AXL Collection Series Plexiglass Strat

Made in China. 21 frets. Cool ice clear acrylic body with transparent sparkly scratchplate. The usual Strat set up, 3 single coil pickups, 5 way selecter, volume, tone, tone controls. Pickups are branded "AXL EMG" (I am reliably informed that these are EMG Selects). Maple neck, rosewood fingerboard bolted onto solid acrylic body. Tuners are branded AXL, they are typical Grover types.

It sounds just great. If you like a strat sound but hate the single coil hum, this is one to look at. The pickups TOTALLY cancel the hum. I've tried playing another strat through the same amp and even with the same lead and it's noisy as hell compared to this baby! I play through a Kustom acoustic amp and it sounds sweet. (I have a thing about acoustic amps - nothing reproduces those clean sounds SO clean!)

I usually play on either the neck pickup or the bridge pickup. The other settings hold no interest for me.

I find that, due to the denseness of the body (this sucker is HEAVY), that it sustains pretty well.

This guitar was set up by the shop I bought it from, although I had to tweak the truss rod - just a little - due to an irritating string buzz. It's just fine now. The action - even though I raised it a little - is still satisfyingly low and easy to play. Barre chords are not a problem on this guitar!

This guitar is not only beautiful to look at but it's flawless to boot. Not a bubble nor a blemish in the acrylic and for this price, I'm amazed! With the ice clear body and the sparkly red scatchplate, this thing screams Glam Rock! It's gorgeous. Everything was fitted and functions perfectly.

I am totally impressed by the rosewood fingerboard. I have never seen such a perfect piece of rosewood! No pitting or deep grain gaps as you usually get with rosewood and it has been polished and finished to perfection. The back of the neck also was highly polished and finished - all in all, front and back, this neck is made for speed.

I can't see this guitar breaking unless you wallop it with a sledgehammer - and even then, my money's on the guitar. I suppose the one drawback of this instrument is it's weight. It's really, REALLY heavy (as you'd expect with dense acrylic) but if you've ever played a Les Paul or a bass (as I have on both counts) you don't notice it so much and sitting down, you don't notice the weight at all! Standing up and with a strap on, it's very well balanced so the weight becomes less of a problem.

It seems fitted and finished well in all categories but I'd never play live without a backup - I mean, you never know when a string's going to break.

Strap buttons were fine but I swapped them out for Dunlop Straploks. Trust me, you DO NOT want this thing slipping a strap button and landing on your foot!

No idea. Don't even know where to contact them! But the shop's there for me so I'll give it a 7 because I haven't had to use it.

When I saw this, I knew I just had to have it. It's the sort of guitar that makes people stop and stare and I'm enough of an exhibitionist to enjoy that. It doesn't hurt that it sounds great (love the noisless pickups) and has an incredibly well finished neck, front and back.

It'd be nice if it wasn't SO heavy, but you can't have everything. When you buy an acrylic guitar, this is what you have to expect and I've gotten used to it now anyway.

Strat-style guitar with eye-catching plexiglass body and red sparkle translucent scratch plate. Very rock 'n' roll. Also very heavy indeed, but (a) I'm a bass player and used to heavy guitars, and (b) the balance of this guitar on a strap is so good, I've played it for three hours at a stretch and not noticed the weight. It looks and feels great.

Nicely figured maple satin-finish skunk-stripe neck with rosewood fretboard and slightly pointy head. Two string guides which I had to remove to get the tremolo arm to work without putting everythng out of tune. I'll replace them with Tele "bar" style ones. Nice feel and very good action. Nice tuners, nothing special but with very positive action.

Standard strat-type hardware and pickup switching. Three EMG pickups, 5-way switch, volume and two tone controls. All hardware chrome-plated.

Very versatile. The EMG pickups have a curious but pleasant "bell-like" tone, very different from anything else I've heard. Good variety of tones available with the pickup selector, and the range of the tone controls is not excessive, unlike some instruments. Picks up hum like any single-coils, but otherwise very quiet.

Sounds great with standard amp / effect combinations, excellent natural sustain, probably due to the dense plexiglass body.

Came well set-up by the shop, but I set it up again to get a 'floating' tremolo. Had to remove the string guides to get it to work (see above). Excellent general finish to neck and fretboard.

Pickups set low but with good treble / bass balance.

One curiosity is the bridge saddles. To get this properly intonated, I had to take the saddles right hard back and in a straight line, not the usual positions at all. Maybe this is something to do with the plexiglass body, I don't know. The trouble is, with the saddles set so far back, it becomes almost impossible to feed the strings through the bridge, and they get pinched in the saddles.

The plexiglass body is carefully routed for the electrics and all screw holes are properly tapped - you can see how well everything is fitted.

Tough as nails and well-built - a good fighting guitar for self-defence at difficult venues. All fittings solid, and finish will wear, but nicely.

After two months, I realised that the selector switch was faulty, leaving all three pickups active in three positions. It was easy to replace, and the suppliers agreed to send me a replacement switch without quibble. Pity that this happened from new, though.

As it happens,I have gigged with it without a backup, but this would not be my normal practice.

Has to lose points for the faulty switch and irritating string trees.

No idea about AXL support, but the shop guys were great. Lifetime warranty from City Music. Marks for City, not AXL.

I saw this in the shop and had to have it - it looks so great. When I found out the price I was gobsmacked and didn't hesitate. The weight isn't a problem when playing, but it's heavy to carry. If it were stolen or lost, I'd have to track down a replacement. I have a small, working collection and it stands out among the others. Other guitarists laugh but admire it. It's the only one I've seen.

I wish the hardware were of higher quality, but for the money, it's incredible. I love the sound of the pickups, very different.