Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This particular higher-end permutation of the popular Idol series offers very solid features for an instrument at this price point. The Buzz Feiten tuning system--coupled with the 18:1 Grover machine heads-- virtually guarantees perfect intonation and ease of tuning, and the VCC knobs (in place of standard tone controls) has the overall effect of both a tone control and coil splitter, with the zero setting offering sparkling single-coil, Strat-like clarity with the noiselessness of a humbucker. Cranking to 10 produces high-gain, classic humbucker sounds, and experimenting with any in-between combination with either or both of the two VCC knobs can produce a decent replication of virtually any other pickup sound you'd possibly want, from P-90's to lipsticks. The neck is fast and smooth, though a bit narrow for some players.
The only glaring flaw is the lack of good finish workmanship, and trading off stellar performance for cheaper (albeit relatively unimportant) parts. The three-way pickup selector switch on my brand new (at the time)guitar broke off at the tip after about a week (easily replaced for a couple of dollars at the local Guitar Center) and the nut at the output jack worked itself almost completely off in about the same amount of time. Several screws (truss rod cover, pickup mountings and elsewhere) were similarly loose and had to be snugged down
For playability and versatility at this price, you really can't do much better. This thing was an Guitar World Editor's Choice for "Best Guitar under $1000" the year it debuted back in 2004 or 2005. If slightly higher quality hardware had been used and setup finish had been properly done, this guitar would be close to perfect.
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