Product: Bravewood Guitars 50's S Type
Price Paid: US $1,600.
Submitted
08/11/2003
at
12:52pm
by
Anonymous
Features
:
2
I have a 2003 Strat knock off with alder body, maple neck, nitro-cellulose finish, vintage hardware etc.
Seems like an OK copy guitar if you like the beat up look. After getting it though I wonder if I could have done the same job by throwing a set of car keys at it myself.
Sounded a little thin, but after slapping some seymour duncans in it it livened up a little.
Sounded and played like a doctored up Fernandes strat, my buddies all laughed at the fake rust so I took a little off with some oven cleaner.
Sound
:
1
THIN AND BRITTLE!!!!
replaced pickups and it sounded better.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
2
too much rust! and fake looking wear...looks ok from a mile away and in the pics but trying to play it out I just cant get into it.
I mean nobody plays a guitar with sandpaper on their hands or forearm right!!
Reliability/Durability
:
3
it will be for sale soon soon as I can get those cheesy original pickups back in it.
For the price I paid I could have gotten a real Fender and had been able to hold it's value better....
...oh well live and learn!
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
it was ok...nothing to write home about.
Overall Rating
:
No Opinion
Product: Bravewood Guitars 50's S Type
Price Paid: GBP (685)
Submitted
01/15/2003
at
11:54am
by
Anonymous
Features
:
10
It's a 2002/3 50's Style Relic S-Type made by Bravewood Guitars aka John Elliot, a small custom maker in Cornwall, UK. Standard 50's Strat features with alder body, maple neck, nitro-cellulose finish, vintage hardware etc.
You can choose from a selection of colours and specify the degree of ageing that's applied to the finish and hardware. I opted for a fairly well used look in Sonic Blue - a vintage fave - but you can go from 'as new' to 'completely knackered' as you wish. You can check my guitar out on the website - www.bravewoodguitars.com.
Pickups are a matched set of Wizard staggered pole vintage Strat types, with 5 way switch. Guitar came with the appropriate allen key for bridge adjustment.
This gets a 10 score since it's exactly what I wanted - if you specify a 'custom' guitar and aren't satisfied that's your fault!
Sound
:
10
Suits my style down to the ground - jazz, blues, funk - as it's basically a first class Strat sound. At the moment it's played through a Park practice amp as I am rather behind building my Torres! Still sounds great though and the Park doesn't flatter a guitar.
Very quiet - I think it's humbucking on the out of phase selections and John painted the control cavities with conductive paint.
Sounds like a good Strat should - useable in all switch positions and doesn't get thin and weedy in the high fret positions.
Nice ringing acoustic tone which is always a good sign and these Wizards certainly do the guitar justice.
Can go from jazz or SRV stuff on the neck pickup to a nice biting bridge tone.
If I was super critical I would say the Neck/Mid mixed position is a bit woolly but I always think that of any Strat so it might be my problem!
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
9
Hard to criticise the finish as it's seriously worn with dents, lacquer cracks, rust etc just like I wanted!
Seems to be very well made - body is light and very resonant, all hardware nicely fitted.
Set-up is fine with trem well set and a nice medium action. Had to tweak the truss rod but haven't touched anything else. A great deal better than my other Strat - a Fender Mex 60's - which needed a pro set up to be this playable.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
I've only ever gigged with Strats and Teles and this one feels as solid and reliable as any. I have no reason to believe this particular guitar will let me down. Tuning might suffer with trem use but that's a risk of having a vintage Fender type isn't it?
Strap buttons will probably get swapped for Schaller lockers for live use.
I never gig without a back up.
Customer Support
:
10
John is really friendly and easy to deal with. He seems keen for you to get the guitar you want; he contacted me after I'd placed my order to fine tune my requirement, gave me advice on the vintage accuracy of the finish and even emailed me with updates and photos of the work in progress!
I've no doubt he would deal with any complaint in a reasonable way.
Overall Rating
:
10
Been playing 20 years (Christ!). Also own a nice Mex Fender R/I Strat and a lovely Tokai Tele.
I am seriously impressed by what I got from Bravewood in terms of price, service and a great product. I love the relic idea but would never pay Fender prices. Instead, at half the price, I got to specify exactly what I wanted and it plays and sounds fantastic.
I would buy another if stolen - in fact, I would buy another one anyway (there's a great Tele on the website!).
I love the look - just like a ten grand original in the London shops and the fact that it sounds equally good. Fave feature is the body where the bare wood shows through the finish.
Compared it to the Fenders and this won on price.
Can't recommend it highly enough!
