THOA
New member
An attempt at a review. Never am much of a guitar player but this recent acquisition is a certainly an inspiration enough to warrant for one to be written, so here goes 
:
Axl SRO Badwater Series
List price: $230
Availability: Ranking, Music Theme
Not much is known about AXL guitars; a quick check on the net points to a brief article on Wikipedia, AXL's official website and countless of reviews. Even the list of artistes endorsing the product are far too few, and none of which are household names that can pull them out of the shadows of other well established guitars brand.
With very little mention and its extremely low cost, it is hence forgivable for us to easily delegate the AXl namesake into the "sub-par guitar" category. But should one scrutinies the reviews online, one would realize that the reviews have churned out nothing but positivity, often with the words "value" and "unique" attached to it.
With the introduction of its new Badwater series, AXL aim to further stamp their "value" and "unique" signature.
Cosmetics and physique
Worn, aged, used, chipped, battered and bruised... in other words, relic-ed. This look has somewhat become the new fashion must have for guitars these days. But to replicated the the "perfect" flaws on an axe basically cost many man hours and that, my friends, translates to high prices on the consumer end of the spectrum.
Axl Badwater guitar series attempts to cater the cosmetics to have the aged look without the enormous price tag, and I have to say they did a very good job with it. To start, there are absolutely no lacquer finish to speak off (huge plus point for me). The wooden parts (body and neck) of the made in China piece in this review are especially well done, stressed beyond believe. I have personally gotten the antique brown look, which look like it has been left out to weather over the years. The coolest part is the fire branded AXL logo placed at the headstock, with the headstock itself straying slightly away from Fender's rounded look (the latter design being a turn off for me).
The hardware are also made to look antiqued, as with the pickguard and the back cover, but these, IMO a look a little to fake and unnatural upon close inspection. However, they do complete the look nicely. Any issues with wear and tear will only add on to the beauty of this guitar, which basically makes it all the more road worthy.
Do not be fooled into thinking that this guitar will fall apart at any time. It is in fact a very sturdy piece of equipment, with a solid alder body, sweet C profiled maple neck, and gorgeously darkened-to-look-weathered rosewood fingerboard, which still amazingly retains a superb fret life. Basically none of the aging process affected the playability of this guitar, which I will be touching on next.
Performance
Honestly, I'm not a fan of EMGs active pickups. So the name EMG designed on the stock passive pickups on the guitar immediately switched on the "I-need-to-mod" mentality. After previewing the tone quality with the store's Marshall MG 50, and my own Gearbox software, I was convinced that the stock pickups are worth keeping! The hum on the single coils are inevitable at gain settings, though, so for those who are bothered by that, would probably disagree with me on the previous point. Best to use your own discretion as to cater to your needs at this point.
As said previously, the aged and stress cosmetics have little to know effect on the guitar. I have not yet put this guitar through a really good run, but from the little hours I put in (I had this purchased a day before this review), it has given nothing but quality. No issues with the tuning thus far with the vintage-styled vibrato and tuners. I find it slight hard to adapt to the gauge 9 strings, cos I basically had been using 11s on my other guitar (Ibanez SA 120), but that is the only issue to bring up in terms of playability. Ibanez shred-fans would probably hate the fatter C neck profile (it's definitely no-Wizard), but hell, I think I've become a fan of a C neck profile now.
Conclusion
AXL may not be the best of the budget lot, nor is it the most popular (mind you, popular does not necessarily equate best). In fact, very little demand for it has seen the distributors taking in very little stock (I personally found out that they are no longer bringing in anymore of this series after the current stocks are out). But I personally believe that AXL guitars, especially the Badwater series, are serious contender to the beginner-intermediate guitar market. In fact, considering the material used and the inherent tones manifested cos of that, I firmly believe that they far outshine the other, more popular budget brands that falls under the umbrella corp of higher end, well established brands. Some might not mind having a different wood, as the copy of the original is affordable. But a compromise of tone is evitable as such.
One must be aware however that it still has yet to stand through the rigorous test of performance over time. Also, questions about the build quality of its hardware as pointed out by a member of this forum has led me to believe that potential buyers should be highly alert when it comes to the guitar's QC. I'm just lucky mine came pretty fine.
Rating 3 out of 5
:
Axl SRO Badwater Series
List price: $230
Availability: Ranking, Music Theme
Not much is known about AXL guitars; a quick check on the net points to a brief article on Wikipedia, AXL's official website and countless of reviews. Even the list of artistes endorsing the product are far too few, and none of which are household names that can pull them out of the shadows of other well established guitars brand.
With very little mention and its extremely low cost, it is hence forgivable for us to easily delegate the AXl namesake into the "sub-par guitar" category. But should one scrutinies the reviews online, one would realize that the reviews have churned out nothing but positivity, often with the words "value" and "unique" attached to it.
With the introduction of its new Badwater series, AXL aim to further stamp their "value" and "unique" signature.
Cosmetics and physique
Worn, aged, used, chipped, battered and bruised... in other words, relic-ed. This look has somewhat become the new fashion must have for guitars these days. But to replicated the the "perfect" flaws on an axe basically cost many man hours and that, my friends, translates to high prices on the consumer end of the spectrum.
Axl Badwater guitar series attempts to cater the cosmetics to have the aged look without the enormous price tag, and I have to say they did a very good job with it. To start, there are absolutely no lacquer finish to speak off (huge plus point for me). The wooden parts (body and neck) of the made in China piece in this review are especially well done, stressed beyond believe. I have personally gotten the antique brown look, which look like it has been left out to weather over the years. The coolest part is the fire branded AXL logo placed at the headstock, with the headstock itself straying slightly away from Fender's rounded look (the latter design being a turn off for me).
The hardware are also made to look antiqued, as with the pickguard and the back cover, but these, IMO a look a little to fake and unnatural upon close inspection. However, they do complete the look nicely. Any issues with wear and tear will only add on to the beauty of this guitar, which basically makes it all the more road worthy.
Do not be fooled into thinking that this guitar will fall apart at any time. It is in fact a very sturdy piece of equipment, with a solid alder body, sweet C profiled maple neck, and gorgeously darkened-to-look-weathered rosewood fingerboard, which still amazingly retains a superb fret life. Basically none of the aging process affected the playability of this guitar, which I will be touching on next.
Performance
Honestly, I'm not a fan of EMGs active pickups. So the name EMG designed on the stock passive pickups on the guitar immediately switched on the "I-need-to-mod" mentality. After previewing the tone quality with the store's Marshall MG 50, and my own Gearbox software, I was convinced that the stock pickups are worth keeping! The hum on the single coils are inevitable at gain settings, though, so for those who are bothered by that, would probably disagree with me on the previous point. Best to use your own discretion as to cater to your needs at this point.
As said previously, the aged and stress cosmetics have little to know effect on the guitar. I have not yet put this guitar through a really good run, but from the little hours I put in (I had this purchased a day before this review), it has given nothing but quality. No issues with the tuning thus far with the vintage-styled vibrato and tuners. I find it slight hard to adapt to the gauge 9 strings, cos I basically had been using 11s on my other guitar (Ibanez SA 120), but that is the only issue to bring up in terms of playability. Ibanez shred-fans would probably hate the fatter C neck profile (it's definitely no-Wizard), but hell, I think I've become a fan of a C neck profile now
.Conclusion
AXL may not be the best of the budget lot, nor is it the most popular (mind you, popular does not necessarily equate best). In fact, very little demand for it has seen the distributors taking in very little stock (I personally found out that they are no longer bringing in anymore of this series after the current stocks are out). But I personally believe that AXL guitars, especially the Badwater series, are serious contender to the beginner-intermediate guitar market. In fact, considering the material used and the inherent tones manifested cos of that, I firmly believe that they far outshine the other, more popular budget brands that falls under the umbrella corp of higher end, well established brands. Some might not mind having a different wood, as the copy of the original is affordable. But a compromise of tone is evitable as such.
One must be aware however that it still has yet to stand through the rigorous test of performance over time. Also, questions about the build quality of its hardware as pointed out by a member of this forum has led me to believe that potential buyers should be highly alert when it comes to the guitar's QC. I'm just lucky mine came pretty fine.
Rating 3 out of 5
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