OLP petrucci

[markD]

i am looking to buy my niece a cheap guitar for her birthday. she LOVES dream theater and JP. so i was wondering if anybody had any experience with the OLP JP guitar. the price seems reasonable and she would TOTALLY get excited about having a JP guitar. i don't want to buy one if it is a piece of shit though.

her dad (my bro) is buying her an amp. he's getting her a mesa F-30.

we're looking to make her very excited about playing. what can you guys tell me about the OLP?

[pro-fusion]

In my experiences playing them in the store, they have a cheapo tremolo bridge and don't stay in tune nearly as well as the real JP models. The neck feels pretty nice for such a cheap guitar, though. Does your niece already play?

[nateb]

Make sure you look at the frets on the OLP. There have been alot of cases where the fret edges are extending over the fretboard edge.

-Nate

[1trussell]

A really cool uncle would get her an EB/MM Petrucci.

[iced_earth]

I bought one for about $200 at my local Guitar Center when they were blowing them out about 6 months ago. I haven't played it much as I plan to convert the guitar to a fixed bridge so I would have a custom fixed bridge JP guitar.

As was mentioned, the neck is awesome for a cheapo guitar... really smooth and has a nice shape for smaller handed people. The paint on mine also looks real nice. The tuners suck and mine were installed backwards on the right side. The bridge is also a weak point. The pickups are, as expected, not too exciting.

If you could get an OLP JP cheap, you could block the trem to improve the tuning stability and swap out the pickups with a couple of nicer ones to get a nice beginner guitar for a Dream Theater fan. As with all guitars, especially cheaper ones, inspect before you buy.

-Mike

Let me know if you need any more details or pictures of what I bought.

[markD]

A really cool uncle would get her an EB/MM Petrucci.

yeah, but he'd keep it for himself!!!!!

I bought one for about $200 at my local Guitar Center when they were blowing them out about 6 months ago. I haven't played it much as I plan to convert the guitar to a fixed bridge so I would have a custom fixed bridge JP guitar.

As was mentioned, the neck is awesome for a cheapo guitar... really smooth and has a nice shape for smaller handed people. The paint on mine also looks real nice. The tuners suck and mine were installed backwards on the right side. The bridge is also a weak point. The pickups are, as expected, not too exciting.

If you could get an OLP JP cheap, you could block the trem to improve the tuning stability and swap out the pickups with a couple of nicer ones to get a nice beginner guitar for a Dream Theater fan. As with all guitars, especially cheaper ones, inspect before you buy.

-Mike

Let me know if you need any more details or pictures of what I bought.

thanks. some pics of the real thing would be great. yeah, i was thinking about swapping the pickups for some i have lying around the parts bin. or maybe i'll just put in the dimarzio's JP uses....

Does your niece already play?

no. she is turning 16 and wants to play. she farts around on my brothers guitars a lot and seems to have some potential.

so this is NOT a guitar i should buy online?

[iced_earth]

Mark,

Send me your email address and I will try to round up some pics for you. As for buying online, the general consensus on OLPs and Chinese made guitars in general is that quality is hit or miss. Some are fine, some are not, so if you buy online it would help if store is like MF and has a return policy.

-Mike

[markD]

mike, my e-mail is [email protected]

anything you can share about the guitar will be appreciated.

[iced_earth]

email sent!

[markD]

thanks mike!! pictures speak a thousand words. yeah, i am going to have to go in store shopping to see what i am gonna end up with. thanks for a ll the good info and pics!!