Product: El-Degas Marauder
Price Paid: 50 (UK Pounds) used
Submitted
03/04/2003
at
06:38am
by
Eamonn Boylan
Email: eamonnb at hotmail<dot>com
Features
:
5
No idea when it was made. I bought it on impulse in 1984 from a music shop in Canterbury (UK).
It is a very clean copy of a Gibson Marauder - a solid slab body with a thick transparent cherry finish, white pickguard, maple neck - scarf-jointed onto a back-tilted headstock, rosewood fingerboard.
Pickups are the same as the marauder - a hugely fat bill lawrence-style humbucker in the neck position, and a thinner single coil at the bridge. Tune-o-matic bridge, stop tailpiece.
It has all the features it is supposed to have.
Sound
:
8
It doesn't at all suit my style, but it is a nice quirky guitar to have around. The sound is not at all modern, particularly from the giant bridge pickup. You can get a good jazz tone from the neck pickup. No good for sounding like Eddie, but for a bluesy or jazzy vibe it is fun to play.
I wish they'd matched the outputs of the two pickups through. The bridge is less than half the power of the neck.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
5
None of this applies as it was bought for peanuts from a 2nd-hand shop. I've set it up nicely now and I'm happy to have it. It was clearly made pretty well in the first place. The neck has a really comfortable feel and finish.
The chrome parts are starting to bubble.
Reliability/Durability
:
8
It's lasted a fair while already, and I expect it to last for many years to come. It is solid and (now) reliable. If I was gigging the sort of music that this thing suits I'd be happy to use it without a backup.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
N/A
Overall Rating
:
5
I've been playing for about 25 years. My other gear includes: a Patrick Eggle Berlin Pro, Peavey Wolfgang, Hohner G3-T, Tokai TST-50 (bought new in 1983, ageing perfectly), Tokai TTE-50, Peavey Triumph 60, Pignose 7-100, Zoom PS-02, Roland D-50, Yamaha DX-7, Vicente Sanchis Classical, Epiphone Acoustic (can't remember the model).
If the Marauder was stolen I'd be pissed off but not heartbroken. As it was very cheap, and an impulse buy I didn't go through the normal purchasing decisions, and I didn't compare it to anything. It was there, I bought it.
The only other thing I'd like to share is my sincere thanks to everyone else who has contributed to this site - this is a fantastic body of opinion and all of it is interesting.
