Product: Edwards Edwards E-FR-120GT
Price Paid: US $1200
Submitted
09/18/2005
at
04:45pm
by
Matt
Features
:
9
2005 Made in Japan, cost $1200 including case and shipping.
24 frets
1 Volume, 1 tone, 3 way pickup switch, volume bypass switch
Seymour Duncan JB/'59 pickups
White ash body with maple/walnut 9 peice neck
Transparent white finish
Original Floyd Rose bridge
Gotoh tuners
25.5" scale, very fast neck, ebony fretboard
Came with a hardshell case and a soft gig bag
VERY nice features, lots of expandability. I plan on changing the volume bypass switch to a coil tap switch.
Sound
:
10
The sound of this guitar is great. It's bright, but not harsh, and it's got a strong bass and midrange without being muddy. It's got a very clear and fast attack and has a lot of string definition. The character of the sound is aggressive, but not edgy. It really purrs though and responds very well to drop tunings.
It's not noisy at all. It's very well shielded and wired.
This guitar can make quite a variety of sounds just with the volume and tone knobs. The Floyd Rose is a big factor in the versatility here. I can get a screaming metal tone out of it and a smoother jazz tone very easily.
Overall I really like the sound of this guitar. Once I have a decent amp ( Valvetronix AD120VTH ), then we'll see how good it is amplified.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
9
The guitar was set up very well from the factory. Needed to be tuned though. The action was good but kind of high. However it was shipped from Japan so I expected to need to set it up. All things considered the inital set up was very good.
When I set it up with my favorite strings ( 10-52 Elixirs in D Standard ), adjusted the truss rod, etc, it played extremely smoothly, very low action and nearly no fret buzz.
The pickups were too high. When I pulled back on the tremolo all the way, the strings got caught on the bridge's pickup screws. I adjusted that and it's working fine now.
This guitar has no flaws. Everything is perfect. There was no covering plate on the back of the tremolo cavity though.
Reliability/Durability
:
8
The hardware is all high quality and I think it will last. The finish is very nice.
The only thing I am worried about is the strap button on the upper wing of the guitar. It seems very fragile. I wouldn't throw this guitar around.
This guitar simply doesn't go out of tune when set up correctly. you can wank on the whammy bar all you want and it won't budge.
I would use it at a gig without a backup, but I'd love to have another for backup :D
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Can't talk about ESP customer support as I've never dealt with them. No warranty as this guitar had to be imported and shipping would likely cost as much as any work I'd have to get done on it.
Overall Rating
:
10
I've been playing for about a year and a half now. This is my first really nice guitar ( Handmade in Japan in the ESP STandard factory ).
If anyone stole it, I'd murder them. Then I'd buy this same guitar.
I really like the entire guitar. It sounds great, it plays great, it looks awesome. There's really nothing I dislike except the normal difficulties of a Floyd Rose bridge. Actually, I dislike the creme pickups and pickup rings. I'm getting white plastic pickup covers and white pickup rings though, that'll make it look even better.
I wasn't able to compare directly, but I was considering several different guitars. Among them were a Jackson Soloist ( the $1000 one ), a Gibson Explorer, an LTD F-400, and an ESP M-II standard. The E-FR-120GT was the closest match to what I wanted in a guitar. Also, it plays better than the Soloist I tried, the 400 series LTDs, and the Gibson Explorer. Sound is better than them as well.
