So I was in Peninsula today and saw this beauty in the Sweelee window. Heard about this super cheap version of the more expensive AX40. The only gripes i read about online are its pickups. Other than that, reviews are more or less consistent in its affordable quality. Most also give thumbs-up for its neck.
Testing this guitar out was more or less consistent with what I read. Its really light weight-wise, as light as my Swing telecaster. Other than the high action on the test-model, everything else seemed pretty ok.
The guitar's sound was actually pretty good. It was run directly into a Roland cube amplifier, with clean tones, before moving on to the distortion channel with the gain turned all the way up. EQ settings were all set at mid, and volume and tone was turned all the way up. As I cycled through the 5 pickup settings, I noted the most obvious changes in tone in the clean channel. The neck pickup was warm and fat, and the coil-split positions had an obvious twang. This, however, was not the case in the distortion channel. All 5 settings saw little difference. The tone was fat and smooth throughout the 4 positions, except for the bridge which had the obvious treble. They just lacked the myriad of tone colors you would expect from 5 positions. This was only in the distortion channel, mind you.
As the reviews promised, the neck was truly a joy to play. A unique thing about Ernie Ball necks is its gunstock oil finish. However, this guitar has a satin neck finish. It had a very telecaster feel, and was smooth and felt great to play.
Oh it should be noted that the quilted maple top is purely aesthetic. Not that I'm concerned…it looks awesome to me anyway =)
Has anyone else tried this guitar or is interested in this? Theres also the SUB Silo3 that I'm keen to test as well. Do post your thoughts/other interesting info =) After inquiring, this is the only piece they have, and I'm wondering if there are any other dealers out there. Its strange to see this in Sweelee too; they don't carry Ernie Ball or Sterling as far as I know. Anyone has any explanations?
MSRP: SGD380/-
On MusiciansFriend: SGD336/-
Testing this guitar out was more or less consistent with what I read. Its really light weight-wise, as light as my Swing telecaster. Other than the high action on the test-model, everything else seemed pretty ok.
The guitar's sound was actually pretty good. It was run directly into a Roland cube amplifier, with clean tones, before moving on to the distortion channel with the gain turned all the way up. EQ settings were all set at mid, and volume and tone was turned all the way up. As I cycled through the 5 pickup settings, I noted the most obvious changes in tone in the clean channel. The neck pickup was warm and fat, and the coil-split positions had an obvious twang. This, however, was not the case in the distortion channel. All 5 settings saw little difference. The tone was fat and smooth throughout the 4 positions, except for the bridge which had the obvious treble. They just lacked the myriad of tone colors you would expect from 5 positions. This was only in the distortion channel, mind you.
As the reviews promised, the neck was truly a joy to play. A unique thing about Ernie Ball necks is its gunstock oil finish. However, this guitar has a satin neck finish. It had a very telecaster feel, and was smooth and felt great to play.
Oh it should be noted that the quilted maple top is purely aesthetic. Not that I'm concerned…it looks awesome to me anyway =)
Has anyone else tried this guitar or is interested in this? Theres also the SUB Silo3 that I'm keen to test as well. Do post your thoughts/other interesting info =) After inquiring, this is the only piece they have, and I'm wondering if there are any other dealers out there. Its strange to see this in Sweelee too; they don't carry Ernie Ball or Sterling as far as I know. Anyone has any explanations?
MSRP: SGD380/-
On MusiciansFriend: SGD336/-
