H300 Review

The H300 has a solid alder body, hard maple neck and a rose wood fretboard. 2 humbuckers.

Features:	7
Sound:	6.5
Action:	6
Reliability:	9
Impression:	7
Overall rating:	7.5
Reviewer rating:	7.1
Users rating:	7.8
Votes:	13

overall: 6.4

Reviewed by: GaryBillington, on august 16, 2011

Price paid: £ 40

Purchased from: Ebay

Features: Bought second hand, so I don't know when it was made, but it doesn't feel very old. It has 24 frets, 2 humbucker pickups and a nice natural finish. It looks awesome - mine is a transparent green, which shows the grain of the wood nicely. It doesn't have a tone controller, but the volume control is a metal knob and has a nice smooth action with no interference.

The only negative with it's features aside from the lack of a tone control is the pickup Switch - it's set the wrong way round for what you'd expect - you have to have it pointing towards the neck to activate the Bridge pickup and vice versa. Probably an easy fix, but mildly annoying until I get around to it. // 7

Sound: The sound would be best described as average. The Bridge pickup is good, but the neck pickup is pretty weak. It also buzzes when you aren't playing it, but this can be stopped by putting a finger on one of the pickups. The lack of a tone controller also weakens the guitar in this area.

I play mostly my own compositions, my lead playing is mostly influenced by Slash & Billy Duffy. For this, the guitar may be OK for the occasional bit of lead using the Bridge pickup, but anytime I want the fuller sound of the neck pickup I'll need to Switch guitars. // 5

Action, Fit & Finish: There are no obvious flaws on the guitar itself, it feels like it's pretty well made and everything feels really solid. Unfortunately the action is quite high which affects it's playability a bit. As this is the case with the Bridge already at it's lowest setting it loses several points there.

The only other negative is that the fretboard feels somewhat "dry" (not sure if that's really the right way to put it, but it'll do). I can't blame the factory for this as I purchased second hand so I'll blame the previous owner for not maintaining it very well. I expect an application of fretboard lubricant will resolve the issue. // 5

Reliability & Durability: Everything about this guitar feels solid, having spent a few hours playing it I can't imagine anything breaking. I can't say I'd use it for a gig without a backup as I probably wouldn't choose it for gigging, but that's due to the issue with the neck pickup's sound & the buzzing issue rather than anything to do with it's reliability. // 9

Impression: I've been playing for around 20 years, and have owned loads of guitars over the years, from entry level budget guitars to Gibson's & Gretsch's. I mainly purchased this as I wanted to add a Mockingbird style guitar to my collection and found this one for £40. I was especially drawn to it because of it's colour, these are mostly found in black which caters nicely for the target market (I assume they're aimed at metal/thrash players), but as I don't play anything that heavy (the heaviest I get is GNR/Cult style rock) I was glad to find one that was a bit different - I think this is the only green one I've ever seen.

For the price I paid it was a bargain, but if it were stolen/lost I definitely wouldn't rush out and buy an identical guitar, although I wouldn't rule out trying an identical one in a shop to see if the issue with the high action has been sorted since mine was made. I love the look of it and I think it would look great on stage chugging out a few riffs. It would definitely be noticed.

In summary, this guitar is a long way from being perfect, but if someone wanted a well built guitar to modify with upgraded pickups & bridge, I'd recommend it. // 6

overall: 7.8

Reviewed by: sniper_wolf90, on october 01, 2007

Purchased from: Guitar Heaven

Features: The H300 has a solid alder body, hard maple neck and a rose wood fretboard. 2 humbuckers. A 3-way toggle switch, good stock humbuckers, tune-o-matic gride and diecast machine heads. It also has a gothic finnish. I think it has non locking tuners, but I'm not entirely sure tho. No gigbags or anything when I got it tho, which was dissapointing. // 7

Sound: I play heavy to death and black metal, and it suits them all quite well. I also play hard and classic rock, Alt, some punk, and glam rock and also shock rock, and it does the job quite nicely. I have a Samick LA1OR 20W practice amp and a distortion stompbox, phaser, and a wah, and it actually works nicely with all of them. It's not too noisy, although you do get some bad feed back if you close to any electronics, which is to be expected. The nice thing about this guitar is that it holds all tunings very well, drop B, drop C, you name it. // 8

Action, Fit & Finish: The action was kinda low when I got it, whick is too be expected of a display model. The strings kinda rubbed on the fretwire at first, but I raised the action and it works just fine now. The pickups werent adjusted very well, the bridge was too low, and the neck was way too high for my liking, but again, I adjusted it and it now works and plays like a dream. The biggest flaw I found in it is that the 2nd fretwire wasn't filed enough, although a buddy of mine said his was like that. The pickup selector was kinda noisy, but I put some sealent around on the inside and it's not too god awful bad now, tho it's still noticable. The volume knob was nice and secure when I got this guitar, but after 4-5 months of playing it fell off and I lost it, which isnt too bad for this guitar I suppose. // 7

Reliability & Durability: Honestly, I would take this guitar to a gig with no back up. It plays nicely, sounds good, and it has never taken a crap on me yet. Atleast %90 of the hardware I think will last no problem. The strap buttons I had to replace with straplocks, which hey, are you gonna complain about $15 straplocks when you got a nice guitar? It will easily withstand anything you throw at it, it's a good solid, tough guitar. The gothic finnish is actually amazing. I don't know how many times I have dropped this guitar and it came out with no scratches. I have it over a year now and I have yet to see any wearing off on the paint from my pick, my arm, or anything else. // 9

Impression: Once again I play metal. All kinds. This guitar will blow you away for this. I've been playing for about a year and a half, and my first guitar, a Peavey Raptor, died on me rather terribly. So I took to a guitar store and asked how much he'd give me for it. he said $75 tops. And then I saw this guitar, and it was over. I even took this guitar over a Strat, Ibanez RG, Jackson V, and a switch Wild1. I don't regret buying trhis guitar in the least little bit. The thing I love about this gutaris it takes what I put it through, without dying on me in anyway. I would like to replace the humbuckers with some EMG's or DiMarzios tho. The one thing I always wish I still had was a whammy bar on it. // 8

Comments

[captainprairied]

price paid 0?

[Nick 101]

I also have this guitar, the pick-up selector is kinda load but thats the only set back for me. I gives quite a good sound for any type of music.

[sniper_wolf90]

the price i paid was $289.99

[ArcticDude]

I also have this model, and is just right for the heavy rock and metal that I play.

[rv_phoenix]

I haven't seen an uglier guitars since Parker's Fly. But the Fly sounds excellent, while this is sheer crap.

[GaryBillington]

Something I missed from my review - the picture at the top of the page is actually the H400, the H300 is a standard Mockingbird shape.

[rv_phoenix]

Both are equally weird and ugly.