randol_taveras

You have to hear these to believe them. It will handle anything you can throw at it. Blues - Put these in a strat/super strat and play through an old fender, and it is sparkly, twangy, punchy. Beautiful. Not quite the airy-ness of a vintage strat pickup, but pretty damn close. The in-between positions of a 5 way switch have amazing quack, for excellent SRV tone. Very responsive to pick attack, and tone changes drastically with Tone & volume knobs. Classic Rock - These SHINE under distortion, and they will adapt to the TYPE of distortion you give it. You will be shocked to hear how well these things nail an AC/DC tone. Raise the Mids and Bass, and you will have perfect Led Zeppelin tone. Turn up the gain a little more, and you will have Van Halen's Brown Sound. Metal - Surprisingly chunky. They were never overwhelmed, but these are not made for Dark sound metal styles. They are perfect for 90's metal: Dokken, Metallica, Whitesnake, and obviously.. Mr. Big. If you are looking at these then you should already know who Paul Guitar is. If you dont, then stop reading this NOW and go listen to Fuzz Universe. That is what these pickups were made for. They will cut through the heaviest gain, listen to every nuance you give the string, and you will hear EVERYTHING. These are not for beginners, they are very exposing. You will hear every note of every chord. It doesn't matter how fast you play, if they can keep up with Paul, they'll keep up with you :)

Walked into a guitar center and picked this up out of curiosity, and i left with it! I feel like i have a rare specimen that got through quality control. This thing should not be priced so low!! In a nutshell, this is an excellent guitar for a starting guitarist to grow into. It is very adequate to begin with, but a few upgrades unlock the SERIOUS potential this guitar has. Looks - Black. simple, elegant, mean. Apart from the nifty skull inlays there is nothing flashy about this guitar, but that is perfectly fine. This is not a guitar you buy for beauty, this is a performer! Build - SOLID. You have to realize that you are buying a $300 guitar. Expect the electronics and hardware to be trash compared to the real deal. That you can change, and what is important is the WOOD. The wood quality is ASTOUNDING for this price, and the sturdiness of this guitar suits a much higher price tag. The neck on this guitar is one of the most comfortable I've played, REGARDLESS OF PRICE. Sound - As it comes, this things sounds pretty good. A Beginner pickup this guitar can rock it as is for years and have an amazing starter Ax. But as you become more skilled and more demanding, you can unlock this guitar's potential. The secret is in the hardware. The Floyd Rose Special is actually very decent, but electronics lack clarity and power of a quality set. I replaced the bridge with a Gotoh Floyd Rose, and put in a set of authentic Bill & Becky Bill Lawrence L500XL's and coil tapped them both using push/pull pots and the 3 way switch. Harder metal on the gutiar bridge means a sharper tone. It will bring out the best of the basswood body and you will have a harmonically TRANSPARENT guitar, meaning you can change it's tone drastically with electronics, amp settings, distortion settings etc.. Throw in Dimarzio Liquifier/crunchlab, Duncan JB/Jazz; Bill Lawrence pickups, hell.. a set of Bluesbuckers... whatever you want. The basswood is neutral and will handle it well.

Looks - This guitar is striking. Deeply figured quilt maple top, beautiful finish. It is literally the centerpiece of my living room. It hangs on my wall and has never failed to get a reaction out of everyone that sees it!. Build - SOLID. This feels as solid as a $3000 PRS. Has some good weight to it. Neck through construction, beauitul inlays, great wood quality. I have never dropped it, since i baby this thing too much, but if i did Im sure there would be no problem with it keeping in 1 peice. Sound- Seymour Duncan JB/Jazz combo with a coil splitting 5 way switch. That combination speaks for itself. It bites under some gain, play it clean through a tube fender and it will give you that single coil sparkle. Play it hot through a Marshall and it will squeal. My 1 gripe about it is that in my opinion, the sound can get muddy under high gain. The pickups are comparable to a set of PRS Dragon 2 pickups from the Custom 22, The bridge of the PRS have more clarity, a very clean bite under distortion with every string being heard, whereas the duncans can get a touch muddy. The Jazz in the neck is PERFECT!! Butter smooth leads, smooth and sparkly cleans without earpiercing treble. I replaced the bridge pickup with a Dragon 2, and it is perfection for me, personally. Would i buy this again? YES. even if its just to hang on my wall forever. Paid $600 for this and it is worth double that. If i saw this guitar with a $1K + price tag i would NOT be surprised.