Pierre
Stratologist
Yeah I've been on a bit of a streak recently. I got me a Tom Anderson (did an NGD already), Parker Fly, and part-trades a couple of guitars for that Suhr. Oh and I got that Mermet, pre-ordered an Aristides 060s, ordered a Sankey, and finalized some specs on a Waghorn.
Adulting skills = NONE.
Guitar owning skills = EPIC.
(music skills = none too)
So. Let's start with the Mermet, since I feel it's the coolest out here.
I'd been following Hugo since he was in France (spoiler alert: I am French), and when he moved to California I seriously considered commissioning a Sidh from him. I went with Mike Sankey, however. But a few weeks later, sir Mermet posts his new Sidh Classic prototype on sale; I promptly ping him, ask for some specs and his price, et voila. DONE DEAL (he said it took 3 minutes).
It took a while from there; the hardware wasn't finalized, and I had to wait a few weeks for it + a new selector switch. But get here she did.
When I got it, strings were virtually ON the frets. The G string was buzzing open. The guitar sounded ULTRA bright. I did NOT like it.
I waited a couple of days for it to acclimate... and ended-up loosening the truss rod a little.
Then it happened.
The guitar COMPLETELY opened up. Day and night, black and white, yin and yang, polka and metal. This thing could NOT be any more different than previously.
The buzz is gone while the strings are pretty much still the lowest out of all my guitars. The tone is much more balanced and I can hear the guitar, not string buzz.
In all honesty I'm still discovering the pickups, which are from a Chilean company called Organic pickups (http://organicpickups.com/). My mind is not made-up about them yet especially since it took a couple of days for me to hear the true tone of this guitar. It's an HSH set, mated with a 5-way switch, volume, and tone (the tone pot does not work on the bridge position, I'll need to fix that).
The electronics wiring is a thing of BEAUTY. Absolutely stunning. I forgot to take pictures...
So I'll move on to more objective observations on both the obvious and the oblivious...
The carves on the body are FANTASTIC. Lines blend flawlessly. The wood and fit on this is TOP quality.
The Mahogany body on has a great 3D quality to its grain which I cannot photograph; the Cocobolo's grain is perfectly parallel to the neck itself, the fingerboard is STUNNING.
The neck itself is... intriguing, to me. It's flat-ish, but without that rounded 2x4 profile which was all the rage a few years back. It also feels a little wider than I'm accustomed, which altogether makes this VERY comfortable: my thumb is anchored at all points. Still, not my ideal profile, but a good discovery.
Frets are nicely set, though this being a prototype (the price reflected this) are not flawless. Note that these are still better than the vast majority of guitars out there!
The way strings attach at the headstock fix one of my biggest headless guitar pet peeve, which is string ends just hanging there (also a pet peeve on headstocked guitars, mind). Here they can be unobtrusive and nicely tucked-away.
After the thousand words, a couple of pictures to confirm them all.
(for more, and far better, pictures, check out Hugo's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mermetguitars/)
NGD 2! This one is a bit late. A few weeks back I played a friend's 2 Parker Flies (a Classic and a Deluxe) and IMMEDIATELY fell in love. Super light, super loud, and sounded greaat. So that same evening I ended-up on Reverb and proceeded to do something stupid.
It's hard to tell from the pictures; I live in a city where Sunlight is about as common as comets, and my appartment faces north. But that finish is a gorgeous, albeit dark, Italian Plum purple.
Otherwise not much else to say about this... It took me a while to dial-in, but this guitar plays a lot faster than I've ever been able to. This plays incredibly-well!
Piezo works perfectly and I happen to like the rather neutral-sounding pictures.
Now, the thing with the Parker Fly is... it's all proprietary.
* If you use larger strings you'll need a Parker-made 'spring' for the vibrato bridge, a bent metal plate
* If you need to replace a fret, you can't just re-set it to the neck. You'll need to cut-off a large part of the tang, but not all, and carefully place it on the groove to locate
* If you wish to change pickups... well you'll need to custom-order them, since the G string on one coil and B on the other are the mounting screws. Get'em without baseplates
* ... and then you'll need to deal with the fragile ribbon wiring which looks like it'd be a right pain to change around...
So eh. Not the most repairable or tweakable guitar. But hot damn.
Oh that top horn is a gigantic pain the ass (or rather, left moob). That is all.
Last and, I guess, least, a Suhr Pro M3. I can't find much info on the M series, I take it they were lesser-priced, fixed specs models.
I've not been able to get her to play as well as my other Suhr or most of my other guitars. It's also not as loud, a bit heavier. My guitar with the most 'Strat' vibe of all.
Those pickups are AMAZING. Huge amount of fun, and they sound super big. Wow. I am absolutely impressed (my other Suhr has the Aldrich set and they're also really cool; great 80s or brown tone vibe).
So she may still need some work. The finish is gorgeous. The Pau Ferro fingerboard matches the guitar's vibe perfectly. Still, not sure I'm keeping it as it's a bit redundant for me. TBC...
Adulting skills = NONE.
Guitar owning skills = EPIC.
(music skills = none too)
So. Let's start with the Mermet, since I feel it's the coolest out here.
I'd been following Hugo since he was in France (spoiler alert: I am French), and when he moved to California I seriously considered commissioning a Sidh from him. I went with Mike Sankey, however. But a few weeks later, sir Mermet posts his new Sidh Classic prototype on sale; I promptly ping him, ask for some specs and his price, et voila. DONE DEAL (he said it took 3 minutes).
It took a while from there; the hardware wasn't finalized, and I had to wait a few weeks for it + a new selector switch. But get here she did.
When I got it, strings were virtually ON the frets. The G string was buzzing open. The guitar sounded ULTRA bright. I did NOT like it.
I waited a couple of days for it to acclimate... and ended-up loosening the truss rod a little.
Then it happened.
The guitar COMPLETELY opened up. Day and night, black and white, yin and yang, polka and metal. This thing could NOT be any more different than previously.
The buzz is gone while the strings are pretty much still the lowest out of all my guitars. The tone is much more balanced and I can hear the guitar, not string buzz.
In all honesty I'm still discovering the pickups, which are from a Chilean company called Organic pickups (http://organicpickups.com/). My mind is not made-up about them yet especially since it took a couple of days for me to hear the true tone of this guitar. It's an HSH set, mated with a 5-way switch, volume, and tone (the tone pot does not work on the bridge position, I'll need to fix that).
The electronics wiring is a thing of BEAUTY. Absolutely stunning. I forgot to take pictures...
So I'll move on to more objective observations on both the obvious and the oblivious...
The carves on the body are FANTASTIC. Lines blend flawlessly. The wood and fit on this is TOP quality.
The Mahogany body on has a great 3D quality to its grain which I cannot photograph; the Cocobolo's grain is perfectly parallel to the neck itself, the fingerboard is STUNNING.
The neck itself is... intriguing, to me. It's flat-ish, but without that rounded 2x4 profile which was all the rage a few years back. It also feels a little wider than I'm accustomed, which altogether makes this VERY comfortable: my thumb is anchored at all points. Still, not my ideal profile, but a good discovery.
Frets are nicely set, though this being a prototype (the price reflected this) are not flawless. Note that these are still better than the vast majority of guitars out there!
The way strings attach at the headstock fix one of my biggest headless guitar pet peeve, which is string ends just hanging there (also a pet peeve on headstocked guitars, mind). Here they can be unobtrusive and nicely tucked-away.
After the thousand words, a couple of pictures to confirm them all.
(for more, and far better, pictures, check out Hugo's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mermetguitars/)
NGD 2! This one is a bit late. A few weeks back I played a friend's 2 Parker Flies (a Classic and a Deluxe) and IMMEDIATELY fell in love. Super light, super loud, and sounded greaat. So that same evening I ended-up on Reverb and proceeded to do something stupid.
It's hard to tell from the pictures; I live in a city where Sunlight is about as common as comets, and my appartment faces north. But that finish is a gorgeous, albeit dark, Italian Plum purple.
Otherwise not much else to say about this... It took me a while to dial-in, but this guitar plays a lot faster than I've ever been able to. This plays incredibly-well!
Piezo works perfectly and I happen to like the rather neutral-sounding pictures.
Now, the thing with the Parker Fly is... it's all proprietary.
* If you use larger strings you'll need a Parker-made 'spring' for the vibrato bridge, a bent metal plate
* If you need to replace a fret, you can't just re-set it to the neck. You'll need to cut-off a large part of the tang, but not all, and carefully place it on the groove to locate
* If you wish to change pickups... well you'll need to custom-order them, since the G string on one coil and B on the other are the mounting screws. Get'em without baseplates
* ... and then you'll need to deal with the fragile ribbon wiring which looks like it'd be a right pain to change around...
So eh. Not the most repairable or tweakable guitar. But hot damn.
Oh that top horn is a gigantic pain the ass (or rather, left moob). That is all.
Last and, I guess, least, a Suhr Pro M3. I can't find much info on the M series, I take it they were lesser-priced, fixed specs models.
I've not been able to get her to play as well as my other Suhr or most of my other guitars. It's also not as loud, a bit heavier. My guitar with the most 'Strat' vibe of all.
Those pickups are AMAZING. Huge amount of fun, and they sound super big. Wow. I am absolutely impressed (my other Suhr has the Aldrich set and they're also really cool; great 80s or brown tone vibe).
So she may still need some work. The finish is gorgeous. The Pau Ferro fingerboard matches the guitar's vibe perfectly. Still, not sure I'm keeping it as it's a bit redundant for me. TBC...
It really digs in you. But otherwise it's super lightweight, and plays incredibly well.
