Bluesville Music 2nd Siesta S-Series

This a strat copy with a traditional headstock. Maple neck rosewood fretboard, P-90 pickups. Body is ash, not stained but finished with clear lacquer. Toggle is 3-way for bridge/combo/neck. Pickups are from a Epiphone vintage LPC as spec'd by me. I gave a 10 because it is featured the way I like it. Great package for the price.

Assembled late May of 2008, shipped and arrived early this week.

Suits my style. I play in my living room mainly these days. Carvin X-60 amp, clean without effects. Not noisy at all.

Creamy sound. Not for the quack you'd get with single coils on the same guitar.

After 20 years of classical playing my electric work is finger style... chord melody/melodic blues/classic surf/a bit of Jimmy Page.

Chase, after hearing me describe how I play, gave a medium to low action. All adjustments were quite satisfactory. A couple of days later after the guitar got acclimated to my house, I tightened the truss rod 1/8 turn to remove most of the relief in the neck, and lowered the bridge saddles 1/4 turn. The action is now about 100% correct for me.

Finish is excellent. Fit is correct. No apparent quality problems.

The nut is of some sort of composite/artificial bone material. Correctly shaped and installed. Strings ride "just right".

Volume and Tone knobs turn without noise, and feel like the pots are of good quality. The toggle is correct. Chase included a photo of the guts under the pick guard taken as he was doing the wiring and hand soldering. I appreciate this. He phoned me as soon as he got delivery notice by UPS. I had just opened the package so we went over the guitar part by part and he answered questions by me for about 15 minutes about the guitar. Two days later he called back per our agreement and we discussed any potential changes I would want. He has offered to make any changes I'd want. I don't want any changes, but I value his offer. THIS IS WHY I'VE NOW PURCHASED TWO GUITARS FROM THIS GUY. I'll probably buy a third eventually.

Chase has a couple of decades of experience in building and setting up guitars and it shows. We talked shop and he gave me some good pointers in caring for and adjusting my guitars.

This is a finished product that has components designed for reliability.

Feels like a rock-solid guitar. Good to go without modifications.

In my experience, the builder excels in meeting his obligation to provide a timely delivery, a good product, and also strives to win me over as a customer. I've spent considerable money on musical gear and training for myself and my family since 1968 and this is the first time I've been compelled to return to the dealer. Because of the positive experience, value for my dollar, and the fact that he'll build just about anything I want for a very fair price.

Playing for 39 years.

Blue Lion B2 Acoustic
Carvin SH-225
Aria Concert Classical
Aria ProII CS-400
Aria Knight Warrior
SX SST 62 Strat copy
LP Copy by Univox
Dulcimer, Uke, Various other instruments

For the money, this is a great guitar.

Basic strat knock off.

2 tone controls, 3 single coil pickups

Average stuff

I did pay for upgrades that I didn't get like locking tuners, graphite nut, and better pickups. Classy guy.

Terrible sound. What the previous posters said about generic and cheap sounding pickups is right on.

Hum and feedback galore. Except in the neck position, which had a dead pickup.

The finish on this thing was terrible. There were multiple scratches on here and I didn't order a relic. There was even some paint from the finish on the neck of my guitar. This is not quality. The neck was cheap and the frets weren't polished. It shipped to me without strings and when I lifted it out, the nut fell to the groung.

All those people who say they got a great guitar must have never seen another guitar in their lives.

No idea. I'm going back to my squire. It's a nicer guitar.

The guy who owns this operation is a real sweetheart until he gets your money. Then you're out of his mind and your guitar is a little project he'll get around to whenever he's good and ready.

He told me I'd have my guitar in a month and a half. I figured it would be longer than that, but after four months I started to get worried. I try to call the guy for a week with no answer. When I finally get back to him, he tells me he's been on a hunting trip for the last 10 days.

Maybe this is why so many people have complained about delays.

I contacted him about a refund on my guitar because of the poor quality, and he got vile on the phone and then via e-mail.

The worst part about all this is that I can't leave negative feedbackon ebay, where it should really be. He gave me so many excuses and I waited so long that my window for leaving feedback elapsed. Great move! Looks like you've figured out how to run a garbage business without the negative feedback.

Terrible experience.

I don't know what's worse, the builder or the guitar.

I saved for a while so I could retire my squire. I nearly went with an MIM standard, but this guy claimed he could get me a better guitar with upgrades for the same price. That didn't happen. This thing isn't worth the strings I put on it.

You're better off going to Wal-Mart and buying a starcaster out of a box.

the guitar was made very well. It is a strat series type, but gives a different sound than my fender does. I was looking for a certain sound from the guitar, with the 3 coil pickups, i was able to find just the right amount of distortion for both blues and rock settings.

on the guitar itsself it has a modern head stock, 2 volume slelctors, 3 coil pickups, thin regualr strat neck. Accessories, came with strap, cords, picks, petal, tremelo.

i am of a main rock to blues style and with the s series i can switch to each style effortlessly

currently im only using a 5 w amp with a phaser petal, i dont have too much room to play with, im currently deployed.

the sound of the guitar has full, powerhouse sounds. The only thing i have dislike of is that there is too much distortion on some of the coil pickups when looking for a cleaner sound.

the pickups and bridge were adjusted well, especially with me being left handed, many people screw that up.

i have not seen anything wrong cosmetically with the guiar iteself, nor on the tech side of the spectrum.

ive played for my unit with this guitar it performed above what i thought it would

the hardware is very durable and can take a hit or two. I havent been so gentle with it and hardly a scratch on it.

i would use this guitar over my fender for any gig, a fender can only do so much.

the company that i purchased the guitar from was great on so many levels... the guitar got caught in customs and was shipped back, i got it back here in less than 3 days. They give certain options after buying the guitar that i enjoyed because it made me feel i could have it custom made to my needs(ie type of fret board, 9 or 10' strings, color ect ect, it seems very small and trivial but it made a difference to me.)

ihave been plaing for 5 years now, 1 year of it playing a upside down right handed guitar, i own a fender strat, a kona acoustic, gibson acoustic, and a seagull acoustic. I own a 5 w amp, a 25 w amp, and a fender 212 dsp(dont remember the watt)

if i lost it i would get the exact same one, this guitar has really impressed me

i like the coil pickups, definatly different from other guitars and helps me get the sounds i look for that most strats wouldnt have

i dont like the idea that the coils arent labeled, i get confused hitting toggles

i like have a tremelo system on it, gives it another edge that makes it a good instrument for any guitarist.

i compared this guitar to my fender strat, a gibson sg, and an ibanez that my friend had

if your looking to spend 500 dollars on a guitar, this one will definatly give you a bang for the buck.

overall: Well made, well played. I give it an 8 overall.

I ordered a basic STRATOCASTER style guitar. Three single coils, maple neck, alder body (although the guitar I received was agathis), vintage style trem, standard controls ect. The only custom option I asked for was a different finish. I guess that was enough to throw this "custom builder" for a loop.

This thing had the crappiest sounding cheap *** pickups I have ever heard in my life. The a-rod the screwed this guitar together told me that they were Kent Armstrong vintage single coils. Call them whatever you want, I'll just call them garbage. They were prone to feedback worse than a garage sale Mr. Microphone. The controls were pretty interesting. They went from off to full bore in about 1/8 of a turn. I did get a surprise freeby here though. A neck on toggle switch. You just hit the switch and it adds twice as much hum, cool huh?

I am convinced this guy is selling worked over $89 Jay Turser STRATS. The quality is amazingly poor. Quite a scam this schmuck has going. Refinish a $80 guitar and sell it for $350? Never got to see what all the rah rah about his custom shaved neck was about, because the neck I had was standard Made In China overly bulky "d" shape. It also had about a 1/8" gap in the neck pocket. Squiers, MIM are all top notch compared the heap of crap I received. It was returned and payment cancelled through American Express.

About as reliable as a Jay Turser remake can be I guess.

Support? Are you kidding me? Eight months of lies and BS. Apparently UPS refused his pickups for six months? I received three different shipping notifications that sat for weeks, months. He would create shipping labels in hopes that it would buy him time. This guy is a snake and a scammer. One day it's allll going to come back to him. Wish i could be there when it does. Truely sad.

Failure. Avoid at all costs.

i got my custom hand made strat about 2 months ago, i got to order it the way i wanted. I picked a custom metal flake blue brust, with wilki black chrome hardware bridge and tuners, back routed, with a five way switch, and 3 fender noiseless SC pickup's, the neck was walnut with an ebony fretboard, abalone inlay's. To me it is the most beautiful guitar I've seen. i can not tell you how happy I am with it.
It was shipped double boxed in a fender case. I can hardly belive that it only took 6 week's to build this guitar. top that carvin. I'm not sure what that one guys post (murphy is talking about, who the heck doesn't know how to spell there'er own name?) but chase was a pleasure to work with, just a great guy from what I can tell. aAnyway i'd buy from bluesville again and again.

I play rock, blues, and a little jazz. I have a number of different amp's, but this guitar seems to prefer my marshall valestat 100watt combo the best. there is nothing that I play that this guiatr won't cover. The pickup's are quiet, a little to quiet really. I think I could have picked better one's as i'm not really loving the fender noiseless that much

The guitar did need some minor adjustment's in the set up department, but it came from freezing Maine to sunny Califronia, so that was kind of expected. I also adjusted the pick up height to my liking and also I set the strings to very low and fast. It intonated perfect, the frets where very well dressed and smooth like glass.

It seems to be very well built, so yeah I think it will last. I have been depending on it for the last couple of month's. would I gig it with out a back up? thats just silly, I would never gig any guitar without a back up. you just never know what might happen, as anybody that gig's will tell you. Jimmy Page doesn't even ever gig without a backup, and look at the guitar's he play's.

My dealing's with bluesville guitars has been a very pos. one.
Like I said it hasn't needed anything done to it, well besides the set up. I was told that if I had any problems with it he would fix it. they seemed to really be trying to make me very happy

I have been playing for over 30 years. If it was stolen would I replace it? yes, well really my insurance company would. When you play out as much as I do, you have to have some good insurance. The only real reget I have is, I wish I would have picked different pick up's. I mean they'll do for now, but I think I'm going to try some EMG's, one of these day's lol

I ordered a guitar from Bluesville music in the style of a Fender Stratocaster. I did want a few additional features like medium jumbo frets and locking tuners.

Other than that, it's very similar to an MIM strat, probably built with very similar parts.

The sound is okay, just as you'd expect. The guitar is was a little noisy, but they had single coils. I paid for EMG pickups as an upgrade (active pickups), which were only okay. I eventually ordered a set of bill lawerence noiseless pickups to replace the stock EMG's. It was a definate improvement.

I got a slight relic job on this. The relicing was nice in some parts, not so nice in others. The neck relicing wasn't very good, in my opinion. This could not be from the relicing, and just from a bad neck and bad set up. The neck wasn't very playable, the frets weren't level, and the action was terrible.

I have a trusted tech I've taken my guitars to for almost twenty years. In fact, I've quit playing very expensive strats (once had a custom shop and a USA G&L and sold them) because he can take a $500 guitar and tweak it to the point that it sounds great. Anywya, I like this guy and I think he's an honest dude. This tech was shocked at the poor quality of this guitar. In fact, the set up cost nearly as much as the guitar itself.

The body wear looked good and believable to me, so that's a plus. My guess is that relicing is a tough business and can sometimes be hit or miss.

I'm not quite sure. Give me some time.

This is the odd part. The owner/builder, Chase, seems like a very good guy. I wanted to like him from the start. I talked with him on the phone a few times (he'll talk your ear off, so watch out), but he certainly seemed to know what he was talking about.

Unfortunately, he really gave me the run around with the guitar. He claimed it would be done in four weeks and it took seven months. He kept telling me it was finished and he just needed to ship it, and this went on for six long months. He seemed like such a nice guy that I just kept letting it slide.

When I finally got a little testy with him, he completely changed and fired back an e-mail with expletives and degrading insults.

He also wasn't willing to give me my money back, and because of the long wait, my window for filing an ebay dispute had long ended. I had no other option than to take the guitar (which, again, I should reiterate is okay, but certainly not a steal for the money: you get what you pay for).

Later, I found a discussion on this very forum where harmony central members were discussing this guy. Looks like others have had similar problems, so, unfortunately, my experience wasn't an anomoly.

I'll never deal with him again, and wish I never had. It's just sad that people keep dealing with a person who treats customers with such contempt.

Shady character. I won't deal with him again.

The guitar isn't bad, though, it isn't on par with an standard MIM strat, and especially not a G&L tribute guitar.

Watch out for this guy. Other reviewers seem to love him, though I'm not convinced some of them know anything about guitars, and I am convinced many of the reviews on this site are written by parties with a vested interest.

I ordered a strat from bluesville custom made to order thru ebay. It was a 22 fret maple neck, reverse headstock, double locking floyd rose routed into the body, fully shielded cavity, pearl pickguard, single space humbuckers in the bridge and neck, vintage tuners, 2-tone sunburst, 5-way switch, slight relic neck wear, chrome knobs and hardware. It was exactly like i ordered when it arrived. Ash body with great look and grain. Neck is sliky smooth and easy to play. I had one small glitch in the post for the floyd and when i called Chase he handled it right away, was a manufacture problem not workmanship, but regardless he handled it without even questioning it. To my surprise he added coil tap switches on both neck and bridge and a 3rd for instant on for the neck to get extra tones as well.

I really wanted a floyd rose strat and that is exactly what i got. I play it thru a vox and a fender cyber deluxe and it sounds great thru both. Pickups are loud and hot as hell.

The guitar was setup really well right out of the box, I ordered it no case since i like gig bags and the shipping was great, and had no issues what so ever. I gave it a little tweaking to suit my taste but there was no issues in the setup at all.

Rock solid strat that will stand up to any custom fender i have ever played. I gig with it constantly and had i small issue with a coil tap switch that chase handled right away. (faulty switch not workmanship). Great sunburst finish, 2 tone just as i had wanted and expected. I install strap locks on allmy guitars but the ones on it were not an issue at all, just my preference. He probably would have added them had i asked ahead of time. It is reliable and almost indestructable and i have never had any playing issues with it. It is one of my main gigging guitars. I never have doubted it on stage.

Chase was a breeze to work with and getting thru the custom order parts of this guitar were easy and painless, he takes alot of pride in what he does. He had alot of good suggestions and i wanted all of them on my axe. I had a couple of minor issues, i referred to above and none of them were an hassle and Chase handled them painlessly and in a speedy fashion as always. I think he would probably warranty the guitar for its entire life. I am not a thrasher but, if there was an issue i dont think he would hesitate to fix it.

playing for over 25 years and as i said this is one of my main guitars and gig with it all the time. I kind of wish after seeing the guitar i ordered for my son i would have had him relic it more. He knows his shit, there is no doubt about that. The guitar has a warm comfortable feel right out of the box and the finish is awesome. I would put it up against any fender i have ever played or seen. The guitar is custom ordered and exactly what i wanted.

This s-series guitar was a christmas present for my 10 year old son. I was very happy with the entire process from start to finish on the entire guitar order. Chase is the best to work with and really knows his guitars and how to put them together. It was a heavy relic in seafoam green over a sunburst finish, has the typical strat pickup setup of 3 single cols (bill lawrence) and a 5 position switch, typical strat vintage style tremelo. The guitar parts are top of the line and had no issues at all. The relic job looked really good and you could swear that it has been to every club gig in the area for years. It was sent in a great quality tweed case and i am always tempted to take it to gigs with me if i didn,t have a bluesville strat of my own. ( see my review on that one as well)

The guitar has great sound, pickups are good quality and they are able to get every sound that my fender strat does without any issues at all. There is nothing bad i can say about the sound of this guitar. It can get any sound possible and since he plays it thru a fender g-dec he can get all possible sounds he needs.

Out of the box this guitar was almost perfect. Just a little tweaking to suit it for a kid and the action is low and fast. Great quality neck and finish was satin smooth and relic'd to perfection.

As i said above it was for a 10 year old, he can beat the crap out of it and it stays in tune like a champ. Hardware was relic'd just right and not to overdone or fake looking. As i said above i would not have a problem taking it to any gig i play on. I have too many guitars for me to use it as a backup and would have to deal with the wrath of taking it from him to gig with. so i dont even try to have him part with it. He has it proudly displayed on the front of the fireplace in the living room for everyone to see and brags to all his friends about it.

Chase is one of the best people i have ever dealt with on e-bay and in the course of getting 3 guitars so far and working with him now on getting a tele built i would not hesitate to recommend him to any players/friends i know. I ordered it (custom color and relic'd) at the middle of dec. for an x-mas gift and was sweating it would get here on time. He did not let me down and was in time to be under the tree x-mas morning without worry. I have never had an issue with the guitar and know he would not hesitate to fix any issue that would ever come up. He is honest and very trusting in all he does. I am not trying by any means to blow smoke up anyones ass, this guy is sincere and build\s a quality guitar every time. He even goes the extra mile with the coil taps and extras that are rare to find.

I have been playing over 25 yeas and have way too many guitars, including a custom strat with a floyd rose and reverse headstock he built for me (see review on that one as well). As i said above the tele i am working on with him will be my 4th second siesta guitar ands could not be more happy with all of them. The relic job is great and there is nothing i could ask or wish to change about this guitar. Chase is an easy guy to work with and offers alot of extras.

Basically a strat knock off. Haven't measured the body or anything, but it's close.

Nice thing here is you get your choice of vintage or modern tuners and just about any color. No cost. Everything else, basic strat.

Not crazy about the sound, actually. Probably it's the pickups which are probably cheap (for the price, they can't be expensive ones). Might replace this with GFS single coils or maybe Bill Lawrence's Keystones

Bad set up when I got it. Had to do my own. Neck to body joint not good. Put a little work and got it under control. Frets not perfectly level down past the tenth fret. Don't play down there much but still. Its the principle.

No idea. Haven't had it more than couple months.

Dealer was supposed to have this for me in a month or two. It took way longer than that. Wasn't thrilled with the excuses. Sent me the wrong guitar once. Pretty ridiculous. Not a real professional guy.

It's a decent piece of gear. Especially for the price. Paid just over three hundred so that's not bad. Not quite up there with my MIM standard strat. Definately not on par with my Jimmie Vaughan. I wanted a different color adn that's what I paid for.

Have noticed these guitars have risen in price since I bought mine. I had thought of buying another, maybe in yellow or shell pink. Now they're over 400 with shipping. That's more than an MIM standard. Don't know what's going on with that. I'm not paying for a generic strat that's more expensive than the real deal. Doesn't make sense.