Ok so technically this was two weeks ago but here is my initial report.
Bought as B stock from Andertons for £700 - a very good price, but impressions so far are slightly mixed.
Good points :
- Excellent fit and finish. Love the look and the thin matte finish.
- Perfect neck shape, one of the best I’ve played
- I love the features, modern neck joint etc
- I like the pickups. Great versatile sounds.
Bad points
:
- Setup out of the box was god awful and took hours to fix. The recessed tremolo height adjustment can only be done with no string tension and retuning from no tension takes ages because floating tremolo ...
- The frets are nice and shiny but not all that level ... Can’t get the action close to factory specs without getting a buzzy mess
- The guitar is pretty dark acoustically, not necessarily a bad thing but slightly surprising.
- The middle pickup is right in the way of my picking and the height is not adjustable.
Overall I think it’s a great instrument and most of the negatives are fixable, but the action and setup things are a bit disappointing.
The guitar is nice enough that I wouldn’t want to risk messing up the frets so I’ll have to decide if I do them myself or take it to someone, which is a PITA either way.
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https://imgur.com/a/8fIdEUE[img]
Comments
Been uploading old tracks I recorded ages ago and hopefully some new noodles here.
I had tried one in a shop and I believe the fretwork was better, and nearly took it home, BUT realised last minute that the first fret had a dent, after which the guys sent it back to Charvel...
I think the fact I got it B stock increases the probability it’s a bit of a lemon ( relatively speaking ), so the review should be taken with that pinch of salt.
I did ask Andertons to confirm all was in order with it before it was shipped ...
The main reason for the price drop was that there was no original box.
At the end of the day the plugged sound trumps all, I have a high end Vigier that is super bright and alive acoustically but I could never get it to sound how I like plugged in even after installing darker pickups - always has had a sterile edge for me ( not selling it due to sentimental value ).
fwiw you do get used to the middle pickup issue, although I’m surprised it’s not adjustable- are you sure?
I recently bought a Jem-7v with excellent acoustic and amplified tone but it needed a lot of basic, low level setup work out the box. Granted some of that was because I upped string gauge to 9.5 on a sensitive locking trem and am totally inexperienced with those bridges. Neck realignment (to improve string alignment), pickguard realignment, hours spent balancing the bridge and reaching a compromise between bridge, truss rod relief and action. Worth the effort both for lessons learned and improved playability but earned a small paint chip on the back after losing control of a trem spring in the process. Funny how it felt more like “my guitar” afterwards though, and I’ve totally stopped worrying about the minor finish inconsistencies I’d been disappointed with on such a pricey axe.
The guitar is stll dark and fairly quiet acoustically, but nothing alarming - comparing it to my other guitars, it's on par with my strat. Agreed @TINMAN82
Will edit my first post.
There’s an argument it sounds better this way ( which I’m not sure I buy ) so I can see why it was done this way.
Also, added pic to first post
Even with the action higher than what it should be, it’s a pleasure to play, and it sounds damn great plugged in.
I think it’s going to be my main guitar for quite a while.
The neck doesn’t smell of anything though