I’ve had this guitar in my hands now for a couple weeks and feel comfortable enough to give an overview of the pros and cons (spoiler, not many) of ordering a custom guitar from over seas, and specifically for this guitar. So lets get right into the first impression.
This shipping was quick and painless once it was on it’s way and Fedex handled the import extremely quickly (especially compared to how long my Sabaddius Funky Vibe was stuck in USPS import) and I received me guitar in less than 2 weeks from when it was shipped. It was packed very well in a rigid gig bag which looks like it protects the guitar well in shipping. Unfortunately it must have gotten bumped pretty good at some point as the neck arrived crooked a bit, causing the low-E to slip off the edge of the fretboard on the higher frets. Luckily loosening the screws and shifting the neck back into proper alignment got everything straightened out.
The initial impression of the relic job was that it looks fairly good, if a bit obvious or repetitive in how it was done. You can pretty easily see how a drill with a rough sanding wheel or buffing wheel was used on the edge of the guitar to take off the paint all around. I am a bit disappointed, but it’s pretty well known that Simon doesn’t really like relicing guitars and prefers NOS. That being said, a lot of attention has gone into the rest of the guitar with all the hardware have a nice patina.
Lastly it is undeniably a beautiful guitar with it’s ‘just right’ flame on the neck and dark katalox fingerboard. The neck was ‘deshined’ which feels like it’s bare, and the fingerboard feels as nice as any vintage or modern Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard I’ve played. The edge is beautifully rolled which gives it a very comfortable played-in feel.
Speaking of feel, this guitar feels great in the hands. This is the lightest Strat style guitar I’ve played (vintage included) to the point of almost feeling ‘off’ at first (I’ve been playing my ’08 American Standard which is loaded with poly clear coat). The neck is a bit thicker front to back, but thin vintage spec side to side making it super comfortable to play thumb over low E Hendrix style licks. The custom ordered 7.25″ fingerboard and 6105 frets make for my favorite combination, allowing comfortable chords and smooth bends throughout the neck. Lastly the electronics are smooth but tight, with the selector switch being especially tighter than I’m used to, but which makes for easy position selection. Only change I made to the feel was to tighten the spring claw so the bridge is decked, giving a stiffer string feel.
Now what you really want to know, how does it sound? Well those smooth working pots and the caps tied to them are a thing of beauty. The taper on the volume pot which somehow retains almost all of the top end makes it a joy to ride for cleans or over-driven tones. In this respect it’s even better than my ’59 Strat was, which is the same when it comes to the tone pots. They don’t neuter the tone once you get to 8 or 9 like a modern Strat, instead taking just a tip off the top until you get down to 3 or so on the dial. This really lets you dial in the sweet spot for any volume and gain setup you want to use. And the tone pots are tied to the neck and bridge pickup, leaving the mid pickup wide open.
Talking pickups, the Mark Foley ’59 Reserve v.2s are so far the closest to the vintage ones I’ve heard yet. I’d say the neck and mid are 90% there in tone, and the bridge being better than the one that was on my vintage ’59. The vintage bridge pickup didn’t have a tone pot on it, and had no lows in it at all, and unlike some fine examples it did have some of the harsh brittleness in the top. The bridge in the SVL has a steel bar on the bottom which takes away a bit of the top spike and in general the pickup has more bass and sounds fantastic. In short all of the pickups are a step closer to the vintage tone than the PRS Silver Sky which was my previous closest sounding guitar.
The one thing I still want to try out tone wise is replacing the middle pickup. The SVL came with a reverse wound reverse polarity pickup to give hum cancelling in the 2 and 4 positions. Which this supposedly has negligible effect on the tone, there are many respectable players who say it does make a difference in the frequency response of the pickups. It may be small, but I’m only looking to get the last 5-10% closer so it’s worth a shot. I will post a before and after once I get the new pickup in.
So what do I think over all? Well it’s pretty much exactly what I hoped for! Tone wise it’s very close to the vintage Strat I got rid of, but with a much more usable bridge pickup for my setup and style. I don’t have to feel bad about replacing the pickup or making other changes as it’s not a respected vintage piece, nor do I have to worry about accidentally banging it around thanks to the finish and again lack of vintage providence. To sum it up, it is my new number 1 and I am already planning on selling some of my other guitars which won’t get used much anymore.