Blade Guitars?

mjbphotos

Moderator
A guy I heard on Saturday had one of these, might have been the RH2 model shown here - dark natural wood grain, but it had the standard SSS pickups. Had it plugged into a Digitech modeler board and into a PA and sounded awesome. Said it was a $5000 guitar?
 
A guy I heard on Saturday had one of these, might have been the RH2 model shown here - dark natural wood grain, but it had the standard SSS pickups. Had it plugged into a Digitech modeler board and into a PA and sounded awesome. Said it was a $5000 guitar?

I bought a Blade R1 about 20 years ago. At the time it was about the same $ as an MIA standard strat, from memory - the higher models cost more. I really wanted the R4 but didn't have the money - that was a wild looking machine.

It's still my go to single coil (actually it's my only single coil... :eek:).

It's got an active pickup with a three band EQ switch which you configure on the back and cut or boost via small switch on the front, and chrome volume and tone knobs instead of plastic, only one of each, plus locking tuners.

Apart from that, it looks like a "Blackie" maple fretboard strat. I gigged with it for a decade - it's a great axe - always stayed in tune.

I didn't know much about them back then or that perhaps I should have bought a real one, and it's always bugged me since that Levinson just copies other design shapes... and adds his own little tweaks - particularly when people say "it's a strat copy".

LOL - I just went googling for a pic and found this HR thread from 2004 - apparently I bought it in 1992..
 
Yikes.
Don't you hate when you find out about some incredible obscure guitar maker and think "wow! a great guitar I can (probably) afford!" and then google it and find out it's even pricier than Gibsons lol.

The worst was when I found out about these recently:

Blackmachine makes a dozen or so guitars a year, so it's bad enough that they are already impossible to find... then the two I have found on eBay? $15,000.

FIFTEEN-THOUSAND DOLLARS
 
Yikes.
Don't you hate when you find out about some incredible obscure guitar maker and think "wow! a great guitar I can (probably) afford!" and then google it and find out it's even pricier than Gibsons lol.

The worst was when I found out about these recently:

No...

Blackmachine makes a dozen or so guitars a year, so it's bad enough that they are already impossible to find... then the two I have found on eBay? $15,000.

FIFTEEN-THOUSAND DOLLARS

You are not their target market segment..
 
They look neat but I don't think that any guitar is worth beyond 2K and probably not even that (unless you want a custom made, all hands off there).
 
Yikes.
Don't you hate when you find out about some incredible obscure guitar maker and think "wow! a great guitar I can (probably) afford!" and then google it and find out it's even pricier than Gibsons lol.

The worst was when I found out about these recently:

Blackmachine makes a dozen or so guitars a year, so it's bad enough that they are already impossible to find... then the two I have found on eBay? $15,000.

FIFTEEN-THOUSAND DOLLARS


That guitar should be smashed and burned just because of the headstock alone.
 
Haha, somebody should do a video like that with a Yamaha Pacifica or something. The music and soothing voice makes it seem so much better than it is.

Somehow the riffs on a 15k$ guitar sound the same as on a 500$ guitar.
 
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