Chafin Custom Guitars Helios

2004 Chafin Custom Helios (Left Handed). This is the first left handed Helios made. It has a premium flame maple top, burnt orange finish, matching headstock color as body, brazillian rosewood fretboard, birdseye maple neck, graph tech nut, grover locking tuners. Deco custom bridge. alder body. USA made. Has a tele body style with drop top and belly cut. Control cover on back is aluminum (nice touch). String though body design. Unique bolt on neck design hard to describe. Looks very stable which a real different se Heavy chrome hardware throughout. Has two Bartolini custom wound humbucking pickups. Bridge is full size, neck is mini size. Both are set up for coil splitting by pulling out the volume and tone contols.

I have never played a guitar with tone like this. It plays everything well. Pickups are very hot for rock tones but mellows out when the volume is rolled back. Sounds great even when unplugged. Guitar was set up with 10's, per my reguest. They use Dean Marklye Signature Series strings. Very full and bright tone. This guitar has the best sustain from a bolt on and most neck thrus for that matter, out of any guitar I have ever played.

When I got the guitar is was buzzing badly on three strings. It was still playable, but not set up the way you would expect for a guitar of this quality. I was disappointed. I gave Chafin my personal specs for set up, but maybe it was climate, or whatever, the guitar was not set up well. I questioned a couple of spots on the top as well. The falme maple top is very nice except in a coule of spots where is appears that is not unitform in a couple of areas. One would expect that form a standard A or AA top, not from a 5A top. I asked the folks at Chafin to explain and I got a pretty lame answer. They blamed the wood. Don't get me wrong, it is a killer top, but if I'm paying for a premimum top, it should be pretty perfect. The rest of the guitar was perfect. Only high grade parts used, well assembled.

This guitar should withstand the test of time. It is very well made and should hold up well. I am not worried. I comes with a 120 year warranty. I would not expect to use it.

When I ordered the guitar I was told it would take two months to complete. It took four months. I never really got a good explanation for the delay. They blamed some of it on the paint shop. When the guitar was finished and they were going to send it to my UPS ground, I asked if they could upgraded the shipping becasue I waited so long and they wouldn't. They said making it lefty took more time than they expected, so they basically were losing money on the deal.
The same thing went with the bad set up. I wanted to send it back and they tried to talk me out of it. They said that I could, but they would set it up for "high" action to compensate for the climate change during shipping.
The did return my e-mails quickly and sent me pictures of the progress of the guitar along the way which was nice. They were very friendly and nice to work with. However, if they want to survive in the competive field of custom guitar building, their customer service needs to be so good, it puts them way ahead of the rest of the pack. Warranty is 10 years. I am hoping they will be around that long. The guitar business is tough.

I have been noodling around on the guitar for several years, got serious about it 2 1/2 years ago and started taking lessons from a professional. This is a fantastic guitar and it plays like a dream. If someone stole it, I would get another. It would be hard waiting another 4 months. I am not sure they would do another lefty if I asked. I own 14 other guitars. The chafin is one of my top three.

2003 Chafin Helios in a stunning hand selected premium quilt maple top in burnt orange. A bird's eye maple neck that's simply sumptuous and a natural wood body accent stripe. Here's the particulars:

? Totally Hand Crafted in USA
? Alder Body
? Rosewood Fingerboard
? Tribal SunSonic Art Bridge
? Solid Brass Bridge
? String-Thru Body Design
? DoubleLock? 4 Bolt Neckjoint
? Mini-Humbucker Neck Pickup
? Grover Locking Tuners
? Coil Tapped Pickups
? Machined Aluminum Back Plate
? Drop Top Hand Bent Maple Top
? Custom Wound Bartolini Pickups
? Real Abalone Dot Inlays
? Hand Crowned Medium High Frets
? Graphtech Nut

A Hardwood case included with excellent padding and support

I play all kinds of music but primarily rock. Everything from ZZ top, AC/DC, Lenny Kravitz... you get the picture. This bad boy covers all ground! Very versatile with a sweet spot, while in the bridge position, that just can't be described. I have a ton of equipment but I like to crank the Helios through my Rivera twin or my Marshall AVT50. It simply sings with a combined crunch and clarity that needs to be experienced.

What a stunning axe! The quilt top is almostly perfectly bookmatched. The quilt is extraordinary... a perfect 10! The fit and finish was superb. Everything you would expect from a custom guitar. The action was a little higher than what I like, but that was quickly and effortlessly taken care of. The frets are clean and perfectly set. The machined aluminum hardware is awesome! The Tribal SunSonic Art Bridge is spectacular to look at... a truly unique look to an already stunning guitar. I couldn't find a flaw on this puppy!

Built to last... although I don't think I'll be thrashing this thing around any time soon! It's too gorgeous! Ben Chafin has an excellent reputation for building great guitars... I don't think you'll have a problem.

I communicated with Ben Chafin via email prior to this purchase. He was very helpful and responded quickly to my requests. Great guy!
10 year warranty...

I've been playing on and off since about 1980. I love everything about this axe and I plan on buying another one... probably the Ember. I have a ton of guitars... primarily USA made axes. Dean, PRS, Fender, Gibson etc. I find the Helios to be right up there with the best of the best. Great Guitar!