Price paid: £ 400
Purchased from: The Guitar Workshop
Features: It is a semi hollow body and a single cut away style in Transparent Orange which looks more red to be honest which is heavy but comfortable when sitting Maple Body and 3 piece Maple Neck with a Rosewood Fingerboard, not tried to much standing up. It has Seymour Duncan P90's x 2, A Bigsby B700 and Grover Tuners and Tone/volume knobs (2 of each) Got a strap with it as well which is a bonus. No idea when it was made but would imagine fairly recently. Kit alone on this guitar made it well worth the money plus I trust the store I bought it from which helps. The only negative was it came with cheap 12 gauge strings which were not to my liking so I had to get it restrung which was no biggie. // 8
Sound: Currently I use it with a Kustom KGA30 although that needs upgrading but get a real crisp sound out of it when played clean and it distorts really well which I was surprised at with the semi hollow body (since been told the solid rod through the middle of it helps with this). I play a bit of everything from Blues through to Metal and I can't really fault it at anything I have attempted so far, gives out a nice clean tone when I don't have the effects on and when using my DigiTech Metal Master pedal it copes admirably. It doesn't do the heavy stuff as well as my LP but I bought it more for the semi Acoustic side of things due to nagging about the noise from the better half. Sounds nice when not plugged in as well although I wouldn't use it out and about eithout being plugged in, more from a practise point of view. // 9
Action, Fit & Finish: It needed a setup when I bought it as I had a bit of Fret Buzz but this was sorted when I had it restrung and the action was higher than I like at the top end of the Fret board but again this was put right with a restring. Pickups were spot on out of the box and everything else was to a Standard I was happy with. I am no pro musician so I can only comment from an intermediate players point of view. Body was fine with no marks and all the equipment was shiny and unblemished. The binding is very tidy as is the neck with no sign that I can see of any weaknesses in the join. // 8
Reliability & Durability: Strap Buttons are solid and the guitar stands being dragged out once or twice a week in the back of the car to jam nights. Hardware seems solid enough and I have no concerns about it failing me should I choose to gig at some point in the future. Finish is spot on and again no concerns here. I banged it with the hoover in a moment of carelessness and it nicked the body slightly but not as much as I was expecting. I think with the weight of the thing it will withstand plenty of knocks. // 9
Impression: I have been playing for about 2 years now and when I bought this I had a DBZ Barchetta as a second guitar which I have since traded in for an Epi Les Paul due to not being a fan of active pickups. This guitar fitted the budget and I realise I could have got an Epi equivalent or an Ibanez etc but not with the amount of toys there are on this. I would definitely recommend Shine as a brand and am very happy with how the guitar looks, feels and sounds but it is not a major brand and I am not a pro guitarist so I have been realistic with the rating as having never played a Gibson or a Fender I can't compare it. Against the guitars I have owned a Squire Strat, a Cort X-6 and the DBZ which I wont compare it against due to the active pickups I would choose this guitar over the 3 of them due to it simply being better sounding and better value for money. I did use this guitar through a Zoom GFX-5 and the Wah sounded sweet. Long story short, great value, great guitar and I would recommend to anyone. It has been played by gigging guitarists and they say it has a nice Jazzy sound. Hope the review helps anyone looking at them. // 8
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