Product: Abilene AS-10-SB
Price Paid: USD 65 USED
Submitted
08/17/2007
at
07:25pm
by
john
Features
:
7
Strat-style body with non-rounded head. Tobacco sunburst, dark maplewood fretboard slightly lighter walnut neck finish, 21 frets, 3 Pickups, 5 way selector, 1 volume, 2 tone knobs, screw in tremelo, probably made in Indonesia or SE Asia; made by Samick. Chrome tune knobs are more angled than a strat.
With the Longhorn Abilene logo and tobacco sunburst it makes for a perfect guitar down at the ranch.
Sound
:
8
Believe it or not this little guitar has a nice tone, in my opinion. I picked it up out of curiosity at a local pawn shop and, just goofying around, played it through the clean channel of an average amp. I decided to buy it and now play it through a Crate VC 508 tube amp (modded out slightly). The playability is also good! The bass is not quite there but these strings that came with it are somewhat light.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
9
The action is pretty good! I got a little fret buzz which adjusting the truss rod a half turn cured. I like the finish on this thing, which is what immediately drew my eye to it (and the cheap price tag). One of the frets has a slight gap on the 1st string side where the string can get stuck if you bend it the wrong way (glue or new fret could fix this). The selector in the no.2 and 3. mode can be a little scratching. These are the only two issues.
Apparently, some other Abilene models were not wired to use the 2nd tone control knob and all modes of the 5 position selector, but mine is.
Reliability/Durability
:
7
Good finish that has lasted so far probably 8 years Im guessing. It appear to be built solidly.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Im sure if I ever tried to get support it would be non-existent or not too good.
Overall Rating
:
8
For the budget, this is a good guitar to have in my opinion. I really don't care about brand names or looks. This particular finish I just happened to like, as well as the action and tone. Personally, I never cared much for all of the strat copies and Squires floating around out there by the millions, but I did like this one.
Without a doubt it could be better quality (and correspondingly expensive). At the same time one could update some of the features if so compelled. I think these pickups do the job as is. Overall it would be hard not to give it a 7 or 8.
