Re: GAS attacks again: Take a look
UPDATE. NO PICS AS YET, SORRY - PICS COMING SOON!!!
Well as you may have guessed by now, I bought the darn thing. Before I run into another debt and buy a digital camera, here's a description:
The guitar is a semi-hollow body, set-neck, kind of scaled-down Lucille.
The body is a symmetrical double-cut shaped like a cross between an Ibanez Artist and the Gibson ES-335 range. It's a maple/mahogany/maple sandwich with flamed top and back and chambered middle mahogany section, thick as a Les Paul. Judging from what I saw in the control cavity, the chambers are pretty large - almost as big as on a regular semi-hollowbody with the central block.
The neck is laminated maple and mahogany (a thin strip of mahogany that looks like the Skunk Stripe running all the length of the neck), plus it is laminated front to back: maple, a thin veneer of mahogany, maple about as thick as the fretboard, and finally a walnut fretboard. The neck profile is like the Gibson '59 size, maybe a hair wider and flatter. The fretboard is very flat - think Ibanez RG, the scale length is 25.5" (measured on the low E string), there are 23 frets (yes 23) and a brass nut.
The color is ... no, this description made the post too long, I'll get my digital camera tomorrow and post a pic.
The guitar came fitted with gold Gotoh hardware (stop-tail, TOM, and tuners), two SH-4 pickups, one volume pot, one push-pull coil-split tone pot, and a three-way toggle.
There were a couple of things I didn't like, though. First, the neck is not as straight as I would have preferred - there is a little backbow on the bass side up to about the 5th fret. I loosened the truss rod and it went a long way, but still not perfect. I like high action and that, combined with the loosened truss rod, eliminates 90% of the buzzing. As of now it's good enough for me. Second, I wasn't crazy about the pickups. They really are the SH-4s the seller claimed they were; they are both labelled "JBJ" on the bottom and they have the long (vintage) legs. I swapped them for a set of APH's and it's much much better. Third, the thing is kind of large so it won't fit in a regular case or gigbag. I got an old gigbag with it that's ugly but works just fine. Fourth, the 23rd fret is set a little too close to the fretboard's end, probably to facilitate bending up to the highest e note - but the e-flat note is a little sharp when fretted. Weird. But as someone said, there's no money above the 5th fret anyway
Now for the good news. The guitar sounds great. It's resonant and lively, there are no dead spots or wolf tones, and the sustain is good. The neck is big and comfy - I've grown to appreciate big necks. The frets, although used, are fairly clean and good, no buzzing, good intonation. The whole thing is big but not overly heavy, and it balances well on a strap. The hardware is a tad worn (the gold plating always wears) but solid (bridge) and precise (the tuners). And, ahem, THE DARN THING IS EFFFFFFING PRETTY!!!! Even my old Wine Red Les Paul Studio was not this pretty.
Tonally ... it's basically a semi-hollowbody. The sound is big and open, pretty balanced on the low-to-high scale, without that solidbody midrange push. I took it to the gig the very day I bought it (Friday) and it stood up well. The dynamics were not as minute as I had hoped for, but that may have been the pickups (and my amp's old tubes). Anyway, I will try it live with the APHs and see how they fare. Something tells me the lower-output pickups could work better in a semi.
It's a long post. Thanks for reading and wait for the pics, they're coming tomorrow!
Tony
