Product: EKO Kiwi
Price Paid: 150 (Euro) used
Submitted
12/15/2003
at
06:25am
by
Gijs Coolen
Email: rumblefuzz<at>hotmail dot com
Features
:
6
It's a shortscale les Paul copy (certainly not a replica), from 1975. Standard controls: lead/rhythm switch and volume and tone for each single coil pickup (strange P-90-like pickups).
Mine has black finish with good holes in it. There's even a deep hole straight through the body near the pickup switch, looks cool, like mudhoney!
The bridge is also kinda strange: plastic adjustable saddles! I might change those because I don't think they improve the sound of the guitar. Maybe I'll replace the whole bridge with a standard tune-o-matic bridge. The tuners are really crappy, someone changed the upper two (the D and G tuners) for some cheapo plastic loose junk tuners. The rest of the strings has nice kluson tuners, they seem to be fine, but I might change them as well!
Frets are thin, really thin, which adds to the caracter of this guitar. The pickguard with "kiwi" written on it is missing.
Sound
:
9
This guitar is cool for me because I have a weakness for guitars that are somewhat strange and force you to play their way.
Right now I haven't played it through my main amp yet. I'm playing it through a marshall JMP combo (harsh!), with a barber burn unit 1 and a Morley deluxe flanger (very nice). In a few days I will try it on my Music Man 212-HD 130 amp. I'm curious as to how it will compare to my jazzmaster. The sound is especially cool for sweet soloing, maybe not so good for rhythm guitar.
It's not a versatile guitar: if you play it like a Gibson Les Paul, she gets shy and whispers: "I don't know if I can do that sir!", If you play like a strat, she starts crying because you're hurting her. You HAVE to play it gently, with care and some compassion when you've been too hard on her. Treat it like a little baby-girl, and it will sound very nice! And little babygirls can still scream like mayhem, so don't worry about that...
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
5
Did the guitar contain any flaws?
-misaligned bracing: no
-poorly filed fretwire: yes
-finish flaws: YES
-poor quality wood: wouldn't know..
-rusted or oxidized hardware: no
-loose tuning pegs: YES, sucks!
-poorly cut nut: it's ok
-poorly fit saddle: yes
-noisy pickup selector: yes
-loose controls: no...
...and still I like it!
Reliability/Durability
:
7
I do think this guitar will withstand playing live. I actually think I'm going to use it as a backup guitar, maybe as main guitar for one or two songs, which suit this guitar very well
The finish WILL come off in a few years, but I don't really care about that.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
N/A
Overall Rating
:
8
I've been playing for 10 years although I still suck at guitar, maybe it'll come to me some day.
I have 4 guitars: a 1968 vintage mustang, a Jazzmaster (body: 1968, neck: 2000, pickups: somewhere inbetween), a 60's telestar which I'm heavily custimizing as we speak and now this one.
I use a 70's Music Man amp. As for pedals, my setup is as follows:
Guitar>>MXR phase 90>>Turbo Tube Screamer TS9DX>>Classic Tube Sreamer TS10>>Real Tube Overdrive (for almost e-bow like fuzz)>>Barber Burn Unit (for solo's)>> Boss TU-2>>Amp. Sometimes I also use my Morley flanger in stage setup (needs to be true bypass modded) and a JCM800 Bass series top for solo's (GREAT!!!). If this guitar was lost I think I would buy something else because I suppose this guitar is very rare (you can't find anything about it on the internet). Besides I like to try new things, in fact, the only guitar I would buy again is my Jazzmaster, because that guitar defines my main sound, I think jazzmasters are the best guitars ever made.
I am going to upgrade this guitar a bit, maybe install a bigsby, and implement some cheap distortion unit, or do something else that makes this a unique guitar, even more then it already is!
