
Zaphod B
Raccoons-Be-Gone, Inc.
...and a brief look it was. I just had enough time to unpack the thing, tune it, look it over, and plink for a few minutes before leaving for the evening.
It seems well put together. The neck (set neck) and body are mahogany; the fingerboard is rosewood. The headstock is narrow with a straight profile, and the tuners operate smoothly. The one-piece bridge-stopbar is adustable for height only - no intonation adjustment is possible. The frets seem to be finished pretty well, and I haven't detected any sharp edges yet. The neck appears true and has an appropriate amount of bow.
All the electronics, including the jack, are mounted to the pickguard. This way they only have to do a single top rout on the body.
The body is like a LP Special: solid mahogany and flat-topped, but a bit thinner (maybe 1/4" to 1/2" ?) than the LP Special. I'll take measurements when I get time. The upper fret access is much easier than an LP because of the reduced thickness of the body-neck joint. The body appears to be cut to the same profile as a LP, but I'll have to do a side-by-side comparison with the Special to see. As you can imagine, it's considerably lighter than an LP.
The finish appears to be the same as that used on the "Faded" series of Gibsons. It is an opaque stain or paint, and no pore filler is used, even on the back of the neck. The finish is not built up to a smooth, glossy level. So you can't see the grain through the finish but you can see it three-dimensionally. Regardless, the neck feels quick even though it actually feels like a piece of wood. The "Gibson" logo on the headstock is either paint or decal, but it's not inlaid. There is no other logo on the headstock. It's apparent that the finish is where Gibson saved a bunch of money on the production of the guitar, but it's not bad-looking.
The action as delivered is a bit high for my liking and I haven't had time to set it up. It is strung with a 10 - 46 string gauge which is what I'll keep. It frets cleanly (so far) and the intonation is actually pretty damned good considering that the one-piece bridge/tailpiece has no compensation.
I haven't had time to plug it into the Vox but I'll do that tonight and give a sound report. I'll get some pics uploaded in a couple of days.
So the initial assessment is that it's not a piece of crap. It may turn out to be a nice little piece.
It seems well put together. The neck (set neck) and body are mahogany; the fingerboard is rosewood. The headstock is narrow with a straight profile, and the tuners operate smoothly. The one-piece bridge-stopbar is adustable for height only - no intonation adjustment is possible. The frets seem to be finished pretty well, and I haven't detected any sharp edges yet. The neck appears true and has an appropriate amount of bow.
All the electronics, including the jack, are mounted to the pickguard. This way they only have to do a single top rout on the body.
The body is like a LP Special: solid mahogany and flat-topped, but a bit thinner (maybe 1/4" to 1/2" ?) than the LP Special. I'll take measurements when I get time. The upper fret access is much easier than an LP because of the reduced thickness of the body-neck joint. The body appears to be cut to the same profile as a LP, but I'll have to do a side-by-side comparison with the Special to see. As you can imagine, it's considerably lighter than an LP.
The finish appears to be the same as that used on the "Faded" series of Gibsons. It is an opaque stain or paint, and no pore filler is used, even on the back of the neck. The finish is not built up to a smooth, glossy level. So you can't see the grain through the finish but you can see it three-dimensionally. Regardless, the neck feels quick even though it actually feels like a piece of wood. The "Gibson" logo on the headstock is either paint or decal, but it's not inlaid. There is no other logo on the headstock. It's apparent that the finish is where Gibson saved a bunch of money on the production of the guitar, but it's not bad-looking.
The action as delivered is a bit high for my liking and I haven't had time to set it up. It is strung with a 10 - 46 string gauge which is what I'll keep. It frets cleanly (so far) and the intonation is actually pretty damned good considering that the one-piece bridge/tailpiece has no compensation.
I haven't had time to plug it into the Vox but I'll do that tonight and give a sound report. I'll get some pics uploaded in a couple of days.
So the initial assessment is that it's not a piece of crap. It may turn out to be a nice little piece.