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AXL AEG-12

Summary
Manufacturer URL http://www.axlguitars.com
Features 7.0 (1 response)
Sound 6.0 (1 response)
Action, Fit, & Finish 7.0 (1 response)
Reliability/Durability 6.0 (1 response)
Customer Support N/A (0 responses)
Overall Rating 7.0 (1 response)
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Product: AXL AEG-12
Price Paid: 148 (GBP)
Submitted 03/03/2004 at 07:52am by Andrew Bletchley
Email: erasmus<at>freezone dot co dot uk

Features : 7
This is, in a nutshell, a Chinese hollow Les Paul copy! It has the usual Les Paul configuration, but with two f-holes, a floating bridge and trapeze tail-piece. It has a fairly narrow set neck and small headstock.
Construction is plywood - don't know more than that. Mine is a glossy black finish, although other colours are available.
Came with a lead and an allen key for the truss rod!
Body is an ALMOST Les Paul shape, but with an exaggerated cut-away, similar to some of the posher Aria LP style guitars.

Sound : 6
If you want to play jingly jangly pop or country with a clean sound, then this could be ideal straight out of the box. It didn't really do much for me when the overdrive went on, which, as I play blues and rock, was a bit of a problem!
I resolved this by getting a Kent Armstrong humbucker-sized P-90 pickup for the bridge position and although it is early days, I think this will give me just what I want!
I will say for the original pickups that there was a good difference between the sounds of bridge and neck P-Us.
My other main guitar is a Les Paul copy with P90s, which through my Peavey Encore valve amp, sounds magnificent, so that was a hard act to live up to. But as I say, clean sound=fine, dirty sound=crap and this was tried out through two different amps and two different overdrive pedals in a variety of combinations.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 7
Intonation was not too far off - just a bit of tinkering required. Action is a fraction high for my liking and with the floating bridge, there is only limited scope for adjusting. But it is very easy to play, nonetheless.
One of the tuning pegs was stiff at first, but has now eased off. I had to take the jack socket out and bend it a bit to make a good connection, but for the money, I thought the quality is pretty good. My only long-term concern is with the trapeze tail-piece which has a couple of spot welds that don't look too strong. Hope they survive!
The guitar came with a big sign saying that Fender strings were fitted. If this is true and I were Fender, I would quietly remove the sign as they weren't a good advertisement. That said, I would guess they were 9's and I have now put on 10's which give it some much needed beef. Also, you don't know how long ago the factory fitted them.

Reliability/Durability : 6
Because of the tailpiece, I don't think the guitar would stand up to non-stop gigging, but we go out about twice a month, so I hope I won't have problems. I always take more than one guitar to a gig and this one won't change my mind.
The finish seems pretty reasonable for the money and I don't have longterms for the finish or the wood.

Customer Support : No Opinion
N/A

Overall Rating : 7
If I had tried it in a shop, rather than buying it mail order, I might have walked away. But my view was that if the wood was OK, the electrics could be upgraded, which is what I have done with the P-90 Pickup. (I have also removed the scratch plate to subdue the overall look of the guitar).
I love the fact that the guitar is very light, meaning my shoulder won't ache after a gig and its hollow construction also makes for infinite sustain, if that is your bag. The downside to this is that the guitar is very neck heavy and with the shiny strap I bought for it, will nose-dive in a flash. I will get a more "high friction" strap to reduce this effect - also when Live, I have a radio transmitter hanging on the strap at the bridge end which should help the balance as well.

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