Product: Antoria Rock Star
Price Paid: 100 (pounds sterling) used
Submitted
04/18/2005
at
03:06am
by
BBone
Features
:
8
1980s Gibson ES335 semiacoustic copy made in Korea, two passive humbuckers, Tune-O-Matic stoptail bridge, gold plated hardware, unbranded tuners. Gloss transparent finish over nicely bookmatched honey-coloured wood ( one crack in the veneer ), triple bound all the way round, gloss finish on neck, 20 frets, rosewood fretboard. Also has a centre block of mahogany through the body, which adds to the weight- not a light guitar by any standards. Came with a fitted hardcase, strap, cable and a Boss MT2.
Sound
:
10
Lovely rich and full-sounding, even unplugged. Plugged in, ever-so-slightly dirty tones from the humbuckers, especially on the bridge, and it sustains for ages thanks to the mahogany. I'm using it through a VAmp2 into a Grampian 743 50w power amp and a Marshall 1x12 cab. It's mainly on the JC120 emulation, with a Digitech Bad Monkey for overdrive. I don't have a style, I play whatever suits the music I'm writing, but it suits me very well indeed.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
8
Low light action, perfectly straight neck. The gold plating is wearing off the hardware, but you'd expect so after twenty years. The veneer on the upper body has a semicircular crack in it above the bridge pickup; when I bought it the bridge pickup had been forced down into the cavity when the previous owner had thrown it across the stage at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, so I had to have an extensive repair and setup done (which included a new scratchplate and trussrod cover). Top marks to the luthier at Vintage Guitars in Bath. Taking all this into consideration, I'd say that it is extremely well-built and hardwearing, and will probably last for at least another twenty years. It's going to have to, as I have no intention of ever selling.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
It stood up to live playing for six years before I bought it; were I ever to do a live gig, I know I could depend on it
Customer Support
:
10
Antoria disappeared years ago, my customer support comes from my local luthier. He gets a 10.
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
I've been playing for about four years, and I'm still crap ;?) If this was stolen I'd be straight on the net looking for another; it's the only one I've ever seen which doesn't have a paint job of some kind.
