The Floyd Rose Discovery Series DST-3 Electric Guitar features the one-two punch of the innovative Floyd Rose SpeedLoader Tremolo System and a fast, comfortable maple neck with a rosewood fretboard.
Discovery Series DST-3
Reviewed by:
bullseyestrat, on august 04, 2007 2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 149.99
Purchased from: Musiciansfriend.com
Features: I believe it was made in 2005 in China. It has 22 medium frets with a 25.5" scale. The neck smooth, unfinished, thin, and it's made of maple. The fretboard is rosewood. The body is made of basswood colored blue. It's kind of shaped kinda like a Stratocaster, only a little thinner. It has a pearloid pickguard like a Strat, but slightly modified. There are 2 high output single coils and 1 hot humbucker with the usual 5-way Switch and a volume knob with no tone. The biggest feature on this guitar is that it has a Floyd Rose speedloader tremolo system. It allows you to change the strings very quick with ease. It also eliminates the need for tuners on the headstock giving it kind of a cool looking hollow headstock. It also comes with a gig bag, the allen wrenches for tuning the floyd, and the screw-in whammy bar for the divebombs. // 8
Sound: It sounds a lot like my Strats. Very warm and somewhat resonant. I tried it through my Peavey Windsor w/MS412 cabinet along with 2 OD pedals (SD1 and TS808) and some chorus and a noise suppressor. With that I can get a good rock or oldschool metal sound out of it using the humbucker. The single coils sound nice and twangy with lesser overdrive and distortion. The single coils also produce a lot less noise than my other single coil guitars. I also tried it on my solid state Randall on clean, and the pickups sound very good on clean either way you use it. Overall, it's a good sounding guitar that can be pretty versatile. // 8
Action, Fit & Finish: Like with any Floyd Rose tremolo systems, you really have to fine-tune it to get it in tune. This guitar was completely out of tune out of the box, so I had to adjust it. With the speedloader system, you have to actually take off the backplate and move the screw on the tremo-no thing screwed into the back of the body to loosen or tighten the strings to your liking. Then you just fine tune the bridge like any other floyd rose system. It should come with some instruction on how to tune it other than looking online though, like a little manual. It's all pretty easy once you get used to it though. Other than that, everything looked to be intact and solid. // 8
Reliability & Durability: I'm not sure how good the speedloader strings are overtime, but I have a FR Discovery SSS guitar. After a lot of rough playing, they haven't broken yet. The hardware is top notch seeing how it's all from the Floyd Rose company. The strap buttons appear to be good, but I'll probably replace it with some Dunlop Dualdesign Straplocks. If I were to gig with it, I'd definitely bring a backup(especially since it's only $150). Everything also looks sturdy to last for years to come. // 8
Impression: I play various types of rock including classic rock, blues rock, old school heavy metal, and modern rock and metal. This guitar is good for all of them. I've been playing almost 4 years and I own a lot of other gear literally too much to list here. If I lost it somehow, I would just buy another one because they are so cheap right now. I like the fancy speedloader system, tuning stability, overall tone, and the overall quality of the guitar. The only thing I don't like about it is the strings. They seem to run pretty expensive, and kinda hard to get (I've been literally waiting a month for my spare sets at Musiciansfriend.com). Hopefully they actually keep producing the strings. I didn't really compare it to anything else because it's in a class of it's own. In closing, it's a neat but familiar feeling guitar that you can pick up for under $150 right now. // 9
Discovery Series DST-3
Reviewed by:
FullDistortion, on february 03, 2011 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 250
Purchased from: EBay
Features: Not 100% sure of the year of manufacture, but it was made in China. 22 fret maple neck with rosewood board. Basswood body, red with white tortoise shell pickguard. HSS configuration, 5 way selector, 1 vol, with a Floyd Rose Speedloader trem. Came with a padded gig bag, all the necessary wrenches and some picks. // 8
Sound: I played this guitar through mostly Line 6 stuff, so it's hard to really rate the overall sound since modeling amps will make just about anything sound playable. The pickups were actually relatively good for cheap OEM Chinese pickups. The bridge humbucker was quite hot and neck single coil was creamy and had a sound I really enjoyed. It had pretty good sustain, overall I'd say a very workable tone. I was really happy with all the OEM electronics for such a cheap guitar. // 8
Action, Fit & Finish: The setup was pretty good right out of the box. Obviously it needed some tweaking, but it wasn't bad at all, especially compared to some of the guitars I've pulled off of music store walls. The finish was perfect, there were no flaws. However, I also had a Floyd Rose DSOT-4, and that one had a ton of flaws (splinters missing in the trem cavity, very bad drilling in the neck pocket and neck, etc) so I'd say QC could be hit or miss, but on this one, everything was perfect. // 9
Reliability & Durability: I never gigged with this guitar so I can't really speak for it's durability. The only action it saw was in my house, so needless to day it held up just fine. However, it was very solidly built, and at such a low price, I wouldn't think twice about gigging with it. If I ever did break it for some reason it'd be dirt cheap to replace so who cares! // 8
Impression: I play mostly hair metal and I prefer Floyd equipped guitars. This was a fantastic guitar, especially for the money. Very comfy neck, good OEM electronics, very nice looking, and the Speedloader was pretty cool. However, I also consider the Speedloader to be the biggest drawback. It works exactly as advertised and is solid as a rock, but when you do need to retune, it's a huge pain in the ass to use. Also, the proprietary strings it requires means that if they ever go out of production you basically have a parts guitar (and they did stop producing them for a long period in 2010, though they're starting them up again now).
Overall I'd say the Discovery series guitars were fantastic buys for their money, but if I was going to buy another one, I'd definitely stick with the DSOT models which come with a normal OFR. // 8
I like the concept of this guitar. This is basically the summary of all the other reviews that I have read thus far, and for $150 it seems to make a good impression. I might buy it, too, just because it's cool... now if I can only find one without the shiny pickguard..
I tried this and it was Horrible i just dunno what the hell happened... i like other guitars with the Floyd Rose on/in it. i would say its cool but untill you play it you rather buy a 300 peice of S***
isnt the speedloader supposed to in tune on its own? thats how most with the speedloader work. but yea the speedload mechanism is like the only reason i would buy this guitar.
Just picked up the DST-3 and was not happy at first. Had a guy set it up for me and he didn't notice that the tremelo stop was missing under the hatch. I had to build one, and then pick up a 1.5mm allen wrench to tune it myself. After I got that squared away, and fine tuned at the knobs, I must say that the thing screams nicely.
ok the guitar has an ugly head...ok i know that it`s more practical when you don`t have to screw around with tuning heads and locking nuts but they could have done a better looking head...It looks like some fagots ass-hole
I bought this Floyd Rose Discovery DST-3 real cheap on eBay. I just needed a replacement for my old 'Strat' that was stolen (whah, whah).
Well it was way, way, way better than I could have ever imagined. It's got a killer sound and 'top tech' Floyd Rose Trembolo System. Damm did I luck out!
My 'Strat' was customized with a Floyd Rose Trembolo System (with the lock nut). I like to 'ride' it when I play (put in free floating mode is great). After I got used to it - there's no going back. It's the best system out there.
Yes, it's a pain to tune, but after that it's easy to maintain. Strings can be hard to find, buy they are of excellent quality, and very easy to change. The Floyd Rose guitar manual explains how to do everything very clearly (free download).
The Floyd Rose team are ahead of their time. Read about the genius behind it all - interesting guy - he had to 'hand-machine' the first ones made.
THE GUITAR IS A STEAL AT PRICES I'VE SEEN. GET THIS GUITAR!
Just to drop in my 2 cents, I've played on a used one that was set up well, and sure, it played nicely, but my old squire strat played a lot better. It's not worth the pain, because this guitar is aimed at beginners, and what beginner knows how to set up a Floyd rose? And having to remove the back plate to tune it? Not many beginners know how to get the most out of this guitar. The people who do most likely could afford an ibanez with a Floyd rose, which would be my preference, or just get a cheap strat and put a Floyd in it. I know that would not be easy, but probably worth it.
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