Well I just bought one of these off ebay recently on a whim and I am in some serious tele love! There is very little on the net about SVK, especially their tele's. but from I gather, the company is based in PA and the guits are made in china at(correct me if I'm wrong) one of the same plants as some Schecters/epi's etc are made.
Now I really wanted a dual bucker tele and the '72 thinlines are great but the buckers are huge and my set of Bill Lawrence L90's were itchin to get played. I also researched the Squier custom but I wanted something different since I already own the Custom II(another great guitar BTW). But this one was calling me with its gloss neck and the double bound body. The stock G & B pups weren't bad but honestly I played it plugged in for about 2 minutes just to make sure everything works as it should then I tore the guitar apart. I should have taken some gut shots, but I suppose I can do it if you guys really want to see.
Out of the box, this guitar was set up almost perfect. The neck was straight and the frets were leveled, crowned and polished nicely. No sharp edges either, YAY! Comparing with the Squier, the headstock on the SVK is larger and the neck profile is close to the modern C but just a hair thinner. The body shape and thickness is identical to the squier, but it is a bit lighter(Squier is solid Agathis and the SVK is Alder). It's a hair lighter than my ash FSR strat too but thankfully it isn't neck heavy. When I took it all apart I noticed the neck to pocket was a good snug fit, the body route was similar to the '72 thinline and the pots were all full size(I didn't check values but i'm sure 500k's). I'm pretty certain though that the body is not chambered like the fender but it does have the hollow upper bout.
Overall this guitar just kicks a$$! especially with the L90's! I was planning on buying the douglas gravity which would be about half the price of the SVK, but I'm happy with this purchase. I think the extra 150$+/- is worth the good fret job, overall build quality and the higher quality electrics. I'm not knocking on the douglas because with some elbow grease, those can be pretty nice. But like I said earlier, this one was calling me!
Now I really wanted a dual bucker tele and the '72 thinlines are great but the buckers are huge and my set of Bill Lawrence L90's were itchin to get played. I also researched the Squier custom but I wanted something different since I already own the Custom II(another great guitar BTW). But this one was calling me with its gloss neck and the double bound body. The stock G & B pups weren't bad but honestly I played it plugged in for about 2 minutes just to make sure everything works as it should then I tore the guitar apart. I should have taken some gut shots, but I suppose I can do it if you guys really want to see.
Out of the box, this guitar was set up almost perfect. The neck was straight and the frets were leveled, crowned and polished nicely. No sharp edges either, YAY! Comparing with the Squier, the headstock on the SVK is larger and the neck profile is close to the modern C but just a hair thinner. The body shape and thickness is identical to the squier, but it is a bit lighter(Squier is solid Agathis and the SVK is Alder). It's a hair lighter than my ash FSR strat too but thankfully it isn't neck heavy. When I took it all apart I noticed the neck to pocket was a good snug fit, the body route was similar to the '72 thinline and the pots were all full size(I didn't check values but i'm sure 500k's). I'm pretty certain though that the body is not chambered like the fender but it does have the hollow upper bout.
Overall this guitar just kicks a$$! especially with the L90's! I was planning on buying the douglas gravity which would be about half the price of the SVK, but I'm happy with this purchase. I think the extra 150$+/- is worth the good fret job, overall build quality and the higher quality electrics. I'm not knocking on the douglas because with some elbow grease, those can be pretty nice. But like I said earlier, this one was calling me!
