Austin AU786

Les Paul Standard copy, the guitar came with a gig bag.

Pickups arent that good. I play blues, I had to replace the nut because the strings were buzzing, I had to tighten the truss rod to straighten the neck, then I reset the string height from the bridge and reset the intonation by adjusting the length of the string saddles. After that I reset the height of the pickups. The guitar now is set up for 11 or 12 gauge strings. Sounds great when its not plugged in. Mine is made in Korea and its several years old.

The bridge was put on backwards at the factory but doesnt affect anything. I set up the guitar from scratch and now the action is low and it plays very well. The sound through an amp is a bit dull muddy and harsh compared to my real Gibson Les Paul Standard.

Looks solid.

For 200 bucks its a good deal. I bought it because I live in a neighborhood where you just dont walk around with $2,000 Fenders or Gibsons. So now I have something I can play and take outside my apartment.

sounds dull and muted, it seems like the wood isnt doing anything and its just the string vibrating, it is a little better in an amp but its still a poor quality guitar

looks pretty but thats only the visible part of the wood the rest is basswood so its kinda a "fake pretty", basswood is what it is made of and that is a very poor quality wood

sold it within 3 days, idk.

i havent delt with the company so i dont know

it was my first guitar and i wish i had spent a little more money and gotten a better one. my friend suggested a G&L tribute series but i thought that this was better(i didnt really compare them) those g&l tribute series are the best deal out there so get one of those! dont get this guitar!!!!

a very nice les paul copy with a more pointy bottom cutaway. looks much like an esp ltd ec400 a $600 guitar and at half the cost!nice arch top good finish mines a quilted sunburst

Have had a mexican telecaster,an epipone les paul,and some ibanez. for the money this is the best!was a rental return for $145. plays exalent. no fretbuzz as with my lespaul good intonation.

action was set pretty good i lowerd it a bitand adjusted the pickups{dont know what the last person did to it if anything}finish is good like the gold hardware.build solid.

have only had it half a year. had to resolder a wire on a pickup {had a cold solder from the factory} other than that no problems at all.

got it slightly used store gave a 30 warrenty.they do carry these new.dont know what the warrenty is on a new on.

overall i love this axe plays, sounds great, even at the new cost$275 it would be very hard to beat!an epiphone will set you backat least $500 new and an esp with the same bodyeven more! for myself id defenatly get another if lost or stolen.

I own 3 of these, all 2005 models, all made in Indonesia. 2 are wine red, 1 is a quilted tobacco sunburst. They are solid mahogany and maple, with set necks, and the quilted top is real, not a photo. They have the standard Les Paul set up, and the fit and finish is excellent. The bodies and necks are bound. The necks have jumbo frets, nicely surfaced and properly finished inside the binding. These guitars have gold metal hardware against black and white accents. All were purchased from different sources, and supplied equipment varied, one had tools and a cord, one had tools and a gig bag, and one had just a gig bag.

My music is influenced by many different styles, genres, and sources. Put blues, jazz, funk, heavy metal, afro-cuban, and classic rock in a blender and that is what I play. I play through a digitech RP80 with two early model Peavey Rage 158 transtube amplifiers for stereo when I want a wide range of effects. When I want to get basic, I play through an early model Peavey Audition 110 transtube amplifier, using a Crybaby wah-wah and occasionally an Arion Metal Master distortion, but for overdrive and sustain, not really for distortion. These guitars have a very clean, warm, fat sound and the pickups easily overdrive the amplifiers without feedback or odd harmonics. The wine red guitars have more bass resonance than the quilted top, and the quilted top has edgier high frequency response than wine red guitars do. These guitars do it all, I can make them cry, scream, get nasty, or deliver bell tones with little effort. They are very heavy, however, and for long term playing, I recommend a quality padded strap with a positive latching system or strap locks.

Of the three guitars, one came set-up perfect out of the box; one needed two slight pickup adjustments; and one needed pickup and bridge adjustments. However, these were not major adjustments, and the maximum set-up time was about 20 minutes. As I said before, the fit and finish on the guitars is excellent. I have been playing guitar and bass since 1986 and I have owned Hondos, Fenders, Squiers, Arias, Epiphones, and Johnsons.This is the first brand and model that I ever bought three of to own at the same time. Normally, I will play 10 of the same model of guitar and only find 1 that I like, because the quality varies so much. That hasn't been the case with the AU786s.

A high quality instrument for the price.

Tried to get one in black, but couldn't. I had to learn to ask where the guitar was made before buying it. Austin buys guitars made to their specifications from certain factories in Asia, including those in China, Korea, and Indonesia. I prefer the Indonesian made guitars, I have owned 2 Chinese Austins, and they were nice, but not as nice the Indonesians. I didn't get warranty information with any of the guitars, but I have an Austin dealer within walking distance of my house who offered to set-up my guitars for free when I got them, but I do my own set-ups.

I have been playing for 20 years. I have 7 electric guitars, 1 bass, 1 12 string acoustic, a keyboard, a four track, 4 amplifiers, various effects, and various software for generating and recording music. The only thing I wish I had known before I bought these guitars was how soon they would be updating the product line. I may have waited to buy the 2006 models, because they are double bound and have cool inlays. As pretty as mine are, the new ones are prettier, but they still sound the same. If someone stole my guitars, I would replace them with the new models if I got what I paid for them from the insurance company. If they gave me list price for them, however, I would buy 1 Les Paul Custom. The $660 I paid for my three AU786s doesn't even get me into a low end Les Paul Standard. I compared the AU786 to a real Les Paul for reference, and found it to be spot on. I compared it to the Epiphone, Samick, Arbor, Squier, and Johnson Les Paul copies and found them to be inferior to the AU786 either in sound, overall finish, or both. This guitar is one of the best values on the market today, and it has the features and quality feel you expect of guitars in the $750 to $1000 dollar range. Indonesian craftsmanship has come a long way in the last decade.

Les Paul Clone, 2volume and tone controls, SET NECK, nice cherry burst finish, gold hardware, ash top and body , I beleive.

Don't know the maker of the PUs but these things sound good, not great as PAF 59's but good enough. great sustain.I played this thing beside my real LP with 59's, ofcourse the 59's sound better but these things hold their own. Hell, what I paid for the 59's is the cost of this guitar. To me this thing competes with the Epi LP100 and smokes it all over the place in tone not to mention other things discussed below. Because of the price I give it a 10. If I was being absolute giving no breaks a 8.5

What ever the body's wood is there are only 2 boards, my Epi LP has 3.
The top is Ash my Epi LP is alder. This has a SET NECK the Epi 100 has a bolt on. Absoultly positively NO FRET BUZZ even with my heavy hand. Inotation is spot on. The only issue is a surface scratch on the back that won't rub out, very minor. The store I bought it from set it up so that may have something to do with how it plays. There is a .11 string set that did not come with the guitar. Tuners are sealed type

tuners turn smooth and the strings stay in tune, the guitar is not heavy and strap buttons look like they will hold, This thing is as depedable as my EPI LP with the after I changed out Epi's electronics.
No scratchy volume or tone, switch is solid, body and binding seem solid.
I would gig with it but with a backup as always.

5 year warranty but I have not dealt with them. As with any guitar you buy, IMHO, don't count on support being the best and I don't care what brand you have. My Epi LP electrics bought lunch 5 days after purchase.
It took Epi 3 weeks to replace the parts, timely service huh?

This guitar's features, set neck, cherry burst, sealed tuners, all the standard LP parts, and great tone set it apart from the middle end of the Epi line. If you are looking for an LP to knock around with look no further. Even if you don't like the sound they can be replaced as most Epi buyers do.It amazes me how little a guitar can cost if its a no name brand with sound, play, look, better construction to boot

Basic Les-Paul setup. You know the drill.

This guitar sounds like a Les Paul should. Thick and dark, with a suprisingly good amount of sustain for a bolt-on guitar. The stock pickups sounded all right, but I replaced them with Duncans (Duncan Distortion in the bridge and a '59 in the neck position). Basically this swap increased the output and didn't do too much else, so it still has a bit of a sterile sound but it squeals well enough for my liking. It's certainly better than any Epiphone I've ever played. Honestly, if you don't have loads of cash to drop on a Gibson, I believe this is the next best thing. I've owned a Gibson LP in the past, and despite what others will tell you this thing is not too far off.

The paint job looks sharp. Mine is a cherry-burst finish. I've heard it is celluloid or something of that nature, so it may not last terribly long. I've had it for about 2 years now and it still looks brand new, however. The action is very good, quite low. I prefer the action on this guitar to the setup on my old LP, believe it or not.

No complaints here. It's a cheap guitar, so if you knock it around it will probably break. Take good care of it and you'll do fine.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing a little over six years. Comparing this thing to the Gibson Les Paul Special I used to own, there's really not that much of a drop-off if you swap the pickups. The Gibson model was warmer and just a tad fatter, but was actually less reliable than this guitar has been. With a quality set of pickups, this guitar easily overtakes any other Les Paul copy that I've played.

The Guitar is an Austin Vintage Rock, bolt on neck, LP style guitar. This is an import, and has a "Made In Indonesia" sticker on the back of the headstock. The guitar has 22 frets. There are 4 control knobs and a three way switch. The body is mahogony, the neck maple.

The guitar sounds like a LP. The pickups are OK, don't know what brand.

The guitar had problems in manufacture from the git go. The top left screw to bolt on the neck was stripped out. There was a gap that you could see light through between the neck and body beneath the screw. The gap wasn't from the screw being stripped but because too much wood had been sanded off the neck there when it was made and it wouldn't lay flat on the body.
The first fret was lower than the others, because too much wood had been sanded off the top end of the fingerboard when it was made. So there was buzzing, especially on the b string, when fretted on the first fret, because it buzzed on the second fret. This was a new guitar, not used.

The paint finish on the guitar looks good. The hardware has a good chrome finish.

Check the guitar out very closely. It is low priced but the quality you want may not be there.

The guitar is an black finish Austin AU766 Vintage Rock guitar. It is made in Indonesia. The guitar has 2 humbucking pickups, 2 tone and 2 volume controls with a 3 way selector for treble, rhythm, or both. The bridge is a tune-o-matic style. It has a bolt on neck, like a stratocaster, with 22 frets and is 18 1/4 inches from the nut to the 22nd fret, the scale is 24 3/4 inches from the nut to the bridge. The guitar came with a cable and allen wrench for neck rod adustment.

The guitar has the loud series humbucking sound, with a high output volume and full warm tone. Humbucking pickups don't have the clear high tones that a strat with single coil pickups would have. My practice amp is a fender frontman 15R. The guitar works well with it. I would like to have clearer highs, but would probably have to go to a different bridge pickup to get it. In the meantime I lowered the pickups from the factory setting some to suit my preferences.

The guitar came with a good setup. The neck, string height, and pickup height all were adjusted right. The finish on the guitar is excellent and there are no flaws of any kind. I coudn't see any flaws in the fretwork, sighting doen the neck the are all the same height and don't hace any uneven or rough ends, better than an Epiphone Special II I had looked at. All the electronics work well with no noisy pots or switches.

Everything on this guitar looks like it is good quality. It has a beautifull finish, with Chrome hardware. It seems to be holding tune well.

The guitar is marketed by ST. Louis Music Co. who also make Crate Amps and the Alvarez guitar line.

The guitar seems to be one of the best values out there for a "Les Paul" style guitar. It is priced between the Epihone special (made in China) and the epiphone les paul 100. The AU 766 has an arch top , pickguard, bound neck and body and pickup covers. Neither of the Epiphones have arch tops, pickup covers or binding. The special has no pick guard and only 2 control knobs. To get an epiphone that has all of these features gets into the $400 price range where the Au766 was under $200.

It's already been stated, look at the submissions before mine. I don't really like the whole bolt on thing, but o well, it's a great guitar anyways.

Very full, very good sound, especially through my set up (see below)

Very good, especially for the price.

My toggle switch got broken off, but it was in a gig bag and get dropped from the back of the van. it's a solid rock. I use it all the time in shows, i only have backups for different tunings, or some other unique qualities. The strings need to be stretched a little at first, but the they're good to go.

I play mostly rock/punk/emo, and this guitar rules. i've been playing for 5 years, and i've owned 1 other austin, thats what made me think of this, i've also owned/ played gibsons, fenders, schecters, and even 1 PRS. My set up is a Fender FM 212R, a MXR Super Comp, Ibanez TS9 reissue, DOD Ice Box Stereo Chorus, Arion Stereo Phaser, and a custom distortion pedal i had built for me. I would definately buy it again, or kill whoever stole it. The thing i love the most about this guitar is that it's very mid crunchy usually with my setup. Its very low action.

Features: Well this guitar was made in Korea or some other such country. 22 perfectly spaced frets with spacers all smooth and almost un-noticable. Controlls are the same as your normal Gibson or Epi LP. Pickups include two semi-decent humbucker pickups, dunno what the manufacturer of the pickups is. Neck is unfinished rosewood with a finished neck, but a nicely finished neck. Not finished to the point where the neck becomes sticky and you can't slide or change chords with ease. The finish is beautiful, much nicer than most Epi's and quite a few Gibsons too with a classical sunburst that catches your eye. The one i got is in an LP shape but you can get SG shapes as well. Bridge, well it's like a Gibson bridge so it's good for long hours of play time and for live gigs. Tuners are non-locking but mine stay in tune for weeks at a time (and that's with me playing almost 24/7). Neck is nice a thin, but not too thin. Anyone can play it even those beginners who are 8 yrs. old. Mine came with a nice hard case.

The sound straight out of the box is very impressive for a guitar of such a low price, but i replaced mine with EMG almost straight away because i love my Zakk Wylde, BLS, and Black Sabbath music. You can also play things like Metallica, but let's face it, you can play Metallica on any guitar and it sounds decent. You can keep the pickups if you like blues, jazz, or even rock if you get a decent amp but for metal i would recommend changing at least one pickup (neck pickup) for those all important pick harmonics and fast, high solos. It sounds good on all of the settings for volume, tone and such and it can go from warm middles to not so warm middles. I think that the sound would be good for something like blues, jazz, country, basic poppy chord changing songs and even grunge, but for that kick into the metal sound, get some higher output pick ups.

I have been waiting for this part of the review. This and this alone is what caught my eye and playing hand and dragged them oh so willingly towards this guitar. I had the choice of either getting a Gibson SG or LP, classic or new, a Fender Strat, or an Ibanez, and then my i saw this beauty. Normally people look at guitars straight on to see if they look nice to them but when you get down to it, if you have a nice looking guitar that has horrible action, you will look good but sound like a fool. So whenever i see a guitar i think i might like, before i even pick it up, i go around to the side and look at the action all up and down the neck. This action is as good as i have ever seen, and i have played many many guitars. I do not know if this was in its factory set up but it played like a dream. I plugged it in after i warmed up with it for 15min and its sound was impressive as well. I was going to spend up to $1350 for a Gibson SG but with this baby i was getting a better set up and sweeter playing guitar, and getting the pickups i really wanted. Oh yea. This is the deal of a life time for a guitarist who likes to get a custom set up guitar and his favorite pickups without having to pay $1000 extra for $300 worth of work. All of everything was perfect; from the tuners to the bridge to the plugin for the chord, nothing was loose, misaligned, rattling, shaking, or catching. This was the perfect set up for a guitar. If Gibson set up their guitars this well then they would put Fender out of buisiness, yea it was THAT good.

I have only had this guitar for 5 months but i have recently been recruited by a new band and their guitarist playes an Austin as well. He has had it for 4 years and has had only 1 problem with it. It was a simple thing that was a DIY really. One of the strap buttons on the guitar came lose and all he had to do was tighten it with a philips screw driver. No biggie. We have since played almost a gig a weekend and we never even have to bring a back up. We do sometimes bring another guitar if we use different tunings but that has nothing to do with the guitar.

N/A
Never had to use and doubt if i ever will, it's that good of a guitar.

I have been playing for 2 years now and am self taught. I can play anything you ask me to, from Zakk Wylde to Yngwie Malmsteen and i can play it all on this awesome guitar. I own a Fender Tele '62 also. I purchased that guitar before i bought this guitar and have not picked up my fender since i bought this baby other than to dust it. I have had offers for this guitar ranging from $600 to Gibson SGs because everyone who plays this guitar loves it. I have made 5 converts from Fender and Gibson to Austin in my 5 months of playing it. The only thing i wish it would come with is 2 EMG humbucking pickups. My recommendation: BUT THIS GUITAR. I wouldn't dream of ever buying another guitar unless this got stolen or broken, and if i ever found who stole this guitar they wouldn't be very happy with my lonely playing hands.