SL4X in Orange (NGD, First impressions, No photos yet)

[eakinj]

So the SL4X showed up at work today. I don't think the previous owner even tuned it, this thing is in perfect condition. The put some padding in the FR cavity and detuned it completely. I'm ok with that as I'm going to change the strings regardless.

Have not plugged it in nor heard it, however those pickups look really poorly made. maybe I'm just not used to single soils, but something doesn't look right (Will post photos later)

I don't know if this will be worthy of real EMG's, may throw a set up GFS redactives in there. Maybe I'll love the pickups in iit. dunno. we'll see.

I have to say fit and finish look and feel good. They've come a long way with painted necks, that's for sure.

[VitaminG]

they look really good. Haven't seen one in person yet. I'm looking forward to your review

[Mudlark]

[eakinj]

I don't know if I'll get any of the setup down this weekend as I have a Dream Theater concert I'm going to on Sunday and have to get all the mundane house hold chores done saturday.

With that, let me go over some of my observations (with pros and cons)

Pro: The orange pops, I mean it is a beautiful color, it actually feels nice to play - I've never been a fan of painted necks but since the DBZ and now this one I am warming up to it. it's smooth as glass. Although physically the pickups look a little wonky even for single coils (lol) everything looks good, the pick guard is perfectly cut.

Con: So the binding on the headstock right at the point has this little black misshapen line in it, like the binding cracked or it was not put together all the way. Barely noticeable, but stood out to me.

Pro: The pickups actually sound good. I've always had a love hate with duncan designs, correct me if I'm wrong but basically they are like licensed floyds, the company can have whoever they want make them for them correct? They certainly seem inconsistent. Anyway, in this case they sounded great. Keep in mind, I'm doing High Gain, as much gain and distortion I can throw at them, so... haven't tried them on clean yet.

Con: They seem really really high, which brings me to some issues I'm going to be working on with the guitar.

So the action is too high on the guitar, the floyd need to be adjusted so it's level at e standard tuning as well, it's not super offset, but I want that taken care of before I start to lower the action, maybe I won't have to lower it as much.

Now I understand why people talk shit about the floyd rose special. The generic licensed floyds feel better than this one does. The adjustment screws need lubrication, feels like i"m going to strip the threads when adjusting the tuning. The screws on the nut look completely different than any of the screws on any of my floyds or licensed floyds. just feels like there were short cuts made in making it. for a guitar I paid 300 for, i'm not all that concerned, but still... if I really bond with this guitar, i can see throwing a higher end floyd and nut at it.

I have no idea at the moment if I can adjust the highth of the pickups, when I lower the action, that will need to happen as they are really high. not sure if this came like that or if the previous owner did this. Considering there's not so much as a finger print on this guitar when I got it, I don't know how much the former owner played it. the strings has been changed I know that, but otherwise minty fresh.

pictures coming soon

[slayer]

I am one who doesn`t like the FR Special. The JT580LP blows it out of the water in the quality department.

[eakinj]

I am one who doesn`t like the FR Special. The JT580LP blows it out of the water in the quality department.

Yeah, this one just feels cheap. very pot metal..

[jtr]

It took me a while to lower the action. It take lowering the bridge and on mine I had to grind the nut because it was to high. Check the other SL4X threads.

[eakinj]

noticed yesterday that the nut isn't flush, it hangs about a millimeter on the high e side and obviously a millimeter in on the low e side... hrmph