Reviewed by:
inspir3, on july 31, 2007
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 1290
Features: This guitar was made in the year 2006 in Japan, new models are available though. This guitar has 27 frets, the thin neck is 648mm (25.5") and composed of 9 pieces of walnut & hard maple, I would say frets are rather small considering the 24+ fret marks are absolutely tiny. And it has the "Vine of Life", Steve Vai's "Tree of Life" imitation, actually much better and quality. I have seen and played many Vai Jem's and yeah I can't say for their price they can even compare. The body has a very high quality quilted maple finish among AAA+ quality. The body is made of Ash and is styled like a super-Strat except with loads of class. The bridge that comes Standard with this guitar is an Original Floyd Rose. Pickups are Seymour Duncan SCR-1n (neck) & Seymour Duncan TB-5 (bridge) passives with a 3-way toggle switch, 1 volume + 1 tone. The remaining hardware is gold and by Gotoh. Included accessories include gig bag, pack of Fender Standard strings and tremelo tools. // 10
Sound: I play a huge range of music from Steve Vai to The butterfly Effect, this guitar is extremely versatile and can handle anything. The single coil at the neck is so sweet and mellow, playing it in the clean channel with a touch of delay it rings beautifully, the bridge humbucker is packed with awesome power when playing crushing metal riffs and the Original Floyd rose is of expected quality maintaining perfect tuning after the most aggressive dive bombs, flutters and squeals. Even on Hi-gain the natural tone of the wood has a presence that can't be saturated out, definite tonal heaven. The guitar is not noisy at all, I left it there sitting in front of my amp on a chair on a high gain channel with no feedback spitting at me at all. // 10
Action, Fit & Finish: Guitar was out of tune when I received it, but having been flown from Japan all the way to Australia I didn't mind. Action on a tremelo bridge is a bit hard to judge considering tweaking for personal preference is very biased, so no it wasn't to my liking when I received it. Pickups were perfectly installed sitting firmly in the compartments. Bridge was routed clean, so clean to the point upon inspection it has the GT stripes seen throughout the rest of the guitar body. There was some dust on it, roflmao, that's as bad as I can point out. // 10
Reliability & Durability: I am so scared to damage this guitar because it is so beautiful, I think it will withstand gigging though and I will probably use it for weekly gigs anyhow. The hardware is of the highest quality and is extremely durable and reliable. Strap buttons are definitely tight, I tried screwing them in but they are as tight as can be. I wouldn't use it in a gig without backup because of the Floyd Rose even though I never snap strings Strings could snap when I'm doing some "showoff guitar" stuff, so better safe than sorry. It has a thick layer of finish so I think it will last me till I purchase another. // 10
Impression: In the band I play in we play mainly hard rock/progressive rock with some sort of ridiculous cover occasionally *speed kills, meltdown* by the guitar virtuoso's. I have been playing a little over 2 years, self taught and now teaching. I am very biased against the big players of musical equipment because there are so many instrument makers out there Who put their heart and souls into their quality instruments for half the price and double the pleasure. I didn't need to ask any questions before I purchased this guitar because I had done my research and I always know what I want. If it were lost/stolen, I would firstly hunt down the guy Who stole it and kill him. I would definitely buy another one because I adore this instrument and it is the Maybach of my collection as of now. The very reasonable price for this underrated and relatively unknown instrument. I compared so many guitars before I made up my mind: Having filtered through Caparison, Ibanez Jem's, Jackson Stars, ESP's, Atlas, Lag, Maverick, Zaganin, Zerebus and Bernie Rico guitars. Btw, these brands are no PUSHOVERS, they are just way over my budget, being a 19 year old studying in University, working 3 jobs. I chose this guitar for the fact it offered SO MUCH more than any other company for the price. // 10
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