Beautiful!!!
Pros:
Stunning looks, beautifully bound, crisp and clean warm tones, cuts through, sexy, quick neck.
Cons:
Not a folk guitar, not a great un-amplified sound, made for Rock not Country.
The Bottom Line:
A beautiful players guitar, built like a tank, made to be amplified. Sexy with a beautuful voice it cuts through a rock band just perfectly. Who could ask for more?
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
The top, back, and sides are made entirely of book matched flamed maple and the neck and body is bound with a cream & black binding- CBCBC binding on the body.
Black FM Exotica TBK
- Grover tuners
- Inlaid rosette of mother of pearl
- Dean 9V EQ-7545 preamp, 3-band EQ, and presence control
- 21 fret neck with rosewood fingerboard
- MOP dot inlay in the neck
- Mahogany bridge and neck
- Built like a tank
- Made in Korea 2002
Looks
It looks amazing. In fact I don't believe I have seen a better looking guitar for any price. This guitar is a transparent "black" meaning the maple flame color varies from a graphite/silver shine to a dense gloss black in beautiful waves across the entire body. It is simply beautiful.
The beauty of this wood is NOT just a veneer. The same beautiful flame is clearly visible on the INSIDE of the guitar. This is almost unheard of for a guitar in this price range.
Setup and Finish
When I got this guitar it sounded like screeching Rosie O'Donnel caged inside a de-tuned grand piano. Not good... The action? Just as ugly as Rosie. The strings were about a quarter inch off the fret board at the 12th fret, the saddle was standing WAY too high, the stock strings were junk, and the neck had too much relief. Here's how I sorted this out;
- Replaced the stock strings with Ernie Ball Super Slinky Acoustic Phosphor Bronze strings
- Removed bridge saddle and lowered it by 1/16th of an inch, shaped and polished saddle edge.
- Removed 2 plastic shavings from saddle slot.(factory oops)
- Adjusted truss rod to true the neck
Properly adjusted, it's a real player now. These were simple fixes that can be expected with most stock guitars. I All the foundation stuff was actually very solid. Beautiful binding and fret work, solid bridge, hard nut, bone hard saddle, excelent wood quality throughout.
The neck is one of the fastest necks I have found on an acoustic. It is so close to my Les Paul neck in size and shape that I forget which guitar I am holding on occation.
Sound
I play a lot of rock ballads with this guitar switching between my Dillon Thinline Tele and my Reverend Flatroc for punk and rock and anthem rock and this guitar for the pretty stuff. It's sound is superb for fronting a noisy bunch of punk heads on slower songs. Perfect in fact. It's bright, crisp and the intonation is dead on so it comes across with a pure, clean presence. I run it straight into a dedicated Fender Princeton Chorus(just for this guitar) and it's just as clean and sparkling, with as much Fender "shimmer" as you could ask for. Anyone who has experience with maple tops as opposed to spruce knows your sound is going to be on the bright side. This is NOT a woody sounding Martin with the folk bottom end that Martin's are known for. This guitar is bright, crisp and clean without being harsh. It does not have that clorinated nasal sound of the round-back guitars either. If you like Ovation's then great but that's not the sound I need. Great for what I do which is play over the top of a rock/punk band(who are sometimes hard to get quiet). I needed something crystal clear and with emphasis on the upper mid range wich is what this guitar has for days. However the EQ actually does a good job of boosting the low end for a more balanced tone when I am playing solo without backup.
Durability
This gutar seems impervious to road wear for the most part. The color has changed slightly since I bought it. Oddly it had a very green cast to it and was sort of a deep green/black color. I bought it in person used and liked the deep greenish color. The color has changed now into straight black/carbon/silver tones and no longer has any of the green tint. Wierd but it's still strikingly beautiful and it commented on almost nightly. Must have been some chemical reaction between the maple and stain origionally which has now neutralized. The gloss finish is hard, durable, perfectly clear and well done. Grover tuners are perfect as always, pre-amp is silent and responsive. I can use a single set of Ernie Ball Phosphor Bronze strings on it for about 6 weeks of hard playing. That's great!
