Picked up my USA Custom today... It's a 1991 model with the "Ultra" neck (pretty much same profile as JEM neck) with bound board and off-set dot
fret markers. It's got a lacewood top on a mahogany back, and through the trans red (almost wine) finish you can see that the back is one piece of mahogany while the lacewood is bookmatched. The lacewood accounts for nearly a third of the body thickness, btw...
It's a lovely guitar - it's in immaculate condition and plays very, very well, but the neck is finished with a poly clear coat, and I'm not particularly happy with that... Can I remove this from the neck, even though it's bound? I don't want to take the steel wool and sandpaper to it if I'm going to wreck the binding. The tone seems somewhat tighter and harder than on the JEM, though it's got the same pickups. The differences are quite subtle however - I don't think I'll be tweaking the
amp settings much when changing guitars
Overall, it's a great guitar, and I'd be perfectly happy with it but for the clear coat on the neck...
