R500 Review

Features:	7.5
Sound:	7.5
Action:	8.5
Reliability:	9
Impression:	9
Overall rating:	8.3
Users rating:	5.5
Comments:	2

overall: 7.8

Featured review by: tunnock, on april 20, 2007

Purchased from: McCormacks

Features: The volume control is annoying as there is little difference between 6-11 (I got a volume knob with 11 on it,) and it seems to just stop suddenly when lowering volume on it. Rather rigid. Apart from that and the limited tremolo I got no complaints. // 7

Sound: This guitar suits my style of playing. I tend to play mostly metal and dabble in classical and blues. I currently use a Spider II 112 with a DigiTech RP200A and Crybaby. The guitar itself is quiet warm and smooth sounding. Harmonics tend to be a bit less crisp than they should because of this. The twin humbuckers give this guitar a nice kick when using a lot of distortion though. // 7

Action, Fit & Finish: The action on the guitar when I bought it was quite high but I lowered it as far as possible before it began to buzz. The pick-ups came nicely adjusted. The pick-up selector is quite noisy when changing. I've had to tighten the output jack on it several times since purchase which is nothing major. The frets are evenly spaced, tuning pegs are tight. The only thing that really annoyed me about this was that I had to file down the frets as they were slightly jagged. // 7

Reliability & Durability: Biggest bonus of this guitar is it's durability and I would use it on a gig without a backup (I would however use a trusty strap). I've been playing it for about 2 years and it has survived with nothing but a couple of small scrathes. I've even dropped it a couple of times (drunk and poor strap) and it's sounded unphased by the ordeal. // 10

Impression: This is definitely a guitar to buy for players starting out on guitar as it is cheap, reliable and sounds good enough. I also own a Fender Stratocaster, a custom Burn's Baldwin semi-acoustic with bigsby and a very old 12-string and the Stagg is by far the best for nailing really heavy distortion but the Strat and the Burn's Baldwin are unrivaled on clean channels. If it were lost I would buy another for the simple reason that it is damn near indestructible. I wish it had a better tremolo but at £200 I don't expect to get many extra features that are outstandly good. // 8

overall: 8.8

Reviewed by: gooseholla, on october 30, 2003

Purchased from: Allegro Music.

Features: This guitar is made in China and is pretty new. There are many features on this guitar for the price. It is a copy of a PRS (unknown model).Has 24 medium frets with an unusual style dot inlay,kind of multi colour perlescent effect. It has 1 tone and 1 volume and a 3 way selector Switch. Has two humbuckers. These are not your normal run of the mill cheap ones though these sound great! The necck is maple and the fretboard rosewood. The body is a solid alder. The finish is a sunburst effect. The bridge is a tune o matic with Vintage tremolo arm. The tuners are Stagg branded. // 8

Sound: This does classic rock well! I did try a bit of other stuff but I not sure how well it would do Jazz, it would do modern rock and blues ok. Trust me. It was pluffed into a Fender amp (unkown model) and was set to just amplify it. It does great in the neck position for all you rhythm players. This is a very warm sound. It does a great job at the bridge for all those leads and is very rich. There was no noise at all from the pickups, no hissing etc.. and they where great at full volume. The great part I will save to last..... leave the knob in the middle and let both pickups work! WOOOO! is all I can save. It is a great warm sound. // 8

Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar was very well setup allowing me to play bar chords as well at the 12 fret as I could the first. I could never ever play bar chords but this guitar was great for that. You harldy have to press down for the string to be fretted. This action seemed to be pretty high for the guitar but was still very very low. I could bend the strings very easily too.Although the tremolo arm only allows down bends and is very hard to use. // 10

Reliability & Durability: I haven't used it for a gig yet so I cannot say. The hardware seems sturdy and it seems like it will last. The pickups you may want to replace down the road at some stage but for the price they are simply great! The strap buttons solid enough. The finisih is nice but a chip by the strap button on the end of the guitar where someone smacked it? Thrown a tantrum? Anyway I got £20 off for that. I could depend on this guitar for a few years and maybe a backup if I got a more xpensive one. // 8

Impression: I play mainly classic rock and this matches it great. I been playing over a year now and already own a Hohner lx 90 which I must say is very hard to play, set up etc... The Stagg R500 is much better than the Hohner in every way. If it was stolen I would buy it again... definatly! I love the looks, the sound and the feel of this guitar and would rec. it anyone thinking of getting a starter/intermediate guitar. // 10

Comments

[Norse_Iron_King]

no pics?
shame

[Xeus]

hmm i may consider telling my friend to look into these