Reviewed by:
unregistered, on march 30, 2009
0 of 4 people found this review helpful
Purchased from: GAK (Guitar, Amp & Keyboard)
Features: This guitar was made in Korea, not sure of the year. It is the Michael Wilton (of Queensryche) Signature Guitar, It has 22 frets on a maple fingerboard with Diamond inlays. The neck is quite fat, features jumbo frets and is bolted to the body. The neck is maple and the body is alder - the best configuration of tonewoods. The finish is a custom skulls finish (butt-ugly) specified personally by Michael Wilton. It also has two Duncan Designed singlecoils and one Seymour Duncan JB in the HSS configuration. The electronics are passive. This also features an Original Floyd Rose tremolo and Sperzel Locking Tuners. For this price I also had a hardcase included. The finish loses three points. // 7
Sound: My music is metal and rock, and this guitar does the latter better, the Seymour Duncan JB handing out the ultimate solo tone on a silver platter and the singlecoils scrubbing up nicely for chilling blues licks. I just use my Marshall Valvestate VS65R. For proper bone-chilling metal, I plug in my DigiTech Hardwire TL2 Metal Distortion pedal to strip paint of the walls. The guitar is incredibly versatile, though (without the pedal). The fact that to acheive crushing metal tones I had to use a pedal loses one point. // 9
Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar had pretty high action when I got it, that allowed me to get an insane pull-up range on the Floyd but also sacrificed playability. And although a slightly curved fretboard allows for better bends, they fade out eventually and flat fingerboards are better when it comes to shredding. The pickup Switch was pretty quiet, the pickups were adjusted well, but the tone control fell off after about 2 months of gentle handling.
I have mentioned this earlier, but I feel duty bound to say it again. The skulls finish is butt-ugly, not even slightly going with the chrome hardware, maple fingerboard and headstock. I may actually pay someone to spray black over the skulls so it is slightly less ugly. The fingerboard loses one point, the loose knob loses one point and the finish loses three points. // 5
Reliability & Durability: This guitar should withstand Live playing, the hardware did seem like it would last, *cough* until the tone knob fell off. The strap buttons are rock hard. To be honest, I wouldn't gig with it. I have better guitars. The finish is good enough to last (damn!) and overall the guitar is pretty solidly built. // 9
Impression: I play metal and this guitar is made for people wanting to nail Queensryche's tone. I only bought this guitar because at the time, I had never experienced a natural satin finish neck before. I also was amazed at the Original Floyd and Duncan pickups at the price, and thought the finish would be a compromise, especially for the price. But every day I look at it again and again, and think how ugly it is and I am filled with a slight sense of wonder. What if I had just tried out the Ibanez RG420EX or the BC Rich Mockingbird before I bought the ESP! The guitar is great, except for the finish. Man, I wish I had that Ibanez (sighs). // 7
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