Italia Mondial

Bought this guitar new in 2007. It's a semi-hollowbody with an acousti-glass top. Hard Maple neck, rosewood fingerboard. 2 Wilkinson WVC Humbuckers and an active Piezo element in the bridge. 2 separate outputs for the Humbuckers and the Piezo. Volume and tone controls. All in all a pretty versatile guitar which looks cool to boot.

A lot of people commented on the humbuckers being too 'dark'. I've experienced no such problem. Yes - the guitar sounds a good deal warmer and darker then a guitar equipped with single coils, but what did you expect? I play it over an Orange rockerverb combo, and this setup is capable of delivering a very clear, well-defined and full tone, both on the clean channel as on the dirty channel.

The Piezo element is of course another story altogether. Played of my Orange, there's a distinctly different sound compared to the humbuckers. It's a bit louder and a hell lot sharper. (Mind you: All other electric amps I've tried the 2 outputs on have yielded a less distinct result!).
If you want an acoustic guitar: Get an acoustic guitar, or a good simulator. This isn't an acoustic guitar, it's an electric with a piezo element. This doesn't make it useless, it just doesn't make it an acoustic.

I use a A/B/Y-box so I can select which of the outputs I want to use. This allows for a wide range of tones.

I've owned the guitar for about half a year now. So far, the factory setup works for me. I've noted no dead spots on the neck, there's no rattle, and the guitar stays in tune nicely.

It's a fairly light guitar, and it plays lightly on the neck as well. (For me, this makes or brakes a guitar).

One thing to keep in mind though: The bridge contains the piezo element, and it's easy to push a string out of place. If you're used to hammering away with Gibson style stop-tail bridges, you're going to have to adjust your playing style a bit :)

The guitar feels solid enought. If you treat it well, it'll last.

The bridge is the only thing I might worry about when playing live, but for the rest I feel confident that it'll do that for which I brought it on stage. What more can I ask? No matter where I play, I bring 2 guitars anyway. The risk of a guitar actually breaking down is slim, but in case of a broken string, I just want to pick up a replacement.

It's got big strap buttons, so no more rubber rings to secure the strap with this guitar.

I haven't dealt with their customer support, nor had any problems with the guitar.

I'm not too impressed by their website, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

I've been playing guitar for 12 years now, and I've owned a number of guitars and amps.
This certainly is one of the more fun guitars I've played. It sounds good, looks good and with the Piezo element thrown in, this is an interesting package.

At a price of 500 euros it certainly is affordable. Yes - it's a bit weird, but I like that, and playing this guitar really makes me want to try out some other stuff by this manufacturer. (At some point, they made an electric Sitar, and I'd really like to get my hands on one of those babies. Unfortunately, they're quite rare.)

If this guitar were lost or stolen (it was nearly lost at one point, fortunately I got it back!) I'd replace it, because I like it well beyond it's price, and I love the way it looks and sounds!

This is a "reso-glass" (fiberglass) semi-hollowbody guitar modeled after the old supros and nationals, but made in Korea (despite the name). It comes standard with an interesting feature: dual output jacks. One for electric (two humbuckers), and one for acoustic (an active piezo bridge pickup). It has vol/tone controls for the electric, and treb/bass/vol controls for the acoustic side of things.
It has a fairly fat neck with pretty nice action and Gotoh tuners.
So, a pretty versatile guitar, that looks retro cool....

I use it through a Marshall 8100 w/ 4x12 cab, and a Fender Hot Rod Deville combo. The electronics are great and silent. The piezo is active and hot! Good tone, lots of bass and treble..
The humbuckers are not quite as fun. I like bright ringing tones, like vintage fenders or tele deluxes. Even gibson PAFs are way bright and chimey compared to these. They are just dark and muddy. I couldn't get enough definition and clarity from these pickups no matter what I did with either of the amps I played it through, so I needed some new ones...
I bought a pair of GFS "vintage split" humbuckers on ebay and spent a little time putting them in.
TOTALLY WORTH IT. This made the difference. Now the guitar sounds like I wanted and expected it to. These pickups are clear, rich, and with all the definition that the muddy originals lacked. Now it's good. If you don't like your original p/u's, then get these. you won't be disappointed.
So I'll give the original sound a 6
now with the new pickups, a 9

plays well
a solid, well-built, and nicely finished guitar

seems pretty solid and tough, but i haven't really played it all that much..

haven't needed them.
but their website is helpful....

overall, a fun guitar.
I'm usually a vintage guy and I've got a bunch of old Fenders and Gibsons, Mosrites, etc. But I decided to get this new non-american guitar because it sounded versatile and fun to try.
It is.
It plays nicely, and with then new pickups I put in, it really sounds pretty good. the piezo, of course, remains original and really has a great tone...
overall, a nice guitar, especially for the price.

Now called Classic as they've released a new issue - the Sportster which I believe is all wood. This one has Acustiglass top and saves some trees! :) Italia guitars are made in Korea. 22 Frets on rosewood fingerboard, hard maple (bolt-on) neck. Very nice feel, probably not super-fast. Gotoh tuners that stays in tune. Wilkinson hardware. 2 outputs. 2 humbuckers and piezo. What I miss is two volume pots for the two humbuckers (just to have the option). I like everything else about this guitar and don't feel any need to replace anything.

I play rock, punkrock, blues and indiestyle, not metal. I plug in into a Magicstomp and Valvetronix AD120VT. Sometimes I plug the piezo into another amp (Laney EA120; accoustic channel) which can be cool. I like the option. I also play DI. It's not noisy unless you want it to be. The neck pup is used exclusivly for cleans, it's just too dark for distortion (imho). I like more temper and sharper, bright sound when playing full on distortion. This suits me fine and I love the sound and I've got nothing to complain about here, still a 9.

I've got a couple of clips on my page here (recorded DI using sanamp): http://home.online.no/~oleroarh/

Plug and play from factory, just tuning. I did lower it a _little_ after a while (by turning the "screws" on the saddle). It's feels comfortable with it's light-weight (important to me), sits perfect. Easy bends and just great control! Other guitars I own(ed) are Ibanez MIJ Talman, Squire Vista Jagmaster (with seymour duncan) and Epiphones. They are all far behind this Mondial on both soundwise and feel. This is the best part of the guitar.

I've had it about a year and I've played live and I will in the future. This is the guitar I use at band rehearsal (drinking beer :) Treat it nice and it will last. Solid big strap button. I also use nice all leather strap and it's not fallen off yet (no straplocks).

Mailed them once, got reply a couple days later. No repairs needed.

Been playing for many years. I've owned tube amps, several pedals but lately went back to modelling amp and one multieffect pedal. I will buy another Italia Mondial next. I won't be spending $1200 on a guitar anyway :)

I recently submitted a review of this instrument. I'm the guy that noted the 'blisters' in the finish at the end of the frets. I appologize for writing again, but I recently received my 'replacement' instrument and thought folks might find my additional commnets of interest. Sorry, I guess I should have waited to submit my initial review. The features on the 'replacement' are the same as previously mentioned, except this one is blue (the old was black).

Still quiet and crackle free. I'm still in love with the piezo in the bridge. Ah, but an unexpected difference! Remember the 'dark' sounding Alnico V pickups that everyone has commented on. These sound much brighter and are more transparent. Have to wonder if they changed a capacitor or something with the tone control. This is the way a humbucker should sound.

Action from the factory once again is great. No adjustment needed, just tune her up. Plays like butter. The finish flaws that I mentioned (blisters) in my previous review are just not there. The finish on this instrument is near flawless. Also, the knobs on the volume and tone controls are seated better so there is no wobble as they are turned. Got to give them a 10 as all my previous comments have been addressed and the issues corrected.

Same comments as earlier, seems as solid as anything else out there. Treat her right and she should play on.

As stated previously, I had some issues with the previous instrument, mostly cosmetic. The dealer and distributer listened and took care of things. I can't find any flaws on this instrument. I'd say they did their jobs well.

Yes, I'd buy another if it were lost or stolen. I like everything about this guitar, and really can't find anything that I dislike about it. With that said, it certainly won't be the only instrument that I will ever play and own, but this guitar has found a home. I also like the way I was treated by the dealer and the US distributer. In my book, that goes a long way.

This instrument was purchasted in September of 2003. Features seem similar to what other reviewers have posted: Bolt on neck, rosewood fingerboard with nice inlays, synthetic top (only) modled after the old resoglas National/Supro/Airline instruments, wood body, pair of Alnico V humbuckers with one volume and tone control for the pair, piezo pickup in the wood jazz style bridge (height adjustable) with it's own volume and tone control, and three way switch. Seperate output jacks for the piezo and humbuckers. Some people look at this as a draw back, I think it adds more flexibility to your rig. As far as 'features' offered, I liked what I read about so that is why I bought it. Mine came with the Italia hardshell case, check before you buy as some dealers are charging extra for the case. Shop around.

The instrument is very quiet, no crackle or noise that shouldn't be there. Yes, I concur with most of the other reviewers, the humbuckers are on the dark/mellow/warm side. I love warm, but I would have preferred them to be a bit brighter on the guitar (as opposed to dialing in the treble on the amp, which is easily done) as a starting point. No biggie, just something to consider. I was thrilled with the sound of the bridge piezo. For the acoustic purists out there, no it is not the perfect acoustic tone, but it sure is a nice attempt and it allows for some really beautiful blended tones. I was a little confused when initally checking out the pickups, as the output jacks were mis-labled. The little decals marking the piezo/acoustic and electric pickups were put on incorrectly. After referring to the online manual on the web site, I realized what was going on and relaxed.

To be honest, I originally purchased this instrument, thinking that I'd set it up for bottleneck slide playing. But when I received it the action was just so perfect and it played so nicely, that it just didn't seem right to mess with it (at least not yet), as I've got several other Silvertones and Supros set up for slide work. It just plays like butter. Score of '10' on action. Pickup height seemed properly adjusted, nothing needed there. I did notice that the control knobs were mounted funky, so when they were turned they sort of wobbled. Easy enough to adjust, but I would rather not have to. The bodies finish was perfect. My problem was with the neck finish. Now mind you, we are talking about a ball park $500 import guitar, so I at least, wouldn't expect the same level of craftsmanship that you might find on a more expensive instrument. The overalll neck finish was very nice, it was at the edges of the fingerboard where I found the problem. The fingerboard is unbound, and at the end of 'every' fret tang, where the metal met the finish, there was a white 'blister' where the finish appeared to delaminate from the neck/fingerboard edge. I can only assume, that in the buffing process, the metal frets were heated and that resulted in the finish 'blister' at the end of each and every fret. Other than this particular flaw, the finshed seemed fine. So in this category, action gets a 10, fit gets a 8, finish gets a 5, averages out to a 7 or so.

The instrument seems solid enough. Several other reviewers seemed concerned about the 'acoutiglas' top holding up over time. I'm not a 'beater' or abuser, so I don't have that concern. I also play a lot of acoustic guitar, so I'm always careful with the way I handle my instruments, at home or on stage. In general, I think the instrument would hold up fine, as good as anything else. Just a little concern over the neck finish and how it will hold up over time.

As I had concern about the neck finish holding up over time (aforementioned 'blisters'), I contacted the dealer I bought the instrument from (internet) and he contacted the US distributer to discuss the issue. First off, I'm real happy with the way the dealer and distributer treated me and dealt with the issue. They accepted the instrument back and I expect a new one to arrive, without any blemishes or 'blisters', tomorrow. A full refund including shipping charges) was offered. The red flag however, is that it was difficult for them to find me a 'blister' fee instrument. Apparently the 'blister' flaw was very common in the 'current' run on instruments that the distributor had. They went through like 50 and found the flaw in all. I guess the company will need to make some type of adjustment on the assembly line. The bottom line however, was that customner support was excellent so they get a 10 from me.

I've been playing for over 30 years. I'm also a luthier, so I guess I can be a little anal when paying attention to detail (hence they said I was the only person to report the 'blister' flaw to date). But look at the scale for rating here, 10 says 'fantastic value'. Well I couldn't buy the materials to make this instrument for much less than the retail cost. I love those funky old 1950's-60's 'resoglas' National/Surpo/Airline guitars, but being the starving luthier that I am (as are most luthiers), I took a chance and bought an imported reproduction. I'm a player, not a collector of vintage instruments. Yes, I think it is an excellent value for the money. It scratched my itch. And as far as it not being made in the good old USA, folks it is a world wide economy these days and most of what is in your home is not from the good old USA. And I do export the instuments that 'I' build, to clients in other countries around the world.

I think the features have already been reviewed by all the others. Just to add, that mine is the white model, which looks pretty cool. Great to have a guitar which has 2 Humbuckers and a Piezo. But sadly there is no chance to switch between these two pickup systems. If you want to use the piezo, you will need a second cable to go straight into the PA. Well, perhaps that is a good idea (you know how piezo pickups sound with a regular amp), but I am not sure if this is practical when you play it live. So far I have only used the humbuckers live.

I just remember the faces of my band mates when they saw the guitar. Ugh, plastic, how can you take such a thing in here ... But they had to change their minds quickly. This is a good sounding humbucker guitar, with a very fat tone, maybe a bit too fat, lacking some heights, but this can of course be done at your amp. You can play almost any style with this little wonder. Do some jazzy note and the then crank up your amplifier. You will be surprise how this guitar sings. It also creates very nice feedback. Definetly a very versatile guitar. If this is, how plastic sounds, why do we still cut down trees for guitars ...

The guitar was perfectly set up, when I got it. As the whole top is made of transparent plastic and painted on the inside - which seems to be a very complicated way - you will find, that the painting is not perfect, there are some slight variations especially at the separation line between the white and the black. But, nobody will notice this when it's on stage, so who cares ...

I've had the Mondial on stage twice. No problem. Nobody knows, what will happen when the top has to stand a harder beat, probably it will break, but hey, any semi-acoustic will do. Treat it like a ES-335 and you will have it for a long time. The only thing which is bad is, that you will find very thin scratches in the position where the arm rests after short time. Perhaps this can be polished? Haven't tried it.

I asked the German dealer about replacement, they replied within a few hours.

Did you ever see such a cool guitar? Probably you did. But was is also a good player? This guitar is the best of all. Cool lookings, very good components, perfect playability and a very nice sound. Yes, I know, it's plastic, but if you can forget your doubts about this kind of material you will find out, that the Mondial is a very nice guitar, not just an eye-catcher. And the price (o.k. I bought it cheaper has it was kind of second-hand) is very low. Compare it to an Epiphone Les Paul. I am sure, that the Italia will win. I will try to get an unpainted transparent top and put some lights inside one day ...

You can find all the features in the other reviews, it's the same deal. This particular one came with a soft case, but I highly recommend you get a hardcase if you're ever leaving home with this puppy. I'll explain below... Otherwise, it has everything that I would need. The guitar (mine is in the creme color) is also absolutely beautiful to look at. Someone comes up to me at every gig and asks me about the guitar. People who have never heard of Italia think it's a higher end guitar than it really is.

I play this through a Marshall JCM900 Dual-Reverb through a standard 4x12 cab. The guitar has a meaty sound, really full. I absolutely love it. However, if you want a brighter sound, it's all in your amp set up, it can definetly be done. The guitar is quiet when you're not playing and I never get any unwanted feedback. Behold the power of humbuckers. I played this guitar in the shop for 5 minutes before I decided I wanted it.

The guitar arrived to me set up just the way I would want it. Quite surprising actually. I had a guitar-tech friend of mine look at it and he said the neck was perfectly straight.

Treat this guitar like you would treat your newborn child. Being a semi-hollow body and made of pretty much plastic, it's not going to hold up if you bang it around. I haven't had any problems with scratches from playing (as there's technically no pickboard, it's all connected to one big piece) but I put a few small cracks in the plastic by swinging it around a little too much. All the hardware seems better than the typical junk you get with Korean-made guitars. There's also no buzzing, unlike every Korean Epiphone I've ever played. Just don't be throwing it in the air or anything.

Some moron decided to give my guitar a test run in our practice space and ended up smashing a hole where the treble knob used to be. I contacted the company (www.italiaguitars.com) to see how I could best repair that sucker as the whole front of the guitar is one big piece. They sent me a whole new front of the guitar free of charge (minus shipping) and instructions on how to take the guitar apart. They're all the way in Korea, so I wouldn't want to send it back to be repaired. But free parts to DIY works for me. They ended up saving me a lot of money to saving me from having to glue some piece of plastic back on.

I've been playing for about 8 years. I play a Standard Telecaster, and I played an Epiphone Casino until I replaced it with this guitar. It is my favorite guitar of all time. It has the beauty of a semi-hollow body with the power of a SG. I simply love this guitar.

Two humbucking pickups, 1 volume, 1 tone control and a pickup selector switch. 1 piezo pickup built into the bridge that has volume and two tone controls. The piezo has a separate output jack from the humbuckers, and due to the preamp [battery in the guitar] the piezo has a much higher output. Having the separate pickup schemes is very cool, pretty unique for a guitar in this price range, and bumps up my rating. Not having separate volume and/or tone controls has been a downer for me. I've missed them, and they'd be pretty difficult to retrofit in since the top is sort of a molded plastic style design.

I think it's a rosewood fretboard on a guitar made out of acousti-glass (some kind of plastic laminate). It sure looks cool though. It's got a floating tailpiece, and a bridge like you'd see on a gibson hollow body style guitar. Whcih makes sense since it is a hollow body. It's kind of like an old supro or national guitar. That alone counts for something. It's a pretty unique instrument. Other details - 22 frets, gotoh tuners, Wilkinson Design Alnico V Humbuckers.

I play a mix of jangle-pop-rock, alt-country, and roots rock. I usually play pretty clean. The more I play, the more I realize I'm basically a single coil guy who wanted some humbucker warmth and fullness, but still to have some single clean and sizzle. This is about right for me. The humbuckers sound real warm and full. They are on the dark side but when shopping I compared this to a PRS Santana model, Fender Toronado, and Fender Dual-Humbucker thinline Tele. The Italia Humbuckers cut through way more than those guitars, and there was far more single note definition even in chordal playing. And they are humbuckers, so it is a pretty quiet guitar too. The fact that this is a hollowbody guitar likely has a bit to do with that as well. (Other guitars I've found that do some similar things are a Les Paul Deluxe with mini-humbuckers, which I can't afford, and a Reverend Rocco, which cuts through nice while having that warmth, but is still more Fender sounding than hollow-body-esque.

I do tend to set the amps to the bright side to get the definition I want from the guitar, and of my two amps, think the brigther amp suits the guitar way better. The low strings sound real rich and full. But on clean settings the high strings don't quite have the warmth that I think would come from a wood body. It just sort of sounds - well - a little plastic. Playing with a trio (me on guitar, plus bass & drums) things are pretty good with the Italia. Playing with three other Strat weilding guitarists at a jam, I felt like I was in mush land.

Some of the same challenges came through in recording - the guitar was real warm and thick, but getting that across took up a big part of the mix. Switching to a thinner sounding guitar gave us more sonic options in terms of what else we wanted to layer in. The thinner guitar (an old danelectro single pick-up for the particular song we were working on) took up less space and cut through better. But the Italia's more versatile on the stage, and worked well on different songs where a fuller guitar sat better in the mix. So your milage may vary.

Regarding the piezo - real cool to have. The way to use it is to do a second cable out of the guitar and send it to a different (clean) channel on your amp, a second amp (preferably acoustic? I dunno - haven't tried that), or to the mixer / soundboard while the humbuckers are feeding an amp. This gives you some cool tonal options. There's a lot of shading you can do with the piezo built into the mix. I haven't played with that aspect in the studio or live yet, but noodling around home, it's been pretty cool. And again - it's pretty unique to have the piezo on something in this price range. It sure won't pass on it's own for even a decent hollowbody acoustic though! If I was planning to do any more than about 1 song acoustic in a live set, I'd still bring my acoustic. I'm pretty picky about my acoustic sound.

Fit and finish seem pretty impeccable to me on this instrument, and as I've alluded elsewhere, it looks great. At the store, it played fine too, but I play with a pretty heavy string set (11 to 52) and insist on a wound third string. So the first thing I seem to have to do with any guitar I purchase is take off the plinky little strings it comes with and put on a real set. Inevitably, this also requires mucking some with the action. This was pretty easy to do with this guitar, and while I'm not sure I've perfected it yet - I've got no beefs here. Oh - and if I wanted a vintage guitar that looked as cool as this one - goodness knows what I'd be able to find in this category!

Everything seems pretty good. I don't know that the tuners hold real tight - they seem to let the strings go flat more often than on my other instruments. I've no idea of how well the plastic top is going to resist scratching and otherwise hold up to use, but have no reason to be suspicious either. Electronically, it seems real tight, the stap buttons are quite tight and really hold the strap, and I feel like I'm holding a real solid hollow-body - much more impervious to damage than 335's or Gretch hollow-bodies I've noodled on.

I think the store said it came with a one year warranty? The website has enough details that I'm confident a store could fix the guitar without it going back to the manufacturer.

I've been playing for 15-16 years, and easily owned over 20 guitars in that time. Mostly they've been guitars in about this price range, and this one is definately above average. It looks cool, the piezo is a neat trick, and it sounds very smooth. The looks are a little more unique than the sound, and it requires an amp set to let the treble cut through, but it still has a more defined dual humbucker attack than the other guitars I tried in the price range. There are a couple of things I wish it had (dual volumes for the humbuckers), but there are enough things I like about it that while I'm not sure it is going to stay in the collection forever, I'm not exactly rushing to sell it either. I really think for the price range, it is an excellent guitar, and if I were to sell it, I think I would be doing so to buy something more expensive than another $400 guitar.

Not sure of the year..but it is new
Two Piece Center Jointed Agathis Tone Wood
Italia Acousti-Glas TOP
Maple with Bound Rosewood Fingerboard
22 Med Fret
25.5 Scale
2 Wilkenson Designed Alnico V Pickups
Italia Piezo Jazz Style Bridge
Italia Action Angle Trapeze
Gotoh Tuning Keys
Three Way Switch
2 Band EQ for True Acoustic Piezo Sound
Maple "Center-Lock" Bolt-on Neck
One tone and Two volume controls
It has an Awesome Cream Finish

This guitar sounds great!!!
I use a Laney LC30 II
Rich and full ....Some people talk about the hummers being dark..Guys thats what EQ's are for.. my Laney has a Bright button also...I've got the bridge humbucker sounding like a Vintage Strat Sgl. coil
This guitar can do most anything tone wise...Even a Ovation elec. acoustic type tone...

Setup was pretty good from the factory...but I'm changing the strings to something alittle heavier..maybe try some flats on it
Action was alittle higher then I like but overall fantastic!
No flaws........
Played like a dream right from the Italia Case....

Seems pretty durable....the rubber bumper down the middle should help when you bump it
Hardware seems to be a upper grade..none of that Cheap DeArmond/Epiphone stuff here..
The strap buttons are bigger then normal..but I like that for the front button because of the location of it..your always pushing the guitar away and with a normal button you might push the guitar off the strap..I will be putting on Dunlop or schallers on it..
Depend on it ? I'm going to use it as my main guitar..
I always gig without a backup..been doing it for 9 years without problems

Who...? the dealer seems well put together and has a super high ebay rating which has to count for something:)

Been playing almost 10 years..gigging 9.5 of those...
I've owned over 30 amps...and about a dozen guitars and yes including expensive stuff:)
If this got stolen I'd buy another...and I'm thinking of buying more Italia guitars..they got one that has a crock tolex shrink wraped on the body...Man-o-man that would turn heads also:)
I love the looks...the feel..the tone...the retro-vibe:)
For what I paid for this it beats everything out there in "Turning heads"..."Fit and Finish"...and Playability

This is a 2000 model, and has pretty much all the features listed in the other reviews, like mother-of-pearl fret markers, chrome plated pickups etc. It has two volume knobs, a tone knob and treble and bass knobs. It also has two outputs, one ofwhich has a very dirty in built distortion, while the other has a clean sound. The retro 60's style is really nice, and this particular guitar is coloured 'Sea-foam green', which also makes it stand out. The best thing about this guitar is the uniqueness of it: It looks and feels like no other guitar I've played. The acooustiglass top looks like it could crack, but feels really solid. Everything else could say about the features has already been written aboove, so I won't go over them again.

This guitar actually looks really out of place for the kind of music I play (which is mostly Punk), but it sounds brilliant for just about everything I play on it. I use a crate GX1200 amp, and a Marshall Guvnor overdrive pedal, and the Mondial sounds fantastic wth medium gain played very very loud! If you use the inbuilt distortion, you get a really dirty 60's style sound, which can be adjusted with the treble and bass knobs. I tend not to use it very often, as it doesn't really suit my style, and is hard to change between clean and distorted (ie you have to actually change which socket the jack lead goes into!). On an acoustic kind of setting, the guitar sounds really rich, with some nice smooth sounds. It is a very versatile guitar, with the extra knobs, outputs and fantastic pickups, so it would easily suit any style (I've played everything from Ska, funk, metal to Satriani and Clapton style stuff on it). Basically, the sound can be easily changed for whatever you want to play.

This guitar had a perfect factory setup, and a great action. The only problem is when the strings are changed, as the bridge kind of comes apart, and you have to mess around with the action for a very long time. Also, the bridge tends to let the strings move out of place if strummed too hard, which is a little irritating. Apart from that, it came beautifully finished and put together.

This guitar will withstand live playing (I've only tried it live twice), although it does tend to chip easily on the bottom. The hardware will definitely last, as it's all pretty unmoveable, encased in the laminated body. The finish across the top will easily last, but you can't help feeling the acoustiglass feels a little delicate. The strap buttons are solid, and I would definitely depend on this guitar. It feels solid and slightly heavy, and I would not hesitate to use this guitar without a backup.

When I bought it, they gave me a years warranty. However, I have no idea how to contact Italia, I have no numbers, addresses or anything to do with them. I've never really needed to contact them, and I hope to god I never do.

I've been playing nearly a year (not long, I know), and I also own a Dean Avalanche 7 string and a Saxon Folk acoustic. If I lost this guitar, I would definitely buy another. I love it toomuch, and I've never found another guitar as enjoyable to play, and believe me, I've tried a lot. I love it's individuality, it's sound, it's look, basically everything about this guiatar. I like standing out against other guitarists with this guitar. My favourite feature would have to be the look, as it's the reason I looked at it in the first place. I compared it to a BC Rich, an Epiphone SG and countless other guitars, and there was basically no other guitar with as many features for the price of this one. I wish it had a tremolo bridge, but for how often I'd use it there'd be no point. All in all, a really nice guitar for any playing style.

Just a quick update on my previous review...

By using both pick/up outputs into either a twin input amp, or a four track portastudio with a line out to the amp, or even a two-jacks-into-one converter you can get a fair simulation of the 'Rick-O-Sound' stereo output of early '60s Rickenbackers. This does actually take quite a lot of fiddling about with balancing volumes on the EQ and vol/tone pickup controls, as per the already mentioned 'why is the acoustic sound so loud and the electric sound so quiet on this guitar' thing. Even better, you can put the piezo through the 'clean' channel and the electric through an effects box giving you instant Teenage Fanclub 'acoustic and electric rhythm guitar at once' without overdubbing... maybe if I put the acoustic on chorus and the electric through the echo box I can create a small Dave Edmunds type 'wall of sound' symphony of guitars...

As a result, my rating of the sound of this guitar, based on its variety, has gone a notch higher

This is made 2000 or 2001 Don't know where - Italia suggests one thing, but I believe they're designed by British "Fret King" custom guitar specialist Trev Wilkinson. I also believe they're discontinuing them in the UK to launch new models, though I've also seen it listed as a 'hot new product coming this year' in a US magazine, so who knows?
22 frets, rosewood neck with both square mother-of-pearl-effect fret markers and what looks like the real thing dots. Pickups are 2 x alnico humbuckers covered in chrome plus piezo in the wooden bridge - separate jack outlets for each configuation. Tuners are Gotoh, 3 a side, with big mother-of-celluloid tuner knobs. Body style is really like nothing else - hollow body, kind of jaguar-ish shaped, shiny black 'acoustiglas' (plastic) front and back with wood neck, f-hole, with cream contrast scratchplate with p/us moulded in to it, double cutaway, contoured. Single selector switch for bridge/neck humbuckers, vol/tone covers both; the piezo has a bass & treble that look like pots but eel like EQs, a second volume covers the guitar in either mode. This takes some time to work out, by the way. Neck seems more acoustic width than Fender narrow, frets I don't know alot about - it plays without buzzing right to the top is all I care.

This works beautifully on acoustic setting - bright and rich - for country/Byrdsy jangle/style; on the shop's Marshall the humbuckers sounded sweet rather than dirty - at home on a Boss practice amp there's some background hum on the humbuckers and the sound is noticeably quieter than the piezo - if you crank up the amp on both pickups you can get a nice Casino-type sound for Beatles tunes or a mellow chord sound. I was kind of hoping for maybe a little more bite and Gibson-type sustain with the sweetness for those odd moments in rehearsals when you play blues riffs while people try to decide which song to do next, in between real songs. The sound suits me because the Byrds, the Beatles, Love, Buffalo Springfield, Kinks, Big Star, Miracles, Temptations, Flamin' Groovies, The Church - generally, anything where the guitar needs to sound melodic - is the basis of the sound I'm going for when I write songs. I reckon if (a) I ever played guitar solos and (b) they had to cut I'd need a stompbox of some kind.

I don't know if it's possible to run both pick-up configs into one amp using two leads. Having to switch sockets and boost the amp volume settings when you're going from using the 'acoustic' to the 'semi-acoustic' sound could get fussy on stage. No feedback though, which is a bonus.

I'm giving a 10 for the acoustic sound and a 7 for the humbucker sound, rounding down to 8 until I've worked out how to boost the electric volume in a less labour-intensive way.

pick up selector sounds a bit dusty/noisy
everything else seems fine
intonation good right out of the shop window - no obvious flaws on the body or chromework
but I don't really look for this stuff anyway - I'll get someone to look at it

Body/scratchplate finish is 'dyed in' so no finish to scratch off, strap buttons are oddly large - one is behind the neck, which is going to mean finding a strap that can go 'face on'. The pick-up selector, as mentioned above, seems a bit frail. The one thing I can imagine going wrong if you left this guitar in the wrong place is the rubber seal that holds front & back together.

I only bought it today, with the aim of playing live - I can't see how much could damage a plastic body with moulded-in pickups, but I always try to look after guitars anyway. We couldn't find a hard case that would fit it, though - certainly too big for a Tele or Paul case and too thin for a 335 style, so getting it to the gig in safety could be a problem.

Playing without backup would depend on the gig - I hope to use this guitar to save having to carry both an acoustic and an electric with me; but I also like to use tremolo on some songs, which this hasn't got (and you probably couldn't fit one with the chrome six-stepped tailpiece without ruining its 60s sports-car vibe).

I'd like to see it last - it deserves to. I think this could be seen as a classic one-off piece of styling in a few years (where the other Italia models look like a Hagstrom Swede and a mutant Strat, this is unique)

What warranty?
I don't even know how to contact the company - hope I never need to

I've owned guitars for maybe 15 years but only started playing when I started to write songs maybe 10 years ago. My others are a Fender mexico Powerhouse Strat, a Johnson dobro-type acoustic, a Framus thinline semi (which I'll be selling to cover the cost of buying this) and a Tanglewood bowl-back electro-acoustic (which may now have to go as I don't really need two plug-in acoustics. I use an H-H studio 50 with reverb, and I also use a Zoom delay unit to get 50s-ish echo and a Danelectro mini-chorus to get extra warmth on acoustic numbers.

I tried out a Danelectro U2, a De Armond m-65 and M65-C, an Epiphone Crestwood and a Telecaster, but realised that what I really wanted to complement the Strat was something completely opposite in looks and sound - not a solid and not open coil pick-ups, so this fitted the bill, plus it suddenly came down into my price range. The 3rd pickup was a real bonus that clinched it as being a great buy.

If it were stolen or lost I'd try really hard to find another non-mainstream looking electric guitar - and if I couldn't get one of these and bought a standard 2-pickup hollowbody I'd probably have to go get another acoustic as well, so it would mean costing a lot more...

I love the piezo sound, the way the guitar looks like it's a toy but plays like a really well-rounded instrument. I wish the humbuckers were as loud and clear as the piezo and - at the time - I was disappointed that they only had the black finish, not the ice-blue, although having now thrown a few shapes with this, the black-and-white gives it a real chic look that a fender-type colour wouldn't have had.

I'd definitely have paid extra for a fitted case, especially as (a)finding one is going to mean the guiatr can't leave the house for a while and (b) I already know it's not gonna be easy to find one to fit - maybe Italia don't want people to gig these guitars and it's their way of saying 'just use it in the studio'?

Right now, I'm in love with the look and 70% of the sound, so I'll give it high marks - if it either inspires me to write new stuff or turns out to rock with a live amp set-up, I'll come back and go up to 10; if it turns out to be beautiful but useless, I'll let you know.

If anyone has any tips on how to get the 'electric' sound of this guitar up there with the piezo sound so I can switch from song to song without lots of amp-twiddling, let me know.

This is one really cool looking guitar that is modelled after the 1960s Italian guitars. The model I bought has a plastic top (the manufacturer calls it acousti-glass, whatever that means) and a wood back (I assume mahogany, but I'm not sure), semi-hollow with a black rubber gasket between the front and back. The guitar is cream with the fretboard (black) molded into the top. There is one f-hole and an art deco chrome tailpiece. THis is a year 2000 made in Korea. The neck has 16 frets to the body and 22 total frets; rosewood fretboard with mother of pearl type plastic rectangular inlays as well as real mother of pearl dot inlays. It has Gotoh tuners with plastic mother of pearl tuning knobs. THe headstock and back of the neck is painted gloss black. There are two Alnico humbuckers and a Piezo in the bridge with separate input jacks for each. There is a three-way switch and separate volume and tone controls for each input jack. The pickups are chrome. If you like odd art-deco guitars, this is it.

I play mostly blues and rock and this guitar suits my style. I'm playing it through a Princeton Chorus. The neck pickup is nice and mellow, but I wish the bridge humbucker was a little brighter - with the switch in the middle position the guitar can sound a little muddy (it could just be my playing). The piezo sounds great, nice and bright. I haven't had much success playing with both the piezo and the humbuckers.

The action is in the mid range and the setup was just right. I messed around with the pickup adjustments and ended up putting them back to where they were when I bought the guitar. The frets could be a little lower. When I first got the guitar home, I checked it over for flaws and was pretty impressed with the crafting of this guitar. I have a couple of other Korean made guitars and this one is by far the nicest. The fret ends aren't sharp, the neck seated well, the inlay work is nice.

THis guitar is built like a tank. It is heavy (in fact, a little heavier than I like) and so far it has withstood everything I've done to it. I don't tend to abuse my guitars, so I have every expectation that this one will hold up well. Since the top is plastic, it should be indestructable. So far it hasn't shown many scratches (although, it does sometimes suffer from static cling). The strap buttons (non-locking) are oversized so I don't worry about the strap falling off. THere is an irritating "Mondial" nameplate attached to the pickguard (a raised metal tag like the nameplate on a car) that got in the way of my playing. I ended up prying it off of the guitar - if I ever sell the guitar, I'll put it back on, but I'm surprized they stuck it there to begin with.

I haven't had to deal with the company. The warranty is one year, but there wasn't any warranty material with the guitar or any other documentation. Everything gets done through the dealer.

I've been playing for about 30 years but only seriously the last year or so. The only other electric I have is a 1965 Fender Duo-Sonic which I really like, but it isn't nearly as versatile as this guitar (and doesn't sound as good). If I lost this thing, I'd probably get another. There aren't that many electrics on the market that have truely artistic looks and sound nice too (at least not in my price range). I looked at a lot of other guitars of comparable price and this one came out on top both because of the uniqueness and because of the playability. My only hesitancy was the fact that this is apparently a new company without a track record, but so far I've been very happy with this guitar.