Tweet
First post. I found this forum yesterday looking for info on my Jackson but I thought I would post some impressions on the ST because of the lack on info on here about these.
First, the headstock is ugly but that is the only downfall of these great guitars!!!
The guitar is obviously aimed at reproducing the feel of a vintage stat (with no hum pups) and the once piece non-scarfed neck couple with staggered klusons and a vintage style bridge and smaller frets on a maple neck is spot on to cop the vintage feel with a slightly friendlier radius. They even went with the original style of truss rod pain-in-the-butt-remove-the-neck-to-adjust style.
The pups are actually very good for what they are trying to achieve: they sound very similar to 5 position strat pups without any noise (even playing through high gain they are silent). Their is certainly a lot of strat character (lots of quack on 2 and 4) to these pups and they respond very well to picking dynamic or finger choice if you are a hybrid picker. You can really control the amp like you can with a fine (but loud single coil). Country to Metal with all stops in between. Used through Marshall, Fender, and THD and the amp was great with all of them; really likes tube amps more than solid state
The bridge pickup is a combination of two single sized humbuckers to give a more traditional humbucker sound when wanted. There is also a 3 position toggle at the bridge to add in the front bridge pup in either phased or out of phased position.
Electronics are tight and the volume and tones both offer several spots of bliss on the way up and down the dial. Paint is superb and the black hardware on red is very "Brad Gillis".
I have read on here that some think this is a Korean made guitar and I can say without any hesitation that is most certainly not Korean made; the feel of the guitar is on par with early Japanese Strats and it honestly feels more US made than anything (you know that feeling of quality that guitars have). I would compare the feel of it very closely to early 3 bolt G&L's. Crazy I know but I have owned in excess of 25 quality US guitars and about 15 early Japanese and I think I am pretty judge of quality after 30 years of playing. It has more in common with EBMM than with Japanese Jackson when you are judging the feel of the guitar.
Anyways, most people will write this guitar off because of the fugly headstock...I never look at the headstock when I am playing so it really doesn't bother me and I love getting Fender sounds without having Fender on the Headstock. These are kinda hard to find but I recommend, if you have an opportunity to try one, you should not judge this by some of the reviews you may read that are made by people by proxy rather than experience -- I think you may be surprised. It was made to be like a traditional strat (without noise) as opposed to most Charvels/Jacksons which were styled as modern hot-rodded strats.
Cheers.
Will post a couple of pics when I can and you can all barf at the headstock. lol
First, the headstock is ugly but that is the only downfall of these great guitars!!!
The guitar is obviously aimed at reproducing the feel of a vintage stat (with no hum pups) and the once piece non-scarfed neck couple with staggered klusons and a vintage style bridge and smaller frets on a maple neck is spot on to cop the vintage feel with a slightly friendlier radius. They even went with the original style of truss rod pain-in-the-butt-remove-the-neck-to-adjust style.
The pups are actually very good for what they are trying to achieve: they sound very similar to 5 position strat pups without any noise (even playing through high gain they are silent). Their is certainly a lot of strat character (lots of quack on 2 and 4) to these pups and they respond very well to picking dynamic or finger choice if you are a hybrid picker. You can really control the amp like you can with a fine (but loud single coil). Country to Metal with all stops in between. Used through Marshall, Fender, and THD and the amp was great with all of them; really likes tube amps more than solid state
The bridge pickup is a combination of two single sized humbuckers to give a more traditional humbucker sound when wanted. There is also a 3 position toggle at the bridge to add in the front bridge pup in either phased or out of phased position.
Electronics are tight and the volume and tones both offer several spots of bliss on the way up and down the dial. Paint is superb and the black hardware on red is very "Brad Gillis".
I have read on here that some think this is a Korean made guitar and I can say without any hesitation that is most certainly not Korean made; the feel of the guitar is on par with early Japanese Strats and it honestly feels more US made than anything (you know that feeling of quality that guitars have). I would compare the feel of it very closely to early 3 bolt G&L's. Crazy I know but I have owned in excess of 25 quality US guitars and about 15 early Japanese and I think I am pretty judge of quality after 30 years of playing. It has more in common with EBMM than with Japanese Jackson when you are judging the feel of the guitar.
Anyways, most people will write this guitar off because of the fugly headstock...I never look at the headstock when I am playing so it really doesn't bother me and I love getting Fender sounds without having Fender on the Headstock. These are kinda hard to find but I recommend, if you have an opportunity to try one, you should not judge this by some of the reviews you may read that are made by people by proxy rather than experience -- I think you may be surprised. It was made to be like a traditional strat (without noise) as opposed to most Charvels/Jacksons which were styled as modern hot-rodded strats.
Cheers.
Will post a couple of pics when I can and you can all barf at the headstock. lol
Comment