Michael Wilton MW-600

[siggy14]

anyone played this guitar yet? If so how is the neck and playability?

[mountain dave]

I bought an MW-600 'cause I'm such a huge Queensryche fan. It plays very well, the fingerboard is fairly close to my DXMG width wise, but with quite a bit more chunk to it. Very comfortable and fast. It stays in tune great, the JB in the bridge sounds good, I'm not crazy about the sc-101's in the mid and neck, they're decent but kinda "thin" sounding. All in all a nice playing guitar with very good workmanship. My biggest complaint was the frets could have stood a little better polishing, but there were no sharp edges and I have the action at about 1.5mm at the 12th fret and it plays really clean, no buzzing or fretting out anywhere on the neck.

[siggy14]

Thanks, i am bidding on one on ebay, been out bidded now, but i might see how much i will go.

I bought an MW-600 'cause I'm such a huge Queensryche fan. It plays very well, the fingerboard is fairly close to my DXMG width wise, but with quite a bit more chunk to it. Very comfortable and fast. It stays in tune great, the JB in the bridge sounds good, I'm not crazy about the sc-101's in the mid and neck, they're decent but kinda "thin" sounding. All in all a nice playing guitar with very good workmanship. My biggest complaint was the frets could have stood a little better polishing, but there were no sharp edges and I have the action at about 1.5mm at the 12th fret and it plays really clean, no buzzing or fretting out anywhere on the neck.

[RacerX]

Great review, mountaindave!

[mountain dave]

Thanks Racer, but in all honesty I feel pretty guitar stupid anytime I look on this site. The people on this forum's knowledge and dedication to Jackson's/Charvel's is amazing! How the hell do you guys remember all the specs and model numbers? It just freakin amazes me! The Wilton is a fine guitar, but in all honesty if I weren't so into Ryche, I probably would have been happier with a used Charvel model 4 or something for a little less dough. I still play my DXMG primarily, if I had an actual usa Jackson I'd probably pass out. When I bought the LTD version, I was seriously considering the actual ESP Wilton model, but the specs, and hardware are way to close for the difference in price. Some of the low end LTD's may be junk but the 400 series and up are really good guitars, hard to believe they're out Korea.

[skorb]

good guitars, hard to believe they're out Korea.

actually, the Korean shops actually have a reputation of putting out very good quality guitars over the past 12 yrs or so. some of those are some of the best made imports you can buy. my Charvel 625C acoustic is Korean made and I'd put the quality of the workmanship up against USA made guitars costing 3x as much. full neck and headstock binding, abalone body binding, and a spotless cherry sunburst finish all for $425? the thing is built like a tank and the mahogany neck is divine for an acoustic.

[mountain dave]

actually, the Korean shops actually have a reputation of putting out very good quality guitars over the past 12 yrs or so. some of those are some of the best made imports you can buy. my Charvel 625C acoustic is Korean made and I'd put the quality of the workmanship up against USA made guitars costing 3x as much. full neck and headstock binding, abalone body binding, and a spotless cherry sunburst finish all for $425? the thing is built like a tank and the mahogany neck is divine for an acoustic.

Agreed, hope that didn't sound like I was slamming Korean built guitars, over the last couple of decades so much in manuafacturing has been improved, such as CNC machining, it was just a matter of time before other nations started catching up to US. A machine doesn't really give a damn what country it's located in. Like you said, you can get a great axe for 1/2 to 1/3 the price of a comparable Gibson. A real win win situation for us.