Blade Guitars Strat Copy

My Blade is an early model, 85-90ish, with the pointy non-strat headstock. As most other reviewers have said, it only states "Switzerland" on the guitar itself, though the manufacture appears to be Japanese. Generally, it's said that they were built by Ibanez (Hoshino), but I read on Ed Roman's "ghostbuilding" page that they were made by Tamura (a classical guitar builder). Anyway, it's certainly Japanese, made of Japanese Sen Ash (highly figured), with a bolt-on, 22-fret maple neck. The neck is incredible - thin, but with a tiny bit of a V shape. The previous owner had sanded or steel-wooled the neck, but I'll get to that later. The frets appear to be medium-jumbo, but everything looks big compared to the worn-down lil' frets on my 74 strat.

Same as other entries here, the Blade has a 5-way selector, and the active preamp. The preamp, which has a passive/off position, a treb/bass boost, and alternately a gain/mid boost. Both "on" settings are very powerful, and can be adjusted with 3 little trim pots near the battery compartment (conveniently located in a specialized rout in the body).

The pickups are standard noiseless Levinson single coils, which sound nice, but don't touch the spankiness or clarity of a real Fender pickup. ***I had my Blade modified with a Seymour Duncan SH-10 Full Shred and a push-pull coil tap in the tone pot.

The bridge is the custom (Blade-only?) Falcon trem, with two trem blocks which allow the assembly to rest on the body, but still allow upward whammy action. The tremolo arm itself is beautifully machined, all steel, with a wide tapering tip (like a baseball bat).

Complimenting the Falcon trem are Sperzel locking machines, in champagne gold, a graphite-looking nut, and an adjustable string tree for the E and B.

The truss rod adjusts like a MusicMan, except with a small screw-off cover hiding the wheel itself.

The body is finished with a heavy translucent lacquer, emphasizing the crazy grain of the Sen Ash. A couple of chips were taken out by the previous owner, but I expect such things in used guitars.

The sound ranges from spanky-ish Fender tones to something like an Ibanez. I can't say Gibson because of the scale/neck/bodywood, but the heavy tones I pull out of this unassuming guitar are pretty amazing. I play everything from Tom Waitsy folk to Death Metal, with a healthy dose of jazzy reggae thrown in. The blade's many options allow me to tailor a sound to my needs. The addition of effects makes the number of choices staggering.

The 5-way, plus the active preamp, plus my aftermarket coil-tap gives me something like 23 different tone options at my fingertips. This can get a little confusing, especially if you want one or two specific sounds, but I'm sure a better guitarist and more attentive musician would be able to adapt themselves to the system.

Many people have said that the preamp doesn't sound very good distorted, but I found that the mid/gain boost setting gave me nearly the same effect as an overdrive pedal, and the treb/bass boost can really beef up a sound. Now, I'm playing through a Mesa which has happy tones on almost every number on the dial, so this could affect how the guitar will perform.

I bought this used and set it up myself (and had my guitar tech at L&M work on it a little) with DR tite-fit 11-50. For a 15-20 year old guitar, the thing plays like a gem. It feels tight and responsive, and not at all lacking or dated.

Some people have claimed single-piece ash bodies, but I'm under the impression that that is rarely the case, as a single ash tree doesn't grow large enough to make a body. Even high-end Telecaster reissues have clear join lines, as does my Blade. It appears to be a 2-piece body. The neck is one-piece with a skunk stripe (walnut?) down the back.

Now, the previous owner had sanded/steel wool'd down the back of the neck, and the resulting lack of finish allowed a greyish stain all to permeate the back of the neck. I sanded it a little further, and applied some Tung oil. I might get it refinished by someone in the know, as the insanely variable humidity in Toronto makes the skunk stripe more prominent some days.

All that said, the neck feels freaking amazing, and everyone who's picked it up has commented on that fact. It's fast and smooth, and feels thin even though it does have some girth.

This thing is a tank. I've yet to break a single string, and I whammy to the extent that the trem will allow nearly every jam. I don't have very acidic sweat, so the hardware will last quite a while, and the finish is thick as a whale omlette, so other than the pre-existing nicks, I'm not worried at all.

I screwed my strap under the strap button because it's a vintage suede belt and I was worried about it tearing if I cut it.

I can depend on this guitar, and would gig without a backup, especially since the Sperzels make restringing so darn fast.

I emailed Levinson shortly after purchasing the guitar, and received a helpful reply nearly immediately. They couldn't date my guitar by serial number, but offered to help if I sent pictures. I haven't gotten around to doing that yet, but maybe someday!

Their website has little info about the old models, but the VSC settings for the preamp appear to be exactly the same for the current models.

I work in music retail, and have experience with some EXCELLENT and some PISS-POOR customer service. Levinson is said to be great, and my limited experience with them agrees.

This guitar is a LOT of fun to play. It's got oodles of features and sounds, and is insanely reliable. A little heavy, but full of tone, the BLADE will be my main axe for jamming and gigging.. as I rarely bust out the old strat for fear of drunken breakage.

On top of everything, the guitar looks REALLY attractive. It looks like a custom instrument, and I get a lot of comments on that.

Year: 1991
Made: It sez Switzerland
Strat copy to the bone, with the exception of the electronics. Wilkerson roller bridge and trem. Boy is fairly light, maybe alder.
Active Levinson design electronics (SSS), very quiet with tonal micro adjustments for a variety of sounds, from twang to fusion to smokey jazz archtop.
Rosewood fretboard with smaller than normal position markers, beautiful action, feels like a Gibson or Tele string spacing rather than a funky Strat action (I've never liked a Fender Strat action). thin neck, quick.
Locking Spertzals

Hardshell rectangular case

Lots of sounds, chickhen pickin', twang city, to archtop to standard strat, the pickups have micro adjusters. Great for studio situations when a bevy of guitars are needed, this reduces the luggage hauling considerably.

I love it. It's the best "strat" I've ever played. If the electronics ever die, I'll throw a dimarrzio plate in or something, the action, playability and balance are SUPERB!

Typical Leo Fender philosphy, it's a slab with bolt on's. The parts are all high quality, Spertzals, Wilkerson roller bridge, all nicely done up. Graphit nut, Black and Chrome.

This baby has been around a bit. Not being too familiar with active systems in 1991, I was leary, but this one has stood the test of time and still functions flawlessly. No problems, just typical tune-ups and adjustments.

I put strap locks on it. But have gotten away from those over the years, now I just use rubber washers of the strap and leave straps in place, but this one still has the strap locks.

Never needed it. I did notice that the headstocks are now un-Fender like. But this one is a direct rip, who cares? I guess Fender does. Too bad they can't match the quality and price of the Blade.

I've been playing probably 40+ years. I have several workhorse guitars. The Blade, a Tele, a Les Paul, a ES-175 and my trusty Fender Jazz Fretless which I've had for a long time. An Ibanez acoustic and an old Tama Classical.

I've had guitars stolen, I've lost a Martin, a 57 Les Paul (that was pretty well beat, but it was a '57 nonetheless, a Dan Armstrong resin body and a Fender P, all in one fell swoop. Luckily I had insurance, as all players should have.

If the Blade was stolen, I would probably find another, but it would have to be the Fender headstock and not the newer one.

I couldn't beat the price and at the time, with the exception of Tele's and Basses, I could care less about strats, but this one is a cut above. A custom strat, without the custom price. I got a deal on the price, I'm not sure Russ new what he had on the shelf, as they were relively new, but I have seen them at substancially higher prices. I don't know if I would pay the big MSRP for a replacement, I would probably just buy some kit and slap one together myself.

I believe it was made in 1992 or so. It's considered one of the early Blades, not at all like those made today. I believe it was distributed in the U.S. by Rocktron. I was told that it was made in Japan but I can't verify this because the guitar does not list its manufacture origin. The body seems slightly smaller than that on a standard Fender American Strat. The maple neck is rather thin compared to standard Fender necks I'm used to. Pickups are passive but have active electronics that can be kicked in with a 3 way switch. The built-in pre-amp is nice sounding and doesn't have a bad sound to it despite being solid state. The guitar is beautifully made with a lot of attention to detail. Paint job is better than what I see on most Fender guitars in my opinion. Switch is standard five-way. Pickups are Levinson although I replaced them with Lindy Fralin High Outputs which in my opinion sound better.

This guitar plays extremely well but you have to like a thin neck. Over the years I've changed my mind in this department several times. Years ago I liked thin necks because they seemed to play faster. However, I now tend to like thick necks because they seem to enhance the lower frequencies and give a thicker tone.

Consequently, this guitar is very bright in my opinion. Not a bad quality, if that is what you want. With the original Levinson pickups, I found myself often rolling the high end off with the tone control. This would let me dial in a good balanced tone. With most guitars that I own, I usually leave the tone control wide open, while on the Levinson I often adjusted the tone darker and more to my liking. This is important to remember if the tone of this guitar is not immediately to your liking when you first plug in. Unliek other guitars, you may need to adjust the tone control.

Eventually I replaced the original pickups with Lindy Fralin High Output pickups. With this guitar the Fralins gave the correct amount of high frequency rolloff while compressing the tone a little bit more. Fralins also made the guitar sound alot smoother. The original Levinson pickups were really no worse than Fender's best Strat pickups in my opinion, although the Fralins to me sound clearly better.

Action is great. Playability is as good as the best Fender Strats that I've owned. The neck is thin and therefore may not be for everybody. Build quality is extremely good, perhaps even better than Fender. This particular guitar listed for around $1,200 when I bought it and was positioned in the market as a high priced high end premium alternative to Fender. Levinson at the time deliberately put in a lot of quality into these guitars.

The guitar is very dependable with the exception of the switch. I think contact cleaner would easliy remedy the problem.

I never had to have the guitar repaired. I've played it extensively over the last ten years and it has held up nicely.

I've always liked solid maple necked stats and as a result have a small collection of them. This guitar is not my favorite although it covers some territory my other stats don't. To me it sounds more modern than than vintage. Overall I tend to play my other strats more although this guitar is still a keeper. If it got stolen, I probably would not replace it.

Year of Manufacture is unknown! Enquires to Blade resulted in Gary Levinson being unable to provide any documentation for this specific (Strat - Style) guitar. Purchased in Toronto, Ontario Canada in 1992? Have to check receipt. I will not repeat the hardware specifics. (See excellent previous review by anonymous I have the early model, (string tree) with a purple translucent finish, gold hardware, maple neck and fretboard. I have not seen another with the maple fretboard. Was last one sold by Long and Mcquade at their Bloor St. location. They had stopped carrying them and I got the last new model priced as a rental.

My style is clean, upbeat vintage blues (I am a beginner)I have a 63 re-issue vibroverb. It doesn't seem to get the fender shimmering sound. It could be lack of knowledge on my part. (See excellent previous review by anonymous)

Action and finish have remained impeccable. This guitar will stay in tune for months if let sitting. Was missing the tremolo bar and it seems it would be very difficult to get a gold bar. I believe locking slot is unique and may be impossible to get a hold of one.

N/A I am a hobby guitar player, liked drums better but couldn't have a set in an apartment.

Gary responded promptly but was unable to even identify the model or provide literature.

1. I was playing a lot from 88-92 and have since had a family and not touched it much. Fender Vibroverb 63 Re-ish, a few pedals.
2. No
3. N/A can't get it again.
4. I love the versatility and playability. I don't like the pick guard, love the trem.
5. Yes, price and style.
6. A different color.
7. Yes if you find one in good shape you should be able to buy it for a song and it will impress honest players.

I have no idea when or where this guitar was made. It has master volume, two tone controls, and a 5-way selector. It has three no name single coil pickups. The neck is one piece maple with maple fret board, The body is made of what looks like cheap ply-wood. It has an awful black finish that looks like it was painted with a brush. It came with a fulcrum bridge that had to be replaced due to excessive rust. It has un-sealed tunners that sometimes stay in tune. The neck has a nice feel to it with medium jumbo frets.

The sound is decent it has a very versitile sound I usually play it clean using the bridge and middle pickups. The bridge pick-up get pretty loud feedback when distorted

The guitar had high action but was shimmed so it is low now the pickups were good with no adjustment, the hardware was rusted pretty bad and the finish just sucks

I think it is now a fairly reliable guitar but I would never use any guitar without a back-up(this guitar would probably be the backup)
Unfortunatly I think the finish will last forever

This is the first Blade guitar I have ever owned so I have no customer support

I have been playing for almost five years. I have several strats and a Les Paul so if this guitar happened to be stolen or destroyed I really would not care

*** PLEASE NOTICE that I am not going to give numeric ratings to any category in this review. I spent a lot of time on this review and feel that it speaks for itself without associating a simple 1-10 rating to each category. In my opinion, this type of rating system is inappropriate for guitar and sound equipment reviews. ***
This review is for a Blade "Strat Copy" guitar that was manufactured in the late 1980s or early 1990s. These guitars were designed in Switzerland by an American named Gary Levinson. Their web page is located at http://www.bladeguitars.com
I have written many reviews for Harmony Central and this is a difficult guitar to review because of its features and tone. I will attempt to leave a completely objective review here.
My Blade guitar differs from the current models. The headstock on my guitar is similar to a Suhr or Pensa/Suhr guitar. The earlier Blades also have three three single coil pickups, active electronics, and the blade falcon tremeolo.
I am uncertain where my Blade guitar was manufactured. Based on my research, it appears that the older Blades were either manufactured in Switzerland or Japan (by Hoshino in their high-end manufacturing facility.) There is no evidence anywhere on the guitar to support either claim, although the guitar does have the word "Switzerland" marked in several areas on the guitar. I have read that Gary Levinson was a consultant to at least one Japanese guitar company during the time that this guitar was manufactured, and the guitar's body wood was made from an species of wood that is found in Asia, so I suspect that the guitar was probably manufactured in Japan.
This blade guitar was purchased used at Guitar Center where it was traded in or sold by its original owner. Several salesmen there had extremely favorable comments on the guitar's apperance and sound. The salesman who received the guitar from the original owner said that it was custom ordered and made in Switzerland.
There are many innovative and outstanding features on this guitar and I will describe each feature by grouping areas of the guitar.
Long-range appearance: ----------------------
My blade guitar is a 22 fret bolt-on strat copy guitar. The neck and body are both a deep transparent blue and all hardware is black. The pickguard is a black material that reflects light like a red tinted mirror.
Headstock/tuners/nut: ---------------------
As described previously, the headstock has a similar shape to modern Suhr or an older Pensa/Suhr or Anderson guitar. It is a sleek copy of a Fender headstock with the end rounded area cut away. The headstock does not tilt back from the neck. I feel that the headstock design looks sharp and implies modern performance but isn't like an exaggerated pointy 80s headstock.
This guitar comes equipped from the factory with black Spertzel locking tuners. The early Blade guitars have an adjustable string tee for the B and high E strings. This tee is raised or lowered by a phillips screw on the back on the headstock.
The nut appears to be constructed from graphite. The headstock is also transparent blue and the maple wood grain is visible. The "Blade" logo exists on the bottom edge of the front of the headstock. The truss rod adjustment is located on the opposite end of the fretboard and I will describe this in the next section of this review.
Neck/Fretboard/Inlays/Truss rod: --------------------------------
The neck is constructed from a single piece of maple. The rear is stained blue with a glossy polyurethane finish. The blue stain is darker on both ends of the neck (it becomes lighter near the middle of the neck.)
The neck is extremely fast, comfortable, and accurate. It is relatively slim with a distinct rounded back and a medium width fretboard. The dimensions feel similar to an average Anderson guitar. I have found during my research into Blade guitars that many have commented that the neck is one of the most favored features of these guitars.
The fretboard is made from a thin p

I will first start by describing the guitar's natural unamplified tone. When I identified that the body was ash, I expected the guitar to have a typical swamp ash wood tone: poppy and bright, cut mids, and "airy" sounding. I was surprised to hear that this guitar had a sound that in many ways is different than typical ash.
This guitar has a definite darker mid-range "punch" that is uncommon and very cool. I've noticed the same of punchy mids in higher end guitars with poplar bodies. Maybe the heavier density and tight grain of the sen ash wood contributes to its unique sound.
It is not as bright as swamp ash but has the same type of strong resonance. Additionally, it is not as bright or snappy as alder bodied guitars with maple fretboards and this might be from the Blade's ebony fretboard. However, the Blade does not have a dull, dead, or flat sound. It has a very nice full balanced sound with a smooth and creamy high end, complex mids and bass and good acoustic resonance.
Before I begin describing the amplified tones of this guitar, I should indicate that I have not made any adjustments to the parameters controlling the onboard preamp since purchasing the guitar. My assumption is that the adjustments will fine tune the guitar's inherit tone and not produce radical tone changes.
In any case, it is difficult to fully describe the amplified tone of the guitar because of the diverse tonal possibilities with the 5 position stratocaster pickup configuration and the on-board preamp.
When the preamp is disabled, the guitar sounds like a strong modern Stratocaster. I'd have to say that the output is slightly higher and has more natural muscle than most Stratocasters with single coil pickups. The guitar does a good emulation of a true Stratocaster, but isn't a pure, chimey, or glassy as a Strat with higher quality low output vintage style single coil pickups. The stock pickups on the Blade seem to lack the complexity of a vintage single coil pickup. Without the preamp engaged, the pickups are suitable for any style of music and even have enough output for rock or metal with a high gain amplifier.
There is some slight 60hz hum but I don't really notice it because of the noise gate on my amplifer.
When the volume knob is reduced, the high frequences stay in the signal. The tone knob is effective and works as you would expect.
When the active electronics are engaged, the sound of the instrument is altered dramatically. First, I will describe the sound of the guitar with the cut mids and the boosted bass and treble frequencies.
I *really* like the sound of this guitar in this mid cut mode when playing through a clean setting on an amplifier. It takes much of the muscle and punch away from the pickup's inherit tone and adds a very nice unique (and complex) stratocaster sound that isn't completely available without the active circuit. It is a slightly compressed and juicy expressive clean sound that really sounds exceptional to my ears. I would certainly say without hesitation that it is one of my favorite clean sounds. It sounds amazing on a nice clean amp with some stereo chorus and reverb.
I have found that this setting on a distortion amp channel does not sound very pleasing at all. It sounds as if it dramatically reduces the guitar's output and the signal sounds a little flat. It it interesting to cut into this mode briefly to change the guitar's tonality during a lead, but I would not want to stay there long.
For me, this mid-cut mode is almost exclusively for clean amplifier settings.
Now, the mid boost setting gives this guitar serious balls. It definitely increases the signal output while boosting the mids, giving this guitar output that approaches that of a hot humbucking pickup. The tone still retains some of the single coil qualities (higher frequency dynamics) which gives the guitar a tone which is slightly different from a true humbucker.
This mid-boost circuit is absolutely useful for playing leads or any musical areas where

I am the second owner of my Blade guitar so I can not really comment on how it was set up from the factory.
When I received the guitar, the nut holding the tone pot to the pickguard was loose and I needed to remove the tone knob and tighten the nut. Problem easily solved!
All of the workmanship looks exceptional on this guitar. In all honesty, it easily matches the type of quality you would find on an Anderson or other guitars from the top builders. The neck pocket was extremely tight. The fretwork is very clean and there is no evidence of any fret slots on the sides of the fretboard. The finish is deep and glossy. Top quality woods and materials were used throughout.
The guitar is current set up for Ernie Ball Super Slinky .009 gauge strings. The action is extremely low and clean and the pickups are adjusted appropriately.
I have a great eye for workmanship faults and I can not find one on this guitar.

I am unaware of how the guitar was handled or played while it was used by its previous owner, but it does have a few dings on the face. The ebony fretboard was also extremely dirty and dry so I cleaned it up and oiled it (several times) with fretboard conditioner (the fretboard now looks brand new.) The "Levinson" brand name on the pickups has faded slightly in some areas (probably from contact with the pick.)
The guitar was certainly well built and it feels solid to me. My biggest hesitation with using it live without a backup would be the 9 volt battery powering the onboard preamp. Although the guitar will still work with no power from the battery, the active circuits will obviously not function.
My blade guitar is probably 10 or 11 years old and looks great. There is no oxidation on any metal components. I think it is extremely reliable and deserves high marks in this category.

I have been extremely disappointed with a lack of response from Blade guitars and their American distributer. Before I purchased the guitar, I transmitted several E-Mail questions to Gary Levinson that I sent from his bladeguitars.com web page. After a week without response, I faxed the same inquiry to Levinson Music in Switzerland. I have also E-Mailed Blade's American distributer. I have not received a reply from anyone representing Levinson or Blade guitars. This makes me wonder if they're even still in business.
This lack of response worries me because there are several proprietary components on these older Blade guitars. I sincerely hope that I will be supported or will be able to find replacement parts if I ever need to replace something with the tremolo or the active electronic systems.
I have heard that Gary Levinson is very friendly and typically responsive, so I hope that he is well. I am sure that there is a reasonable explanation for the silence from Blade and Levison.

I have been playing for almost 14 years and have owned several dozen guitars and many amplifiers in this period.
When I found this Blade guitar at Guitar Center, I was unable to bring it home on the same day because of a "police hold" requiring the store to retain the (used) instrument for 1 month after receiving it from someone. I guess that this is done to enable recovery of stolen music instruments or to prevent scams against Guitar Center.
After first seeing and playing the Blade, I put it on layaway to reserve the guitar for me during the police hold period. During this time (nearly 3 weeks), I performed a considerable amount of research on Blade guitars and found that everyone that has commented on the older Blades had very favorable opinions. Because of the waiting period, I was able to make an educated purchase without being impulsive or rushed, and I even used some of the information I discovered as leverage against Guitar Center to reduce the price. I brought the guitar home as soon as it was free to leave the store.
There are many aspects of this guitar that I really appreciate. It plays and sounds fantastic and looks gorgeous. It comes equipped with top quality hardware. There are absolutely no flaws in workmanship or materials. It has been very reliable and feels solid. Finally, it has several innovative features (such as the proprietary tremolo and active electronics circuits) that are functionally very useful.
If I were to make any changes to the design of this guitar, I would:
1) Install a clear pickguard on this guitar. The wood is really too beautiful to be covered by a opaque mirrored pickguard.
2) Add a piezo acoustic pickup system.
3) Invest additional research into the pickup and preamp design. I can easily imagine how cool it would be if it had a four position preamp switch that changed the guitar's tone to the following sounds: A. a true vintage strat, B. true humbucking tone, C. acoustic sound, or D. a unique sound exclusive to Blade guitars.
As it is, the Blade is one of my favorite guitars. If I were a studio musician, I would find that the Blade is close to an ideal working guitar because of its easy playability and versatility. It would also be a wonderful stage instrument for the same reasons.
The guitar really deserves high ranks in all areas. It's not perfect but closer to perfection than nearly all guitars I've owned. It is an innovative and high quality instrument that I plan on owning for a very long time.

I would think the guitar was produced in the 80's. I have seen them around 85 for the first time. 22 fret I believe. looks like solid maple. My guitar has a blue see through finish with a mirror-ish pick gaurd. Solid maple neck with Spezell tuners in gold. 3 single coil pickups with three way mini toggle for active or non switching.5 way switch of course and runs on nine volt. Tweeking of the pickups is done by a 3 way mini screw terminal on the back of the guitar. Great feature man! The battery is also under this same cover. The frets feel the same as my 760 model Ibanez which by the way is my main sqeeze. One volume and one tone are on board...my favourite combo.

I play jazz fusion primarily. This piece is great. Back the tone off and hit the bridge pick up for a cool tone. Treble up and out of phase is funk to the max.Clean is the opporative word here folks. I am an EMG man and these are so similar we better watch for a Swedish law suit. The guitar is Swedish for the curious. I used the guitar for the first time on a gig with Detroit's Charles Green and I was very pleased. Great for funk jazz kids.I work in a music store during the day and have played every guitar you can imagine from vintage to Fly and really think this guitar smokes many others in it's class.

I bought the guitar used and spent an hour tweeking the intonation,action and other fudimentals.A minor pickup adjust was neccessary. The fit and finish are excellent. I have seen this giutar before and found this to be par for the course. The guitar had some wear from use and some pretty good nicks but that is the price for used goods. I will not use the trem so I cannot comment on this feature. I am so used to the Ibanez edge everything pales by comparison. I am also not a big fan of roller saddles but it is a sacrifice to made for the other great features of this swanky axe. Over all the guitar is very well made.

The question of durability is not an issue since I just aquired the piece. It appears it should hold up with care although the electronics are not tested by time yet. Tuning with spezel tuners are a breeze and a good choice for any serious guitarist. Besides they look killer regardless.

My boss will waranty the piece for me but buying used has its perils..I am not worried since a friend of mine bought a blade and still has not lost his lust for it.Since I am also a guitar repairman the issue of service is a low although I have yet to peer under the pickgaurd for a peek at the electronic hardware.

I have been playing for 21 years or so. I am well versed in guitar history and crafting so I guess I was confident in my purchase. I would by almost any Ibanez but this Blade is very exciting and worth a search for. The guitar feels great although you all know how subjective this can be. I would like a locking trem but variety is the spice of life. My favorite feature is the choice of active or not switching. Those kooky Swiss were thinking . I cannot find Blade on the net. Are you guys still making guitars or not? Call me Mr. Levison.