Gear4Music Double Necks?

Does anyone here have any firsthand experience with them? They're dirt bleeding cheap. I mean, a round with my tech is usually cheaper that one of these axes. They come in right around the £200 range. Four models, a Strat knockoff, a Tele knockoff, a... I guess it's a V? It's hideous. Anyway, and an SG knockoff.

Watched a couple of demos, one chap said the Strat is solid as a rock, and it's worth it. His is pretty much the only non Gear4Music review I've been able to find, and even in it, he was comp'd the guitar, so, may have some bias there.

Just wondering if any of you lot have any knowledge of the brand, as I've heretofore not heard of them. If they're not worth a damn, I'm looking at a Harley-Benton.

Bit the bullet, ordered one. Was right at £300 with DHL freight costs. Not terrible. I got the SG Knockoff, which is the most expensive model. Just not too keen on the others.

Sure, I could have killed two birds and got the Tele and used that, but eh...

Anyroad, according to shipping, assuming no delays because of The Plague, I should have my new toy by Thursday, Friday, or Monday. If Thursday, that gives me the entire weekend to play with it (even with my hand being bork'd), and figure out if it's worth the dosh I laid out for it.

If Monday, then I'll take the week to figure it all out.

Point is, there exists zero reviews of this instrument/brand anywhere, and I aim to fix that. I am a fairly unbiased reviewer--but I also will be taking into account that it's £300 shipped DHL. And DHL is good freight. Like, the best shipping (IMHO). So. All that being said, those who give an arse's rat about such things, watch this space, and I'll be providing a fullblown, in depth review of the instrument for fit, finish, quality, as well as providing sound samples direct into DAW, and mic'd through my Vox Pathfinder 15R.

If there's anything specific you'd like me to review about it, let me know in this thread, and I will do my best to make it happen!

will be innteresting to see what you think.

Well right now, tracking says it's been delayed until Wednesday. I'm going to assume something happened with the transfer across the Atlantic. That bums me out royal, but does give me more time to play with my shiny new Firefly Tele.

Anyroad, right now plan is as I said, fit, finish, setup out of the box, how long it takes me to give it a proper set up, how solid it's put together, how well it plays, how well it sounds...

I am no virtuoso player, though. I'm the Mediocre Musician. The Just Good Guitarist. So don't expect shredilicious licks. Plus, recovering from surgery on my pickin' hand, so bit slow at the mo.

So... Shipping hit a massive snag. Supposedly DHL handed it off to the Post, who was supposed to handle the last leg. Unfortunately, the Post doesn't service my address, as I lack a box at my physical address. So they marked it RTS.

I've spent the past three days on the phone between DHL Customer Service and the USPS trying to track down my guitar, find out where it is, and see just when the hells it may possibly show up.

I've also contacted the seller and requested a shipping refund. No dice.

So the review may be a bit... well, delayed.

OK, so after MASSIVE delays, major hold ups, all kinds of kerfuffles, and just... shipping nightmares... I finally have my Gear4Music Brooklyn Double Neck.

And guys? Outside of having to do some setup work on it, so far I'm pretty pleased. Haven't done said setup work yet--that's going to happen over the weekend, I'm tired, been having barometric pressure related migraines because of the damn thunderstorms for the past 5 days, and then having to drive out to the bloody DHL warehouse and pick up the instrument because of their bleeding incompetence just put a damper on my whole day.

SO. Preliminary thoughts: Fretwork: is fairly OK. On par with Firefly guitars. Both necks are bound, so there's actually no fret sprout I can feel. So full marks there.

Action: Like I said, going to have to do some setup work, but out of the box it is playable with only some light fret buzz near the nut, and it has a very pleasant action for a classic/prog rock/jazz man like myself. It's not set up for super fast shredding (super low action), but it probably could be.

Fit and finish: It's solid. It's well put together, the necks are both bolted on with no wiggle, all the knobs feel solid, the switches are passable, could have been better. Tuners actual feel pretty smooth, not sure what the gear ratio is, but they turn nice. Not sure about tuning stability as the strings are new and still stretching.

Sound: First impressions: On par with my ICX-120 Iceman. So ceramic magnets, at a guess, covered, not too hot, but you get a pretty good vintage sound. Haven't put it through any proper paces yet, so that's just from first impressions.

Not seen how well it drives pedals, either. Planning on buying a Joyo Tauren (dirt cheap Klon Clone) to see how it sound with my Pathfinder 15R and a touch of chorus. Methinks that'll be a real winner, honestly.

Thoughts on the Company: Gear4Music has been in CONSTANT contact with me from the start--when the shipping was delayed the first time, I hit them up asking if they knew anything, and while they did not, the refunded the cost of my shipping in full. Thereafter, twice a week they would email their findings to me, letting me know the results of their investigation. Absolutely top notch customer service. I cannot recommend them highly enough based on that.

Moreover, when I got the guitar, it had been missing in shipping and sat in a warehouse in Southern United States muggy heat for 3+ weeks. It was undamaged (full marks to DHL on that) thanks to Gear4Music's double boxing, but not only that, it was very nearly in tune with itself as well Granted, it was a full step and a half down, but that's not the point. I don't know if that will speak to the ultimate tuning stability as the string tension was much lower, but I feel it worth mentioning none the less.

SO. In summation, first impressions are for the money, it's worth it, just if you have it shipped DHL and have a PO box, have them ship it TO your PO box unless you know for a fact they deliver to your door. Because they may hand it off to USPS and you end up like me, with the package lost--but that's not about the guitar. Anyway, the guitar seems to be worth it so far. I'm going to torture test it this weekend, hopefully get a Joyo Tauren this week, and have what I hope will be a video review with full sound rundown by week after next.

If there is anything specific you'd like me to cover, feel free to check out my equipment page for the pedals and gear I have, I'm happy to run it through whatever combination of what I have for you lot.

nice gear4music has long been my main along with stringsdirect, although ive never had any shipping problems, most likely because i live in the uk so they put it through the royal mail which are pretty trouble free, shame about the wait but it sounds like a cracking iinstrument.