I took delivery yesterday of my Relic'd Vintage Peter Green Lemon Drop tribute. It was an interesting experience, I did have reservations about buying a relic'd guitar and taking it out of the box I was completely underwhelmed. Buying a new guitar previously had always been about the excitement of unwrapping a nice shiny new Axe but unwrapping what looked like a beat up old plank was strange indeed.

I have no idea what a 40 year old beat up LP is supposed to look like so I can't comment on how authentic the relicing is but my fist impression was that this was quite an ugly Axe. Anyway I reminded myself that this was only €350 (Epi LP's retail in Europe for between €400 and €700) so I reserved judgment until I plugged it in.

After I unwrapped it I found the warranty card which was signed with a detailed quality control check list - nice! Not something I was expecting on a 'budget' guitar. I checked all the usual stuff, frets, tuners switches - all passed my quality checks and and all felt well put together and solid.

Then I plugged it in and started playing, this thing is a tone monster. Every classic LP tone is in there and the pickups are wired out of phase so the middle position gives a real 'honky' type tone. But the playability of this guitar is amazing, the action is the lowest I've ever come across, the frets could do with a polish but are consistent and I can find no dead spots. The relic'd neck gives a satin feel and your hand can just glide across the neck.

Bottom line, this is a great sounding, high quality guitar. It may be a bit of an ugly duckling but I think I'll grow to love it!!