AXL AD-200 Strat Style

Made in 2005. China. 24 frets. Solid body. 1 volume and 2 tone.controls. Chinese EMG desing p/u's. Ash body and maple neck. Passive electronices. Finish transparent. Strat copy. Tele style six screw trem. Tuners, closed but not sealed 26.5" scale med. frets strap and wrenches.

Sound is much better than I expected. Using with Marshall practice amp. Very little hum. Rich sound, not especially bright. Good guitar for the money

Good set up strings a little high but easy to adjust. Pickups ok but could be raised some. Low E tuner has too much loose action. All frets wew sharp on end but I dressed them with a jewelers file.

Guitar is rather heavy and seems solid. Tuners will probably need replacing at some time. Finish I heavy with no drips or smears.
Would not hesitate to gig with it.

Have not dealt with the company so I don't know. The retailer has no email addres or 800 number

Playing for 51 years. Own several Martins, washburn, Zager and AXL acoustic base. Would buy again. Really like transparent finish and maple fingerboard. Pretty much equal to Mexican strat at much less money.

Strat copy with EMG designed pick ups. Don't expect thought or originality here !
made in China with a dreadful ibanezesque headstock.

It's not bad.
It's not good either. Doesn't touch a genuine strat for tone, but OK for beginners i suppose

I've tried a few AXL guitars. They're appalling. Spend a few hours and you can get them playable, but intonation is so poor sometimes you can't get it right without cutting down the adjustment screws, the frets are all over the place, the trem is graunched down so hard you bend the arm before you move the bridge, and the screws are so soft they burr out before turning. Finish is Ok but not up to Western standards.

The electrics are poor and WILL fail. The screws are made from old milk bottle tops and burr out rather than turn. the trem is crap and the arm breaks. I wouldn't gig with this AS a spare guitar, let alaone without a spare guitar !

I told them a list of things wrong with their guitars, they told me no-one else says that, and weren't interested. I'm surprised they know which side the strings go on.

It's a cheap way of getting a body and a neck to build your own. The pick ups are OK for a spare guitar. Throw the rest away. I'd be more likely to keep the box it came in than this guitar

Solid Alder Body, One-Piece Maple Neck, 3 EMG Designed Lo-Noise pickups, Kluson-Style Tuners, Multi-Ply pearloid pickguard. Your typical Strat style guitar. One of the highest quality copies I've ever owned. This guitar easily hangs with fenders standard series. I actually play this more than my Fender Mustang that I bought 2 weeks earlier. Very nice metallic lake placid blue finish and a glossy vintage tint on the headstock/neck. The only bad thing I can say is about the tuners. They tend to slip out of tune after some string bending. Other than that, I love this guitar.

These stock pickups are incredible. You won't get that lifeless brittle sound that you usually get from a strat. You can go from beefy fat sound to a typical strat twang without losing the fullness in the tone. When they advertise "noiseless", yes that's exactly right. No hum at all from these pickups.

I think this guitar was set up at the shop where I bought it. The action was a little too high for me. But after lowering the action and putting new strings on, it's fine.

Like I said, it will easily go head to head with any fender standard series. It's a well-made guitar. I actually can't believe they sell them for so cheap. I would definitely gig with this guitar.

They come with a 5 year warranty. The company has a website, but I've never contacted them.

Been playing for 8 years. I have a Fender Mustang, Charvel model 2, and the AXL. This is my main player right now. I don't even care what the headstock says because this guitar plays just as well as a $700 guitar. If it was stolen, I would get another. No, I don't work for AXL either, I just love this guitar.

Look by now you know the specs...maple neck with a separate maple slab fretboard ala the 1967 Tele....I prefer this to the one piece maple neck. The feel of this neck is very solid and beefy. The body is a solid alder and it is finished in a see thru walnut stain.
It has the tortoise guard and three Select/EMGs. There is also a model with a rosewood fretboard and nice three tone sunburst with a white pearl guard. I got both of them. I swapt them for some old Electra Les Pauls that just didn't suit me. I have always leaned towards Strats and Teles. I have been playing for over 35 years...yup an old hippy! I have seen lots of great guitars and have owned some really great ones consecutively. Sure whish I had some of them now! In any case, I have not been playing electric for a couple of years as I was concentrating on keys and mandolin. But need be that I now get back into it as I plan to tour live on the heels of a CD and a few of my buddies and I have just completed. So, I needed a couple of electrics in a hurry. I did not want to spend a fortune...so I check out these AXLs....
I saw that they had potential. Of course I had to polish the fret edges as they could have cut sheet metal in the condition they were in...but you don't play guitar for 35 years or so without learning how to service them. I tweaked the action and the intonation...and voila a good strat lie in wait. I am keeping the EMG Selects on one of them....and the maple necked one is getting a new set of Kent Armstrong Vintages pickups....
The finish work is more than decent; the weight of these guitars is just right...not too light and not too heavy. I feel these Chinese guitars are like the Fernandes and the Tokais back in the 80s. So, get them while you can....they will appreciate. I feel these are better than most or all of the Squire models. They don't feel cheap. Although I will be replacing the switches and pots on both of them. Fret work is good and the attention to detail is better than Fenders of the 70s were!!!!!! Believe me...there were a lot of 70's model strats and teles that were obscene. It is beyond me that people will pay vintage prices for those models......way back then most guitarists put those models down as being pure rubbish....oh, time seems to cloud the issues.....It took Japan from the 1950s to the 1970s to rise in quality...it seems Korea and now China are doing that in less than half the time.....why not? The scale is the std Fender scale, the nut is very good and the hardware is more than suitable.....nothing flimsy here.....for the price of one of these you can opt to customize them....as a repair person I get parts at wholesale...and it really is worth it for me........

it has the basic, generic Strat sound.....hey what do you want for under $199.....want more from the sound....pop on your fave pickups...or al least put on better pots and switch...

I lowered the action to where I like it...and no buzz problems.....to speak of....the necks play nice......
listen...if you just kept the body it would be worth the price....
as far as the heads go....well....they work...but they will get replaced sooner or later...

seem to be reliable...both of the......I can't imagine them falling apart......not likely....

ya kidding.....besides I have modified them...even to the point of sanding off the name decal......they are mine now...for better or for worse....
I like personalizing these kinds of guitars.....

I have honed these guitars into being what I want them to be......

i got this guitar 10/10/02 i know that,s a short time.i needed a backup.the guitar has a solid feel your basic strat knockoff but with in my opinion better pickups my other strat copy i put in emg selects i played this guitar for hours last night. it,s beautiful guitar to look at.the action was high i lowered it some no fret buzz intonation was dead on except both e strings which adjusted.i read the other reviews. about this axl and the johnson strat copies.and they must listen.because.mine came. with fender strings.also the frets are nice.it sounds great.i did notice two things.that need work in my opinion.first the nut.i going to replace with a graphtech. and the pickup selector seems a little flimsy.but this guitar can and will be made great.with out breaking the bank.graph tech bridges saddles and a trem setter and this guitar will match guitars costing four times as much.it came with a flimsy gig bag. cheap cord.when these guitars from china first came out.from the reviews i read the bodies were rated great and necks. so so.but everything needed adjustment.and the tuners werw rated so so.let put a spin on this i am also an stargazer and a few years back low cost telescopes came from china. the basics were there but there were a few lemons.but now there quality is more consistent. the same seems to be the case with these guitars.which makes them a great value.

most of the strat tones without the noise

action was alittle high for my taste but was lowered without fretbuzz has flimsy pickup selector

this guitar is solid and the finnish great

it,s suppossed to have a 5yr. warranty but there no warranty card to fill out.

AXL AS200
Made in China
Double-cutaway body, alder
Maple neck and fretboard
S-S-S EMG pickups
Dark brown see-thru finish
Tortoise shell pickguard
Sealed Gotoh-like tuners
Tuners work, but have some play in them.

You can play high-distortion rock stuff on this guitar.
The pickups are EMG designed, noise-free.
They sound like a blend between single coils
and humbbuckers. They fit into a single-coil
slot, but have absolutely no hum even at high gain.
They have excellent sustain, far better than most
single coils I've heard. They have good mid-range and
high-end. The low-end is present but not as
full and rich as you would get with single coils.
I have no idea how EMG does this but
the pickups are quite "smooth" and sustaining.

The dark brown see-thru finish is beautiful.
The guitar's appearance is really impressive.
The neck width reminds me of older Fenders
(which I like) -- not a narrow neck.
The frets are medium size, good to grip.

The neck finish is smooth, but not extremely fast.
However, for the price it is outstanding.

The string action cannot be set extremely low
or you get fret buzz. I would imagine to fix this
you need to have a fret job done, which costs about
$80 in the SF bay area. But this is bargain given
the price of the guitar. As it stands, the action
is moderately low without the string buzz and works for me.

My only complaint about the guitar physically
is that the body is a little heavy for my tastes.

I've only had it for a couple of months
but it seems very durable. It comes with a
5-year warranty.

I've bought two guitars from MandalayMusic and
they were helpful with me on an exchange of another
guitar I didn't like. I think they give good
customer service.

I've been playing over 30 years and have owned Fender, Gibson,
Squire guitars. The AXL is a fantastic bargain for the price.
Note that AXL is affiliated with Johnson guitars, but the
Johnson guitars do NOT have the EMG pickups. So be careful
what you order on the Mandalay website.

I do not regret buying it and would replace it if lost or stolen.
My overall rating takes into consideration the price;
it's a great guitar for the price.