New Custom Guitar From ETGuitars

Toxicity! · #1 12-02-2007, 06:59 AM

WARNING: VERY bright and flashy

As you all probably know, it is almost impossible to capture the true colour of a neon guitar. This is my best attempt.

the picture below is probably the closest to the real colour

scallops! yummy...

Review (For those who are thinking about ordering from ETGuitars)

Customer Service - 10/10
Ernie usually replies to emails within 24 hours, and lets you know in advance when he is taking a vacation. He also sends an update every fortnight with pictures. For a guitar luthier, i feel this is very important so that the customer can comment on the work in progress, this way, both parties can be happy about the work.

Craftmanship and Build Quality - 8.5/10
Pretty good all round, especially so on the super thin neck (18mm throughout). It seems stable, and the scallops are consistent and they feel really good. The neck itself is super fast and i love the finishing on the back of the neck. Really smooth for easy playing. Body is CNCed so its pretty much standard. However, there are a few issues. There is a gap between the end of the neck and the body in the neck joint, also, the neck joint is not as tight as I would like it to be. As a result, i had to shim the neck a little. You can see it in the picture below:

Fret Dressing and Levelling - 7.5/10
Fret dressing is decent, however i have seen better (J.customs). Fret levelling is acceptable, however there is one fret which is super low(i think the 17th) causing quite a bad fret buzz for that particular fret, you can also see from one of the pictures that my action isn't really that low.

Finishing - 6/10
To be fair to Ernie, he did tell me before he sent it that the clearcoat was not perfect and i told him to send it to me anyway, so i will not comment on the clearcoating. I love the colours, i really do. They are very bright and thats how a neon guitar should look like. Based on colours alone its a 10/10 no question. However, some details on the guitar can be improved by quite a bit such as the "binding" and the yellow bits on the body. It is as if it is not sharp enough. The green as well is not consistent throughout the guitar. I don't really know how to explain so I've included some pictures as well in my next post

Eggy · #2 12-02-2007, 07:04 AM

Looks great, thanks for posting up.

Toxicity! · #3 12-02-2007, 07:08 AM

Overall
Ernie said this is the most "custom" of all the guitars he has made so far, and i certainly didn't give him the easiest time with some of the designs but I would say its an admirable effort and he will certainly improve over time. Also, there's nothing a guitar tech can't fix accept probably the finishing. Ernie, if you're reading this it may seem a tad harsh but I think this is the standard out there, and constructive critism can also help you improve, and i certainly enjoyed working on this project with you. Cheers.

DaniJem · #4 12-02-2007, 08:44 AM

AWESOME

cool!!!

The Euphor · #5 12-02-2007, 09:36 AM

That looks great! And to be honest. Neon and perfection doesn't go hand in hand.

Ibanez should make this a production model, it would sell in buckets. Or closer to none...

waylay00 · #6 12-02-2007, 12:48 PM

LOL...that's an interesting guitar.

dannymills · #7 12-02-2007, 01:16 PM

That's ridiculously high action.

Toadster · #8 12-02-2007, 01:23 PM

wow i want one so bad, how much and how long ?? roughly

andy7jem · #9 12-02-2007, 01:34 PM

That's some seriously deep scallops

Toxicity! · #10 12-02-2007, 02:03 PM

Hi everyone.. nah, my action is medium, hardly high at all.. I ordered the guitar in march, just got it a week ago. Price is 800USD without hardware and electronics..

**GilkyBear** · #11 12-02-2007, 02:29 PM

I think it looks great, very nice (and deep) scallops.

the.godfather · #12 12-02-2007, 05:40 PM

Wow, I'm lovin the colour of it. Not too sure about those scallops though. The ones on my Yngwie Strat were difficult enough to get familiar with. Aside from the scallops though I love everything about it!