seemed shady and probably paid reviews. I've wanted to try a headless for a while and I don't exactly have Strandberg money so I pulled the trigger on one of these Amazon copies. The wood and necks looked good enough for me to take the chance. Worst case scenario, it's Prime, so I can return it with almost no hassle. I figured maybe it's good to go? Or maybe it would make a really nice project?
I hopped on Amazon to grab one and OF COURSE all of the Prime ones are out of stock so I went for one of the non prime ones (direct from seller). I opted for the fixed bridge version since I fully expected cheap hardware and nothing is worse than a cheap tremolo. Shipping took a while, at least compared to ebay, zzounds, AMS, Amazon etc... Though maybe we are spoiled now. Ordered April 2nd arrived April 14th.
This has gone long as hell so I'll cut to the chase. I'm pretty blown away but there were some definite issues.
The good:. The wood is amazing. The top, while thin, is heavily textured and color looks good. Love the matte. Love the open grain back. Neck is very impressive. 5 piece neck. Fretboard, no clue what it is, but was UNBELIEVABLY dry. It soaked up a bunch of conditioner. Looks awesome now though. The fretwork is a big thing everyone talks about on these - there is good and bad here. The good being that the ends sure are dressed nicely. They're unusually perfect. I also am happy with the level job. Seems pretty good to me. The pickups sounded great which really surprised me. They are actually wax potted. I will actually use them on another project. Swapped these out for Seymour Duncan Sentient and Nazgul, something I knew I was doing before I even got the guitar.
The bad: There are some some flaws for sure. I found a bunch of glue marks around the frets. Pretty annoying. I found what is maybe some finish spray or a chemical I'm not sure put a mark on the fretboard that won't take oil. The hardware seems to function just fine, however pickup screws were not installed correctly, making the bridge pickup real crooked. The intonation hex screw on the A string was pre-stripped on the head. Thankfully it's in the right spot, but I may need to replace this or something later on down the line. Output jack is black plastic which I found bizarre. Wiring was ok, nothing special. One pot was loose and needed tightening. Learning this new bridge was a real chore, it's a very strange thing. It does work however. You can definitely tune using your fingers, however it does work best to use the goofy winder thing that sticks to the side of the bridge via magnet. Control cavity cover is not perfectly shaped and looks goofy. And finally, the top piece that secures the ball ends of the strings seems attached really hastily to the top of the neck. The two screws holding it in don't match up with the countersink and angle of the hardware. This leaves a little bit of screw head poking out on each screw. Nothing that hurts function but not aesthetically pleasing. I would also like to point out that it came strung up with fake D'addarios. I knew this immediately as a life long D'addario user. A side by side comparison is always fun because the ball colors are never correct. Anyway, stuck some real strings on it, 10s specifically. I also always tune 1/2 step down.
Once the action was lowered, truss adjusted, SD pickups thrown on, and everything wiped and oiled, this thing friggin screams. Wow. It plays so so good for me. The neck reminds me of an Ibanez - real flat and thin. Really enjoying this Nazgul bridge pickup. Sentient neck seems ok.
If you bought this guitar you would have something awesome out of the box. The strings it came with dont seem terrible, but they weren't D'addario either. Otherwise it played, man, right out of box. Setup wasn't perfect, but it would have been fine for a beginner. Def within the realm of acceptable playability. Pickups were good enough, and with an upgrade this thing is a keeper. I will be upgrading the pots and jack.
I paid I think 330 bucks for this. I do not feel like I got cheated.
I have photos, just need to figure out how to post them.
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