Framus Diablo Custom

The others have already described the guitar, so I'm not gonna go there...
With a couple of modifications compared to the stock setup (custom order), easily a "10".

Hot Rails is little hard sounding with distortion for my taste, switched to a diMarzio Pro Tone. Though, I'm sure there are better alternatives out there. Haven't bothered testing out other PUs yet.

And for the guy complaining about the JB pickup, I have to strongly disagree with that.
This pickup has a warm and big tone. Sounds great with my gear.
With clean sounds this guitar is amazing.

The guitar in general has a very big, powerful and defined sound. It can certainly compete with far more expensive guitars. I gave a "9" because of the original Hot Rails, which sounded a bit glassy to me with distortion and didn't work great for Hendrix/blues sounds. (It didn't sound bad by any stretch, just not what I prefer).
Just choose a different pickup, no big issue really..

Now with the newer plek necks, you get a very fast neck. Beautiful finish.

Very helpful. Great customer support.

OK, first of the "10" score is with the right specs. If you get the regular version, I would rate it a bit lower.
The last reviewer is correct. The framus wilkinson bridge and the framus locking tuners are not the best. I got a original wilkinson and schaller locking tuners instead, and the guitar now works like a charm. Perfect for live, as well as studio.

The others are right: the woods, finish, pickups are all great. (I switched the Hot Rails with a diMarzio Pro Tone. However, in my experience Seymour Duncan PUs generally have more tone than diMarzios.)

I also have to mention the neck. This has to be the most comfortable and most playable neck I've ever tried. The radius, width, thickness is just perfect. Plenty of space between the strings, and also outside the 1. and 6. string - so you don't fret notes off the neck.

So the buttom line is:
Get a Diablo Custom with an original wilkinson bridge and schaller/sperzel locking tuners, and you'll have one excellent guitar. Especially here in Europe (Norway), I can't think of a better value than this guitar. Much more value for the money than a PRS, Musicman, Ibanez etc., even with the modifications I mentioned.

With Framus guitars, you can custom order them and choose any specs you want for finish, hardware, woods. (www.framus.de)
Highly recommended. :)

O.K, so It took me about to years to review this guitar, since I wasn't sure this would actually be a keeper.
You probably know the details if you read so far, but here's my dime :
It's a prefect weighted, perfect coiled, and perfect necked guitar.
You really can't ask more than that. Ducans, woods to die for, naked neck perfectly carved, extremely good finish and bindings.
The tuners are crap, and so is the Wilkinson trem. Sorry. It can't be all perfection, and the guitar get's easily out of tune. (Especially compared to the mayfield which is as steady as stone)

This is why I still have this guitar.
It has 0% soul, and 100% strict German order.
Everything is in place, this guitar is a chameleon.
This is the prefect guitar for recordings. You know exactly what sound you will get, and it's better than the one you would make out of the original guitar you imagine.
Want a strat sound, push and move to the 4 pos, want a tele neck sound, push and go to 1. Need a SG ? pus to 3. Need a Les ? go to 1.
Just dial in what you want, and you've got it 100% clean and simple.

Top notch

Everything is great, but I hate plastic covers etch.
If you ask more than 1000$ for a guitar, don't use it.
I wouldn't bet my life on the isolation and electronics as well.
Leave that to the Japan and USA crafted guitars.

Does anyone speak German ?
Spreken zi Doitch ?

This one is for life, not on stage, but next to a pc.

Framus Custom Diablo in an Almond Sunburst finish, possibly from the custom shop. Made in Germany. Strat shape, 2-piece, 20 mm thick flamed maple top, 2-piece US swamp ash back. Flamed Maple bolt-in neck with an Indian ebony fingerboard, inlays, 12" radius (300 mm) Seymour Duncan pickups: SHR-1, SSL-1 (RW/RP) and STB-4, Chrome hardware, Wilkinson vibrato, 5 way switch. Factory tuners, non locking.

The neck is a custom neck, highly figured, very fast.

Bought used, no accessories.

I'm into metal, but play all sorts as i've been playing less than a year. I mainly play metal though.

Use it through a Peavy Amp, and and set it to distort. I have Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy Bottom strings on it, 10-52, and tuned down 1 or 2 steps.

There's a nice heavy sound to it. It still sounds nice playing other styles too.

I can't comment on finish and condition when purchased as it's a used guitar. The seller had good credentials and assures me it belonged to Will Adler of Lamb of God, hence it having the custom neck. It's not certified as being so though. The seller is a guitar tech, so set up was as good as it gets.

It was still covered in dirt and dried sweat from the tour it was used on, although it has cleaned up nice. Its a bit battered, and has plenty of dings and scratches.

It's a well built, solid heavy guitar. It not only looks it, but feels it too. It's been toured with by a pro and there's no technical problems with the hardware or neck. Lamb of God is up near 200bpm so it's certainly been played hard.

I broke the output jack recently, and Framus answered my email in 10 minutes telling me who to get in contact with in the UK. The UK main dealer was helpful too. A few phone calls later and it turned out there was a authorised dealer and repair shop near me. I bought a replacement and fitted myself.

This is my first well built custom guitar, and it feels so much so when compared with my Yamaha RGX121 and Epiphone Les Paul. I really enjoy playing it, and it feels so much better than my others. Of course, as a fan it's more than just my guitar, it was used by one of my favourite guitarists.

Would i buy another if it got stolen? I don't think so, I bought this because of its history. I don't know if i could get the same neck either. It's a fantastic guitar though, and it's kept me playing and learning as it's both fun to play and an inspiration.

Strat-type guitar, with 2 Humbuckers (Seymour Duncan Hot Rail and Jeff Beck) additional Singelcoil. Push/Pull Poti for split sounds. 10 different basic sounds!!!
The tone knob is also very effective.
Wilkinson tremolo - best vintage tremolo ever.
Very versatile guitar.

Best of both world sounds! Can match Les Paul type and Strat type sounds (with the right equipment and player ;-) it can sound like Mark Kopfler, Santana and even Petrucci).
All the 10 different sounds are very good. No useless pick-up combination.
If you see one of these guitars in a guitar store - try it out!. You want be disappointed. I think it can easily compete with PRS and MusicMan guitars, although it is much less expensive. If the logo would say PRS it can be sold for more than 2.5 k US$

Thick body with almond sunburst finish. Very well made.
The guitar is very heavy - like a Les Paul. Thick but very very comfortable/playable neck, which is made of Ovangkol. Ebony fretboard and nice mother of pearl inlays. 22 jumbo-like frets, about 1 to 2 mm high.

All in all, a very well build and very versatile guitar that even looks and plays inccredible good.
Oh, yes, it is made in Germany.

I only have it for 10 days. So I realy cannot say anything about its reliability/durability. But looks very solid. I

No experience yet. But have not heard anything negative from Warwick/Framus at all.

I own quite a lot nice guitars (Blade, Ibanez Prestige, Heritage, Fender). Although I have guitars that are more expensive I think the Framus Diablo Custom is almost the most perfect guitar.
Very comfortable to play, very versatile sounding, very nice looking. What more do you want???

2003 Framus Diablo Custom made in germany. Sort of super-strat shape - carved arched flame maple top on swamp ash body. Neck is made of Ovangkol, a dark brown african wood with sort of like greenish and yellowish color reflections. The neck is not finished. Fretboard made of ebony. 22 frets that are as wide as jumbos but not as high. Wilkinson tremolo too, standard tuners and a graphite nut. Three Seymour Duncan PUs - a HotRails in the neck position, a SSLR1 (or what's it called) RWRP single coil in the middle, and a Jeff Beck model humbucker in the bridge position. 5-way switch which works a little different than on a Strat - you get bridge, bridge+middle, bridge+neck, middle+neck and neck as the 5 position, that is, you never hear the middle PU on its own. By pulling out the volume knob you can split the humbuckers.

The maple top is nicely and very evenly flamed. The guitar is finished in "natural", not stained finish. So, with a maple top and a swamp ash back, this is a rather "blonde" guitar. Looks understated, but quite sophisticated.

It came with a gigbag (I'd have preferred a case), and assorted tools for adjustments, including a trussrod wrench.

Well, you got the maple top for brightness and the swamp ash yields a nice bass response too. With the pickups mounted, the guitar is really bright. Not ice pick scratchy, but with a good clean channel you get almost acoustic guitar brilliance. I find the Jeff Beck PU a little too bright for high gain - it tends to be a little raspy in the top end, so I tame it with the tone pot. But it works better for slightly crunched stuff than many "pure" high gain pickups. The Hotrails thing in the neck position I like better in humbucking mode than in single coil mode which sounds a little lifeless. As a humbucker it sings nicely, with a nice rounded bottom. Too much bass for high gain - it tends to be muddy then, but putting a treble boost in front of the amp helps. Yet for bluesy stuff it's very nice. Sonically, this guitar doesn't want to be a strat nor a les paul, to pick the two ends of the spectrum. It's a bit in the middle, where for example a PRS Custom can be found too. Now, the Framus doesn't have the sophistication of the PRS - the JB PU is rougher around the edges than a PRS HFS, and the Hotrails isn't quite as fluidly singing as a PRS Vintage Bass pickup. But the Framus offers a wider range of clean tones due to the in-between positions with the middle single coils, and in fact I like this guitar almost better for its clean tones than for the distorted ones. Might be my choice of amps ("classic" Boogie preamps, mainly).

Manufacturing quality of the guitar is very good. No real flaws. Tuning stability is very good - although the tuners are not of the locking type. The action from the factory setup is remarkably low, which the guitar tolerates without heavy fret buzzing. Together with the low frets and 009 strings, this guitar plays like butter. Linear runs are smooth and easy, the fretboard radius is very comfortable. Due to the low frets, though, a little more precision in playing technique is required to do bendings - a hamfisted approach will lead to a lot of contact between finger and fretboard wood, which hinders bendings. But with a light touch of the fretting hand and a little discipline, it plays very well. This and the low action lead to pretty clean, disciplined playing - this is, for me, not an axe to bang away on. Interestingly, the neck is rather thick, a healthy shape. Which kinda defies the Ibanez notion that only super thin and skimpy necks play fast. The guitar came with a little tin full of wax to treat the unfinished neck. And if you do that regularly and keep the neck clean, it will be very smooth to play. But I had Framus guitars in my hands in the store where the necks where grubby and sticky due to neglect and not proper cleaning, which used to put me off of these guitars. Fortunately I bought this guitar before it had time to spoil in the shop. As it is, and for the price I paid, I have to give a 10 in this category.

Looks solid. The neck attachment - "bolt in", two screws from below, and two from above inside the neck pickup rout - is very solid. Rest of the hardware feels good too. I'd never gig without a backup, regardless of which guitar I'd take with me.

I bought this guitar directly from a company represantative. Very nice guy. I emailed the company for a nice catalogue with high gloss pictures ;-) and it was in the mail three days later. So far, so good...

Been playing for twenty years now. Other electrics include PRS, Gibson, G&L, Ibanez, Yamaha. This is a nice addition, because it offers tones that differ from the established standards. And it plays so well! Some days I wish the neck was finished (I like finished high gloss necks. Grew up with them). Some days I love the way the unfinished wood feels and looks. Some days I think I'll raise the action, but overall I like the excellent playability. This is a really good axe, and for this price, represents really good value. Well, US made guitars are traditionally overpriced here in germany, and it's nice to see that the german makers are rising to meet the challenge. It gets a solid 9.

i think it was made in germany,2003. Yes, a big MADE IN GERMANY on the back of the body.it has 22 frets, bookmatched flamed A maple top, fat strat style. volume, tone, 5-way selector,Pickup configuration is H(hot rail)s H,they are all seymour duncan.neck is an hotrail, and bridge is a jb model,all passive.us swamp ash back plus flamed maple top, Ovangkol(weird wood) neck plus ebony fingerboard.Satin finish, mine is a cherry sunburst. Wilkinson vs 100 trem, framus BOLT-IN,yes bolt in, not bolt on, it likes the washburn n4.
it came with a warwick rock bag premium line

it sounds like a warm strat or clean lp, i mean, a bit warm than a strat, a bit clean than an lespaul, like an prs. it can play everything with it's Humbucker split system.when u need an strat song, pull the volume button,when u need an lp sound, push it.

i dont need to change anything, it came with the best setup

well, it's Made in GERMANY, so it's durability will be longer than any other product.

well, never tried

i'm very happy buyed this product

Diablo Custom made in 2002 in Germany.
Swamp ash body with bookmatched flamed maple top. High-gloss sunburst finish - a classic, in other words.
Neck: Onepiece bolt on maple neck with ebony fretboard. To tell the truth I prefer neckthru,if we are talking about swamp ash, but bolt on is still good, even if we take a look at this attachement.
Low-friction graphite nut.
22 medium-jumbo frets. Neck shape is interesting, not bad interesting.
Wilkinson Vs100 (just like Yamaha Pacifica),Schaller hardwares, locking tuners.
German quality. The entire Labour intensivity, and quality is the best I ever had in my hands.

Electonics:
5-way pickup selector, volumepotmeter is switchable, (coil split.)
The worst point of guitar: Seymour pickups: Hot Rails, Vintage staggered, JB. As I am a professional musician I screwd them out immediately (screwdriver smoked) and thrown them to the trashbox, as if they were never there!
I installed Dimarzios!
To tell the truth from this point of view this guitar is the Mercedes of guitars. Wilkinson is not bad, but not even close to the vintage tremolo of MusicMan.

The one who had the idea to install JB in the Bridge, ought to baffle sheeps!!!ASh rattles JB to death!!!
I use Mesa Mark IV. No need of introduction. I don't use effects, pedals, stomp boxes.
The bridge sound is something terrible. Screaming dry, even the mesa wasn't able to insert the cool fatness. NO bottom end! Hot rails produces the warmth. But what kind of? Artificial Ceramic Magnet warmth, no relationship with vintage ash body Fender warmth! Vintage staggered is really OK. but nothing special.
I use in the bridge Air Zone. Neck is a Heavy Blues, middle is a V2Bridge. Diablo sounds like a very fat telecaster. This way it souns 9 for my ears. With standard pickups it is between 2-5

There is no need to praise it. It speaks for itself. Marvelous job. Action, fit, finish are Fabulous.

No problem!Like a tank

ok.

Labour intensive Job, good woods! With some pickup modification high end instrument!

My guitar was made in 2002, it's a german product so take care. It has 22 frets, the neck is made of ovangkol a chocolate coloured wood from africa, natural finish, looks great feels great. the body is swamp esh with a bookmatched maple top in burgundy red stain. don't even a sunset looks better. the pickups are seymour duncans SSHR, SSL1 and SSH4(jeff beck). no pickguard. the body is strat style but not with this extrem body shaping. the tuners are good working schaller m6 minis. the vibrato is a wilkinson vs100. It works good but no dive bombs please then it loose the tuning. the tone poti is a push/pull type which deactivate the neck sided humbucker coils. all parts are very high-quality. a warwick rockbag is included. the neck action can be adjusted by an included tool. two allen keys are "onboard".

this guitar fits to all kind of music it's an absolute versatile machine. the push/pull poti gives you ten different possibilities of sound and they all are usefull. the jeff beck hum is a killer of tone all treble on 10 and it don't kill your ears. the body is very resonable, the guitar sounds voluminous, warm, got good basses and a rich tone. the single coils are not low-noise but acceptable. from country to rock all inclusive. every motion your fingers are making the guitar is responding. the pickups are very different but a good combination.

The set-up at the factory was good. strings are very low I will set them higher. the low e-string is clattering on the first 5 frets by stronger picking. all parts are in a good condition and well fitted there is no point to complain. the bookmatched top looks very noble. Sorry, but theres no reason to cry.

This guitar is a eyecatcher and it will be played everywhere and at any time. It's made for live performance. Very much guitar for an acceptable price. The hardware looks highclassed and it is so. The strap buttons are big so you won't loose your baby.

Not needed till now.

I'm playing for more then twenty years with no interruptions. My favourite styles are rock, metal and blues. My amp is an engl screamer that's all and it needs not more to get a great tone. I've playing an ibanez proline for a long time. the last guitar I bought was a fender strat from mexico. an absolute disappointment but this is a different story. this framus is a guitar for the rest of my life, I would buy it again if it were stolen or lost. The guitar is a working machine with no real weak points. The first idea was buying a gibson or a prs but the prices are horrable. the framus can stand many comparison. the finish is extravagant. the guitar is easy to play and sounds great, the playing comfort is definitely high.

My Diablo Custom was made in 2001 in Germany by the same company that builds the famous Warwick bass guitars.
Body: Selected US swamp ash body with bookmatched flamed maple top (arched). High-gloss cherry sunburst finish - a classic, in other words.
Neck: One-piece bolt-in flamed maple neck with indian ebony fretboard and custom mother of pearl inlays, 22 medium-jumbo frets. This neck is rather thick, but has his own profile and cannot be compared to any other popular brand; not even other Framus models show the same shape. Oil and wax finish.
The shape of the body probably must be called "super strat" or something: 2 cutaways, roughly the strat shape.
Wilkinson tremolo = vibrato, Schaller hardware: 3+3 M6 tuners, dome pots, all chrome.
Framus low-friction nut (graphite as far as I know).
5-way pickup selector, volume, tone; the volume-pot is of the push-pull-flavour, splitting the coils of the humbuckers.
Pickups from neck to bridge: HB (Seymour Duncan SHR-1 = Hot Rails) - SC (SD SSL-1 vintage staggered, reverse wound for out-of-phase sounds) - HB (SD SH-4 = JB).
There is no single coil sound available; positions 2 and 4 of the 5-way switch give you the out-of-phase sounds with the SSL-1, which is clearly audible.
Passive electronics, no batteries (what a blessing!)
Accessories: Warwick gig bag (o.k., but I always use cases, so I had to buy one), tools, certificate.
I give it a 9 - a case and locking tuners would have earned it a 10.
Or even better (for me): Framus/Warwick should give you the option of a fixed bridge!

A flat 10. The first reason why I decided to write this review.
I play anything except metal, nu metal etc. I guess I am a bit old fashioned compared to many other reviewers; my roots are in the sixties, i.e. blues, blues rock, r'n'b, r'n'r... I also like and play jazz.
Amps: An old Ibanez 60W solid-state combo and a 100W Hughes and Kettner top with a 2x12 Celestion cabinet.
Effects: Quite a lot. Boss GT-3, Line6 POD 2.0, Danelectro mini pedals, Visual Sound Route 66, Line6 FM4 and DL4, Hughes and Kettner Tube Factor, Marshall Bluesbreaker II, Banzai Cold Fusion and a few others.
Now, I always find it difficult to describe the "sound" of an instrument, not only because it depends on all the other parts of your gear, but because "sound" evades precise verbal description and is a matter of personal taste, likes and dislikes.
It is really funny to follow the discussion on the user forums here at HC: "What's the best overdrive?", "What's the best phaser?", "What's the best guitar of all times?" and so on. Just read it and have a good time, but don't take it too seriously ;-)
O.k., so the Diablo Custom is not noisy, it has a broad tonal spectrum from rather warm (neck - Hot Rails) to biting with lots of treble and upper mids (bridge - JB). One of the out-of-phase positions (no. 2) really gives you a strat-like sound, the second one (no. 4) still has this out-of-phase flavour, but only very vaguely strat-like - a kind of its own with the powerful JB showing its strenght.
This instrument is the most flexible and versatile of all my guitars and one of the few I never thought of changing anything (except for locking tuners, maybe - see above).

The second reason that drove me to write this review.
Set-up was very good when I got it straight from the factory. I don't like buying a guitar without having been able to play it, but there were only two options: Either I had to buy the one that I tested at a guitar shop or order it directly from Warwick through a small dealer.
I chose option two and I was not disappointed. I rather trust Warwick quality control than a guitar shop with shredding kid-customers.
As I had to change the string gauge ( from .10 to .09) I also had to adjust the neck, saddles and trem position. That is normal and it also tells a lot about the instrument's quality (does it take an hour or a day?). Again, no problem there, comparable only to my Hamer USA.
Just one tiny flaw: The low E-string is a tiny little bit too close to the edge of the fretboard; this does not impede playability, but I really am hawk-eyed and fussy... (That explains the "9".)
In short: Outstanding playability and finish.

I have it for a couple of months now. Time will tell - some 10 or 20 years, and we shall see...

Never dealt with the company.

This guitar represents a sensational value. Currently US products are ridiculously expensive in Europe because of the exchange rate. This will change, of course, but right now... I would have bought it for twice the price.
I have been playing for over 20 years now (with "time outs", but still..), I am neither a blind company- nor an artist follower ("Fender is heaven, everything else is crap." or "How do I sound exactly like '78 EC?").
Of course I would replace this guitar if it were stolen or lost.
I bought it because of playabilty, sound and looks - and because it does not give me the feeling of being pulled over price-wise by a company (thinking of PRS, Gibson, Fender CS etc.).
The only alternative would have been the Framus AK 1974 aka Jan Akkerman, small US or European luthiers (Suhr, Anderson, Melancon etc.) and Hamer USA, but I cannot test these anywhere (and I already own a Hamer) and so there is no competition for the Diablo.
Btw, I checked out a Framus Panthera Custom and I was not that enthusiastic about it.

As far as I know, this electric guitar was made in 2001. It was built in the factory of Warwick in Germany.
It has 22 frets, a volume and tone knob, 5-way selector and you can split the humbuckers with this volume-push-pull knob.
The configuration is H/S/H with the Seymour Duncan Jeff Beck on bridge, a Seymour Duncan SSL-1 in the middle and a Seymour Duncan (what a surprise!) in the neck position, all passive. One thing, that surprised me, was that in fact you can split the humbuckers in every of the 5 selector postions which shows that in the middle selector position both humbuckers are combined.. This is giving you a total maximum of 10 (!) different sounds.
The body is made of light-weight swamp ash, the neck is made of maple A and the fingerboard of dark ebony.
I chose the Almond Sunburst (brown fades into black) finish although I didn't know how it looked and I am a little bit disappointed, okay, it looks very valuable but not modern. But by the time, I got used to it.
The body style is like a strat. It has a Wilkinson vibrato system and
non-locking Framus (as far as I know by Schaller) tuners which are very good.
The frets are medium jumbo and the neck is relatively fat, more like a Les Paul, not like a Fender.
A reasonable gigbag by Warwick was included.

This guitar suits perfectly to my kind of music, namely everything.
Just think of all the combinations you can switch between!
I use it through a cry-baby and then into a HUGHES&KETTNER Triplex (50W solid-state).
On the splitted single-coil positions it is a little bit noisy (as it has to be), but not on the humbucker and humbucker-combining positions. But you can really get feedback, but a nice one which is very easy to control (just lay your hands on the strings and it's gone).
I can take he Jeff Beck humbucker on the bridge and my guitar starts to scream! Wow! What an output! Definitely more than a Epiphone Les Paul of a friend. The Jeff Beck gives you many overtones if whished. It kicks the amp! It's not bassy but middy and trebly -> a very "hard" humbucker, but I love it. When you split it, you get this ultra-trebly bridge-single-coil sound like Pink Floyd's Another brick in the wall (good for rhythm playing).
The positions 2 and 4 are just like a strat but you have the opinion to take a humbucker + single-coil or 2 single-coils together giving you much variety.
The HotRail (single-coil format but a humbucker!) in the neck position is very bassy and middy and not very trebly. It can give you the sound of Queen (think of the solo in "We will rock you"). I don't like it that much that I expected because it can get a little muddy like a Les Paul. But in splitted mode - clean - it sounds fantastic, really fantastic!! Very warm acoustic sound, almost like a real acoustic guitar. It sounds a bit like the acoustic guitar in "Nithing else matters" in S&M.
Now, you see what my problem is: The Jeff Beck humbucker sounds hard and the HotRail very smooth. And so it is perfect what Framus did: They took the middle position of the selector to combine both and here you are: A very good sound, not too hard and not too smooth!!
This combination was better than just the middle single-coil (which you cannot select alone, only in combinations).

To come to an end: This guitar is very versatile!! You can get almost every sound! I use the splitted humbuckers for clean sounds and the real humbucker settings for distortion and it suits perfectly!!

Even my guitar teacher who is a very pessimistic wants to buy this one.
It was the best sound I've ever heard.

The strings are a little bit too near to the fretboard in my opinion.
Besides, I normally play 0.09 strings and the guitar came with 0.10 strings -> I'll have to replace them.
Almost everything else was good!

BUT: When I came home, I wanted to plug in my guitar cable and it just fell down to the ground!! It couldn't be fixed in the guitar!
So I called Framus and they said that some cables do suit and some not, but I just would have to bend a metal piece in the input jack with a screwdriver, I did this and: It was fixed!
So, I don't know how to rate this. If I had another guitar cable it could have been able to be fixed, but I don't understand that you get a guitar and it doesn't suit to some cables.
I'll give it a 7. Otherwise it would have been a 9.

But what I didn't mention yet: you can easily access the electronics and the input jack: There is a "compartment" (oh god, my English, I am German) on the back of the guitar which you can open without a screwdriver, just with your fingers, just like on Warwick basses, I hope you understand what I mean, so it was easy to fix the problem.

I would never ever play any guitar without a backup! But I think I can trust my guitar, perhaps, as mentioned lower in the other submission the screws of the vibrato system are not stainless (rustfree :-)), but I don't know.
The strap buttons are big, but I am going to replace it by Schaller Security Locks, because I don't want the guitar to fall on the ground!

BY THE WAY: SCHALLER SECURITY LOCKS REF. NO. 446 ARE NOT INCLUDED!!! Only normal strap buttons but good ones.

Oh dear! No homepage, not able to see the finishes properly.
Okay, the guys were friendly,
BUT: MY GUITAR TOOK 4 1/2 MONTHS TO COME TO MY LOCAL DEALER!!!!
OH MY GOD!
They said they had problems with the factory that make the finishes but they'll get a finish compartment of their own at the end of 2001.
So, I'll give a 2 here.

I've been playing guitar for 3 years now and I said I have to replace my cheap, bad sounding Squier Strat buy a good guitar.
I wasn't able to play it before I ordered it - IMAGINE THAT!
And almost 900$ to lose..
But I was very pleased with my new guitar! Such a variety of sounds! Such a good play feeling! I fell in love with its sound!
If I had to buy another guitar, e.g. it were stolen, I would definitely buy another Diablo Custom!! It's almost perfect, in my opinion much better than a Strat or Les Paul.
In further future I would buy a Framus Panthera Custom perhaps, because I love Framus now.
Compare it to a Les Paul: The Diablo is not that heavy-weight and sound much more versatile and not so muddy.
Compare it to a Strat: The Diablo can sound fatter, better for distortion. And the fretboard is much better in my opinion.

I bought it, because I saw that it has Seymour Duncan (YEAH!) pickups and was at a relatively low price.

I just love it and don't want to give it to another person.