Srini
Tele-Meister
Hi all,
Quick back story - I had bought a loaded pickguard from Reverb some time back with three Suhr FLs; gorgeous, sweet sounding pickups, as I'm sure most people will agree. My current USACG Strat has a HSH setup which I love, so I figured I could get something set up where I could swap pickguards easily during string changes and, basically, get a second guitar. As I thought about it, I figured it might be an even better idea to get an inexpensive strat-style guitar with good bones, and just plop the Suhrs in there - so here's where the actual story begins.
After stumbling upon a YouTube video, I impulsively ordered an All In One (AIO) relic strat (those are the only finishes they do in that style). They are built overseas, somewhere in Asia (probably Korea or China), sent back to LA where the AIO techs do the final tweaking and setup to your specs, which you provide in a form that comes with the order acknowledgement. For the price, the features seemed rather unrealistic, but hey...less than 500 bucks! So, the fretboard is either maple (one-piece neck and FB, with a head-adjustable truss rod), or ebony...whaaaatttt????? Wilkinson whammy bridge, bone nut....alder body...seemed too good to be true, so I figured the electronics must suck, which was just fine by me.
Anyway, it came in last night after having been in the UPS truck all day (without a case), and in various places along the way from LA to Maryland. Even the box was pretty cold by the time it was delivered, but hey...cheap guitar, so I opened it up right away. Granted, there are a couple of small examples of lack of attention to detail, but hey, this cost me $489...and even these were minor. The first fret needs a slight filing of the bass-side end and a couple of the bridge saddle hex screws tend to scrape against my hand. That's it.
So..first impressions. It was just about perfectly in tune, and has stayed in tune since. The action and relief were perfect - exactly what Phil Jacoby in Baltimore would have set up for me. And, what can I say about the neck carve? You know how PRS talks about the "old T-shirt" feel? This is the epitome of a golden boy feel for me (ok..ok...a Seinfeld reference..
) - about as close to perfect as I can think of. It has a 12" radius, so the FB feels great, the frets feel smooth and substantial, and it has an overall satin finish. The relic'ing is a bit cheesy, but what the hey! I played it for over an hour yesterday - and it stayed in tune the whole time. And it's in tune this morning.
The tone is actually not bad. The neck pickup is very usable, the middle pickup less so, but the bridge pickup is way too ice-picky for my taste; and it doesn't have a tone control - the two tones are for neck and middle, not my favorite configuration. But I really don't care, because once I get Phil to put the Suhr FLs in, wired with a free-way switch, tone will no longer be a problem.
My biggest surprise was how playable and sonically viable this thing is - for less than 500 bucks. I'm blown away, quite frankly! I'll keep you guys posted on how it sounds with the Suhrs.
Srini
Quick back story - I had bought a loaded pickguard from Reverb some time back with three Suhr FLs; gorgeous, sweet sounding pickups, as I'm sure most people will agree. My current USACG Strat has a HSH setup which I love, so I figured I could get something set up where I could swap pickguards easily during string changes and, basically, get a second guitar. As I thought about it, I figured it might be an even better idea to get an inexpensive strat-style guitar with good bones, and just plop the Suhrs in there - so here's where the actual story begins.
After stumbling upon a YouTube video, I impulsively ordered an All In One (AIO) relic strat (those are the only finishes they do in that style). They are built overseas, somewhere in Asia (probably Korea or China), sent back to LA where the AIO techs do the final tweaking and setup to your specs, which you provide in a form that comes with the order acknowledgement. For the price, the features seemed rather unrealistic, but hey...less than 500 bucks! So, the fretboard is either maple (one-piece neck and FB, with a head-adjustable truss rod), or ebony...whaaaatttt????? Wilkinson whammy bridge, bone nut....alder body...seemed too good to be true, so I figured the electronics must suck, which was just fine by me.
Anyway, it came in last night after having been in the UPS truck all day (without a case), and in various places along the way from LA to Maryland. Even the box was pretty cold by the time it was delivered, but hey...cheap guitar, so I opened it up right away. Granted, there are a couple of small examples of lack of attention to detail, but hey, this cost me $489...and even these were minor. The first fret needs a slight filing of the bass-side end and a couple of the bridge saddle hex screws tend to scrape against my hand. That's it.
So..first impressions. It was just about perfectly in tune, and has stayed in tune since. The action and relief were perfect - exactly what Phil Jacoby in Baltimore would have set up for me. And, what can I say about the neck carve? You know how PRS talks about the "old T-shirt" feel? This is the epitome of a golden boy feel for me (ok..ok...a Seinfeld reference..
) - about as close to perfect as I can think of. It has a 12" radius, so the FB feels great, the frets feel smooth and substantial, and it has an overall satin finish. The relic'ing is a bit cheesy, but what the hey! I played it for over an hour yesterday - and it stayed in tune the whole time. And it's in tune this morning.The tone is actually not bad. The neck pickup is very usable, the middle pickup less so, but the bridge pickup is way too ice-picky for my taste; and it doesn't have a tone control - the two tones are for neck and middle, not my favorite configuration. But I really don't care, because once I get Phil to put the Suhr FLs in, wired with a free-way switch, tone will no longer be a problem.
My biggest surprise was how playable and sonically viable this thing is - for less than 500 bucks. I'm blown away, quite frankly! I'll keep you guys posted on how it sounds with the Suhrs.
Srini
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