D/A model x.1 review

[deeaa*]

Case you haven't checked out the blog about it, the guitar is now done and I get to review it shortly :-)

plusses: rather light, nice action and neck to my liking ;-) also the Tesla active pickups sound very nice so far - haven't tested with my main gear, though. But it's promising. The neck single that looks like a bucker sounds surprisingly jangly and twangy, I bet it can give rather funky and classic style sounds, while the bridge pup seems very big sounding and somewhat looser than the EMG85's I usually favor. But, must check with main gear first. Seems to hold tune very well and fret access is hard to beat, no heels no nothing right up to the very end of the neck. Like the positioning of the PU switch too.

minuses: the headstock is too narrow, which makes the strings go too close together which looks weird, if doesn't affect anything else. The guitar is just slightly neck heavy, but I have a suspicion that will be corrected by moving the strap button some and/or a different strap. The lacquer finishing is horrid, they oughtta fire the guy responsible for that :-) it's clearly done in a great hurry. All over the guitar there are small marks and blemishes that really cut on the looks factor. Also whoever set the frets in must have been doing his first ever fret set, as they've required a LOT of filing to get them even, and they still need a slight workover and polishing. A big minus is the neck pickup cover getting in the way of the pick all the time when playing; a tilt-neck construction would work infinitely better. The control cavities are too crowded even with just one volume, the cavities are just tiny. Also the super long neck without any heel raises suspicious looks as to how easily can that break. Feels surprisingly solid, though. Just looks weak.

[deeaa*]

No comments? You must have some ideas, what's bad about it and what could be interesting?

I can say that while overall the shape is OK, it is even slightly too small now; if I re-did it I'd make the body just a touch bigger. But the biggest change in design would be I'd have the upper horn shorter so the body would start somewhere around the 20th fret or so already at least, on the upper side...having the cut so deep into the body looks kinda weird when it's being played and serves no purpose, only makes the neck less supported. And of course I'd make the headstock a little wider too, plus I'd make the body tilt as well and maybe use a different style bridge as I'm now constantly peppering the pickup covers and the body wood with my pick when I play, it's just too flat. I have more clearance between body and strings even on my modded strats.

I changed the strap attachment a little but it's still just a tiny bit neck heavy, and because it's not a very heavy guitar overall, I think I'll hide some car wheel weighing leads in the back horn to balance it out better. I should not have routed out the body so hollow, all solid would have probably been just the right balance. I just worried it'd be too heavy.

All in all, I'm very surprised how sturdy the maple from my own yard turned out to be; I thought it'd be even too soft, it's not rock maple or anything, but despite the thin neck area being like 3-4 inches longer than on strats, the neck doesn't flex much at all really...makes me wonder what kind of soft cr*p most guitar makers work with, then, as I've seen plenty of more flexing necks on guitars despite much shorter.

I need to go buy me a strap or two, I already have 2 or 3 guitars without straps. And EMG sized mic screws, I had to steal some from another guitar to build this, I need to replace them soon...

[Eric***]

Dude, that looks sweet. Obviously I can't comment on the playability of it, but nice work on finishing this! I'd love to have a guitar like that.

[deeaa*]

Well, I've been intonating it now, moved the saddle slightly closer to bridge and it's getting to be quite good.

Honestly, for the money spent in it, it's quite OK; the neck is straight and level is good now, so playability is indeed as good as pretty much any electric, it's just mechanics. But aside from that, it makes no sense to make such a guitar as this. Cheaper and easier, and overall a better usability would certainly be achieved by for instance buying a used mexistrat or a good squier, and giving it a fretwork and pickups to your taste. Still, it was a fun project and remains to be seen whether it will get a lot of playing or not. Even the cheapest axe these days...well not quite the cheapest, but with good choices you can get a much better finished and balanced guitar for the money spent. No accounting for the fun of the build and experience, of course.

If I was offered to buy this guitar, I'd say I'd pay little more than what the HW is worth, though. A quirky guitar is a quirky guitar, when you look at it objectively. It's not like it's anything special or have any magic features or sound, although I still haven't tried it with a proper amp to see.

[marnold***]

The green turned out was cooler looking than I thought it would when you first suggested it. Just shows you what I know. It is quirky, but in a cool way. You mention that it is neck-heavy with a strap. How is it while sitting?

[deeaa*]

Sitting it's fine, dimensions/locations of curves are pretty much those of a strat so you find the frets where you're used to even blindfolded...it's not so neck heavy that you could not let go of the neck, the strap friction is just enough to keep the neck in position, but I'll still change the strap positions a bit, I think those will correct the issue OK...I really dislike even slightly neck heavy guitars.

[deeaa*]

BTW do check out the demo in the blog! :-)