Blade Guitars RH-4 Standard

Guitar was made somewhere in the nineties.
Features with active electronics, three EQ presets, good bridge are good, even a bit more than i normally am looking for.
The locking on the tuners is nice.

The sound is kind of mellow, which suited my style of playing, which was light music. It is very easy to switch between the 3 EQ presets while playing, i like that for a short solo for instance.
It is not a typical stratocaster sound, i wouldn't choose it for rock or blues. But for jazz, funk and lounge music it is great.

I bought the guitar second handed. I didn't find any flaw on this guitar. The playability is superb.

Played it for some time, never had any problem. But i am pretty careful with my guitars.

wouldn't know. never contacted anyone.

I sold the guitar, because i only play acoustic guitars nowadays and found it a waste for such a guitar to stand in the corner collecting dust.
I play over 20 years know (which doesnt mean very much - some years were very active others weren't.)
If i would start playing electric guitar again i would consider buying one again.

This is a follow-on of my previous review.
In the mean time I replaced the "Levinson" neck and middle noiseless pickups with noisy SSL-1 Vintage Staggered Seymour Duncan's. The middle pickup is reverse wound/reverse polarity, meaning that the in between sounds are noiseless. The electronics are not altered apart from that (but I'll remove the active VCS system sometimes... and I'll try to do a proper shielding of the electronics once).

Hello dynamics!!! This guitar has definately come alive by changing the pickups! The SSL-1's sound clear and transparent, the way a Strat should. I've come to appreciate the clean sound of that guitar since I installed the pickups! I recommend anybody with noiseless (dead) pickups to switch to the noisy real thing.
The brigde pickup (humbucker, can be splitted) is still the same, I think it sounds okay and useful, also in combination with the middle pickup.
Something that convinced me even more: A friend of mine who plays a Blade California (also an S-S-HB "advanced" Strat copy) tried my modified guitar, and after playing three chords on his own axe he put it away - totally frustrated with the sound!

The guitar has improved a lot with that pickup modification. Modifying is fun!!! I'll see if I'm sticking to the bridge humbucker...
You can contact me if you have any questions!

I bought the Blade new in 1999 in a small music shop in Switzerland, it came with an SKB case. I think is was manufactured in Japan, however, the company is located in Switzerland.
The RH-4 Standard is a S-S-H Strat-copy with a Strat-shaped headstock. It's basically the cheaper and less decorated version of the RH-4 Classic (www.bladeguitars.com). Sen ash was used for the body, which looks awesome through the transparent-blue finish. All body edges are rounded and make playing ergonomically. The neck wood is hard rock maple with a rosewood fretboard and 22 jumbo frets.
The hardware consists of Magnum (Gotoh?) locking tuners, which I really learned to appreciate, since they keep the guitar in tune and make changing strings so easy. The RH-4 features a Falcon FT-3 tremolo unit, which is an improved vintage strat design with roller saddles. Works fine, although you can't bend notes upwards.
The two single coil pickups are marked "Levinson", it's the name of the founder of Blade Guitars, Gary Levinson. The humbucker is of the same brand, and it can be splitted and used as single coil with the push-pull tone pot. There's only a volume and a single tone pot, but IMO this is enough, who uses the tone pot(s) anyway?
This guitar boasts an active circuitry called VSC. It's a variable booster that can be adjusted by the player (not on stage of course). On the back of the guitar a small black cover allows access to a 9V battery and three micro pots, one for middle, high and low frequency boosting. The VSC is activated by an mini toggle switch located somewhere between the volume control and the 5-way pickup selector. I think I don't have to mention how often I activated it unintentionally ending up in a mid-boosted solo sound for rhythm work... The mini toggle switch is very sensitive, it produces noise by just touching it. No good. Nevertheless, the VSC gives you great versatility, from funky to midboosted at your fingertip.

The pickups don't have very much output, and the tone is quite neutral, IMO they don't sound like a real Stratocaster. Maybe that's part of the "Advanced Concepts" philosopy mentioned on the webpage...
The two single coils in the neck and middle position are noiseless, and they sound as if they were covered with a blanket, somewhat dull and lifeless. Which doesn't have to be a drawback when you're processing your guitar sound with a rack of electronics. Being a purist I like a direct, unprocessed sound... I play roots rock oriented music (Thin Lizzy...) and use a '74 Hiwatt DR-103 Custom 100 through a power soak and an old Sound City 4x12" for dynamic in-your-face power amp distortion (no overdrive pedals). Mostly I use the humbucker in split (=noisy) mode because it sounds clear and "true", and then I boost the signal to push the front end of the amp. The humbucker has not very much output and sounds classic, or should I say "Standard"? I've come to the conclusion, that the pickups have to be replaced. I like the guitar and it plays well, but I have the feeling that the pickups are the week part of it all.

I'm not happy with the string balance of the pickups, the g string is incredibly loud compared to the D string. The bridge coil of the humbucker has adjustable polepieces - the two single coils can't be adjusted.
The neck is of good quality, there are no dead spots, it's totally straight and allows a low action. I highered the action a little bit, because I don't stroke my guitar, I strike it :-) and I don't like the rattling noise.
Since I'm not an expert I don't dare to give it a 10...

I'm glad I spent some money on this fine guitar with quality hardware. One little remark here: The humbucker is only covered by a cloth (?) on the side, and I presume it can be worn off with the years... But so far, no problems at all.

After I just had bought the guitar I asked by email what string gauge they used on the guitar. My email was not answered. But I'm sure it was a .09 set :-).

I'm playing electric guitar now for 5 years after playing classic guitar for another 10 years. I played in different bands, for a couple of musicals, and the guitar was and still is a great value. But, since it's my first and still only electric guitar, I can't compare it to many other guitars. I realized after all that the RH-4 is a very versatile guitar, which covers a lot of styles and purposes really well. It's looking great, has a great playability and is manufactured to high quality standards. It can be the perfect guitar for you - it is'nt the perfect guitar for me: I don't want a guitar that delivers 20 useful sounds , I want a guitar that gives me my trademark sound through my old tube amp. I'm glad I have the Blade RH-4, I learned a lot about guitars and also a lot about my sound preferences from it...