Blade Guitars

[t_ross33]

Had a chance try a couple of Tele-type guitars today, manufactured by Blade. Both were from the Delta series, neither of which appear on their website.

The first was a nice vintage white, dual humbucker model. String thru bridge, single ply black pickguard, standard tele 3-way switching, rosewood board and a nice vintage tinted neck.

Amazing build quality, fit and finish. And did this puppy every sing!!! wow! The neck is a flatter radius than I'm used to, but I could live with it. Very, very cool guitar for around $800 CDN. Not bad. Maybe better than a Fender in the same price range.

The second was a more traditional Tele setup w/ 2 single coils in a very nice sunburst and ivory pickguard. Again, rosewood board - maple would be nice but I could live with it. This model came with a mini-switch that activates the "Variable Spectrum Control" which tamed some of the singlecoil bite and added some nice drive - not an overdriven sound, mind you, just a nice push on the front end. Again, less than a "G".

These are robust, gig-worthy axes. I'm gassing for the double-bucker : If anyone wants to donate to my Christmas fund, PM me

[ShortBuSX]

This model came with a mini-switch that activates the "Variable Spectrum Control" which tamed some of the singlecoil bite and added some nice drive - not an overdriven sound, mind you, just a nice push on the front end. Again, less than a "G".

Id be interested to learn more about that drive system, I read about it on that page...but I want more details:

There are some really nice pics on this page.

Im really diggin the shape of that rounded Tele body! :


Im also a big fan of how they arent insanely overpriced Fender copies with a bunch of gimmicky trick new parts thrown at em to (over)inflate the price.

[Robert****]

I tried a couple and I was quite impressed too. Very nice sound and playability, and much better quality build than most Asian-made guitars.

[sunvalleylaw]

They look nice, but are they better than a $300 US CV? I like the colors better than the CV.

[Robert****]

The ones I tried were definitely a few steps above any Squier - more like US Fenders really.

[t_ross33]

The ones I tried were definitely a few steps above any Squier - more like US Fenders really.

Yep - all around I'd say they are more on par with US Fenders (if not better), but a few c-notes cheaper. The only beef I had was the neck radius cuz I never have been - never will be a shredder. A 9.5 radius seems to suit me fine and these were likely in the 12 range.

Finish - immaculate. P'ups and electronics - top notch. Neck/frets - smooth and polished.

And that dual 'bucker Delta (i.e. Tele) was so suh-weet! Still taking donations. PM me.

[t_ross33]

Id be interested to learn more about that drive system, I read about it on that page...but I want more details:

I'm not the caliber of player to really put these through their paces, but from what my meager experience tells me, the VSC gives a few dB of boost while taming the highs. I wasn't able to try it with a tube amp (tested on a Roland Cube 60), but my guess is it would push the front end of an amp nicely - especially if your amp was set to just about break up clean. This would send it over the sweet edge. Probably not enough to crunch it up like an OD pedal would, but it would add a nice singing sustain for leads and solos.

Worth a test drive - keep an eye out for them, but don't blame me for the GAS :

[Blaze]

I found this nice but long review about Blade guitars ,the guy had made research about it ,pretty interesting review.

I was chatting with my tech the other day as he suggest me to try one of these, sayin they are superior copy for the $$.

Here s the review:I ll post in 2 parts , cause it s too long Part 1 here :

Product: Blade Guitars Strat Copy
Submitted 03/27/2000 at 04:42pm by Anonymous
Email: agrionia<at>pobox dot com

Features : No Opinion
*** PLEASE NOTICE that I am not going to give numeric ratings to any category in this review. I spent a lot of time on this review and feel that it speaks for itself without associating a simple 1-10 rating to each category. In my opinion, this type of rating system is inappropriate for guitar and sound equipment reviews. ***
This review is for a Blade "Strat Copy" guitar that was manufactured in the late 1980s or early 1990s. These guitars were designed in Switzerland by an American named Gary Levinson. Their web page is located at http://www.bladeguitars.com
I have written many reviews for Harmony Central and this is a difficult guitar to review because of its features and tone. I will attempt to leave a completely objective review here.
My Blade guitar differs from the current models. The headstock on my guitar is similar to a Suhr or Pensa/Suhr guitar. The earlier Blades also have three three single coil pickups, active electronics, and the blade falcon tremeolo.
I am uncertain where my Blade guitar was manufactured. Based on my research, it appears that the older Blades were either manufactured in Switzerland or Japan (by Hoshino in their high-end manufacturing facility.) There is no evidence anywhere on the guitar to support either claim, although the guitar does have the word "Switzerland" marked in several areas on the guitar. I have read that Gary Levinson was a consultant to at least one Japanese guitar company during the time that this guitar was manufactured, and the guitar's body wood was made from an species of wood that is found in Asia, so I suspect that the guitar was probably manufactured in Japan.
This blade guitar was purchased used at Guitar Center where it was traded in or sold by its original owner. Several salesmen there had extremely favorable comments on the guitar's apperance and sound. The salesman who received the guitar from the original owner said that it was custom ordered and made in Switzerland.
There are many innovative and outstanding features on this guitar and I will describe each feature by grouping areas of the guitar.
Long-range appearance: ----------------------
My blade guitar is a 22 fret bolt-on strat copy guitar. The neck and body are both a deep transparent blue and all hardware is black. The pickguard is a black material that reflects light like a red tinted mirror.
Headstock/tuners/nut: ---------------------
As described previously, the headstock has a similar shape to modern Suhr or an older Pensa/Suhr or Anderson guitar. It is a sleek copy of a Fender headstock with the end rounded area cut away. The headstock does not tilt back from the neck. I feel that the headstock design looks sharp and implies modern performance but isn't like an exaggerated pointy 80s headstock.
This guitar comes equipped from the factory with black Spertzel locking tuners. The early Blade guitars have an adjustable string tee for the B and high E strings. This tee is raised or lowered by a phillips screw on the back on the headstock.
The nut appears to be constructed from graphite. The headstock is also transparent blue and the maple wood grain is visible. The "Blade" logo exists on the bottom edge of the front of the headstock. The truss rod adjustment is located on the opposite end of the fretboard and I will describe this in the next section of this review.
Neck/Fretboard/Inlays/Truss rod: --------------------------------
The neck is constructed from a single piece of maple. The rear is stained blue with a glossy polyurethane finish. The blue stain is darker on both ends of the neck (it becomes lighter near the middle of the neck.)
The neck is extremely fast, comfortable, and accurate. It is relatively slim with a distinct rounded back and a medium width fretboard. The dimensions feel similar to an average Anderson guitar. I have found during my research into Blade guitars that many have commented that the neck is one of the most favored features of these guitars.
The fretboard is made from a thin p

Sound : No Opinion
I will first start by describing the guitar's natural unamplified tone. When I identified that the body was ash, I expected the guitar to have a typical swamp ash wood tone: poppy and bright, cut mids, and "airy" sounding. I was surprised to hear that this guitar had a sound that in many ways is different than typical ash.
This guitar has a definite darker mid-range "punch" that is uncommon and very cool. I've noticed the same of punchy mids in higher end guitars with poplar bodies. Maybe the heavier density and tight grain of the sen ash wood contributes to its unique sound.
It is not as bright as swamp ash but has the same type of strong resonance. Additionally, it is not as bright or snappy as alder bodied guitars with maple fretboards and this might be from the Blade's ebony fretboard. However, the Blade does not have a dull, dead, or flat sound. It has a very nice full balanced sound with a smooth and creamy high end, complex mids and bass and good acoustic resonance.
Before I begin describing the amplified tones of this guitar, I should indicate that I have not made any adjustments to the parameters controlling the onboard preamp since purchasing the guitar. My assumption is that the adjustments will fine tune the guitar's inherit tone and not produce radical tone changes.
In any case, it is difficult to fully describe the amplified tone of the guitar because of the diverse tonal possibilities with the 5 position stratocaster pickup configuration and the on-board preamp.
When the preamp is disabled, the guitar sounds like a strong modern Stratocaster. I'd have to say that the output is slightly higher and has more natural muscle than most Stratocasters with single coil pickups. The guitar does a good emulation of a true Stratocaster, but isn't a pure, chimey, or glassy as a Strat with higher quality low output vintage style single coil pickups. The stock pickups on the Blade seem to lack the complexity of a vintage single coil pickup. Without the preamp engaged, the pickups are suitable for any style of music and even have enough output for rock or metal with a high gain amplifier.
There is some slight 60hz hum but I don't really notice it because of the noise gate on my amplifer.
When the volume knob is reduced, the high frequences stay in the signal. The tone knob is effective and works as you would expect.
When the active electronics are engaged, the sound of the instrument is altered dramatically. First, I will describe the sound of the guitar with the cut mids and the boosted bass and treble frequencies.
I *really* like the sound of this guitar in this mid cut mode when playing through a clean setting on an amplifier. It takes much of the muscle and punch away from the pickup's inherit tone and adds a very nice unique (and complex) stratocaster sound that isn't completely available without the active circuit. It is a slightly compressed and juicy expressive clean sound that really sounds exceptional to my ears. I would certainly say without hesitation that it is one of my favorite clean sounds. It sounds amazing on a nice clean amp with some stereo chorus and reverb.
I have found that this setting on a distortion amp channel does not sound very pleasing at all. It sounds as if it dramatically reduces the guitar's output and the signal sounds a little flat. It it interesting to cut into this mode briefly to change the guitar's tonality during a lead, but I would not want to stay there long.
For me, this mid-cut mode is almost exclusively for clean amplifier settings.
Now, the mid boost setting gives this guitar serious balls. It definitely increases the signal output while boosting the mids, giving this guitar output that approaches that of a hot humbucking pickup. The tone still retains some of the single coil qualities (higher frequency dynamics) which gives the guitar a tone which is slightly different from a true humbucker.
This mid-boost circuit is absolutely useful for playing leads or any musical areas where

End of part 1 ........ Here' s : Blade Guitar 2