Lotus Strat Copy

I got this guitar sometime in the mid 90s, it was made in India. I never count frets, so I am not sure how many there are. I am sure it is a solid body, but who knows. It is a typical strat , 3 PUs and three nobs, 5 way switch. I am not sure what woods are in the guitar, except the fretboard looks like indian rosewood. It is blue sunburst with a mother of toilet seat pick guard. The body is heavy, just the right weight to balance the guitar well while standing up playing.

This was an excellent guitar off the shelf, as most strats from everywhere overseas are. The machining on the metal parts is fantastic, the pickups were typical strat pickups, good tone and reasonable sustain, for a strat. It does exactly what a strat should.

The action on this guitar was easy to adjust, and, typical of overseas guitars, the neck is well made and straight. The fret work was great, I set my strings low, so I had to file a little here and there, but less than I have had to on fender models that I have had. The guitar was in excellent condition, no factory flaws, and again, typical of overseas guitars, they were identical in production, every lotus I picked up felt the same.

I depend a great deal on this guitar. After having it a while, I yanked the frets and put in jumbo frets (personal preference, the frets in it were fine> I also put some inlays in the fretboard, and used water based urethane to coat the fretboard, which insured the frets stay seated, and gives the neck a nice smooth feel, not to mention the fact it protects the wood from finger wear. I also put EMG pickups in it, because I record with it and wanted quiet pickups. The finish sucks, but, for the price, I can paint it, I use my guitars and expect them to wear, so the finish is not an issue with me. I not go on a gig without a backup, no matter what the guitar is. I have my guitar synth pickup mounted to it, and rely on it quite a bit more than my other guitars, both in the studio and gigging. I would rather take a 200 dollar guitar onstage anyway, I keep the nice stuff put away for the studio....... It is an 8, only because the finish is thin.

I am my own customer support, I mean, this is america, where customer support is a recorded message somehwere out there in telephone hades. I do my own custom work and repairs, and, the warranty, as with Japanese cars and Korean VCRs, is the name on the product. I buy brands I know I can trust, not ones that are just highly advertised names...............

I have a lot of gear, I am not sure how many guitars. I have been playing since 1965. I would replace this guitar if it were lost, and probably will eventually see one in a hock shop that is the same model in a different color that I like. The thing i like about this guitar is what I like about the Japanese guitars of the 70s, it is made as well as and in many cases better than the name brands, and is at a price that makes customizing it and gigging with it not a worry. I cannot see taking a instrument out on a gig that you have to hire a guy with a shotgun to watch over.........

1990(I think)
22 frets
Volume, 2 humbuckers, 4- way selector, 2 tone.

I play in a Jazz band for my High School and the Lotus fits me just fine. I use it with a 20 watt B.C. Rich amp and it works well. I have found that after 5 years teh wiring tends to loosten if you play it too hard.
I don't suggest it for anyone who is just starting.

The action is easily adjusted and I find it ok. I have never had to touch the pickups. The bridge was set poorly, the person before me must have used light strings (.009-.042) all the time because as soon as I put medium strings (.011-.048) on it I had to adjust it. I love the finish. It has never chipped or cracked and i have repaired and changed everything.I bought this guitar as a new player and it looked ok. If you repair this guitar even if you are a new player, you will love this guitar.

I could hit an amp with this guitar and still play with it. I would use it at a gig. If you have never played it at a gig bring a backup.

I have no idea where to get any info. Who ownes this guitars anyways?

Use it if you plan on fixing it or learning about mechanics of a guitar. Get another guitar if you plan on using it right a way. I would call the CIA if my guitar was stolen because I put so many hours into it.

I don't know when it was made. It was made in India. 20 frets. Top is not solid. Volume, 2 tone, 5-way selector on 3-single coils. Don't know anything about the pickups except that they are bad.

For rock and jazz you need a pickup simulater for this thing. Then it sounds ok. I have a digitech RP100 on a little Crate amp. It is noisy and buzzes on all settings. You can't get a full sound with this guitar. No variety. I don't like the sound that it makes w/o effects but if you have enough to cover up the natural sound it's ok.

It was set up poorly esp the bridge. The pickups were decently adjusted. No flaws.

I play it live but it's only because I don't have enough money for a decent guitar. Hardware will last. Finish will last. I replaced the strap buttons w/ straplocks because it kept falling on things LIKE MY BIG TOE! I can't use the whammy w/o going out of tune. I usually have my friend'd guitar as a backup.

Don't know the company. No warranty.

I've played for a year and a half now and have owned all my stuff for a year. I knew it was going to be a cheap instrument, but it was my first electric guitar. I liked how it was cheap, but it was cheaply made. My favorite feature is that it looks like a strat.

I bought this used Strat copy in a Kentucky pawn shop in Dec of 2000. At the time I didn't know anything about guitars nor did I know how to play. I bought it because it was red and I like red. Anyway, it was a red Strat copy with 3 single pickups, five way selector switch, one volume and two tone knobs. It has a vibrato arm. It had a black pickgaurd. The action was crap. Strings were too far up, no intonation was set. I guess the original owner didn't know anything either? Machine screws were absoulute crap. Basically this thing was sick, in a bad way.

When I first got it I didn't know how to play, so I can't really say if it was bad sounding then. Now, after being "super modified", It can compete with any fender out there, no kidding. I'll explain later.

Like I said, when I got it, it sucked. As I learned how to play and how to set up and what is good and bad, I fixed everything myself. By the way, I recommend the book "The Complete Guitar", as it helped me know everything I needed to know about construction, quaulity, setup, and playing. Now this guitar kicks ass. It stays in tune a long time, does not buzz, action is set very low, and pickups have little to no microphonic effect. Body is made of plywood covered in heavy plastic. This is not a bad thing! The worlds most expensive loudspeakers are made of particle wood and plywood. It is very dense and has a tight sound to it. I believe exotic woods in electric guitar construction are overrated.

I could throw this thing off the roof and still play it (if the machine screws were not damaged). This is general for solid body guitars anyway. Unless you pull a Townsend on it ass, it will not break or malfunction. A tank.

Support? Who the hell makes Lotus Guitars anyway??? The neck, body, and hardware are all patterned after fender in fit, so you can replace anything you want to with real fender parts.

Been playing for two years now. I sound fairly good now. Not bad for being self taught. The book "Guitars for the Complete Idiots" is fantastic. I play rock, metal, a little country. The first thing I did with this guitar is take it completely apart and rebuild it. The machine screws were ruined, so I put a set of high quality Grovers on it. It stays in tune now unless you go crazy on the tremolo. I threw the stock plastic nut away and built a homemade brass Floyd Rose locking nut. I don't suggest you make one, but they are nice and you can get one through Warmoth. I Shielded the whole inside of the guitar with aluminum foil. Now outside interference from fans or flouresant lighting will not mess up the sound. Then I Potted the pickups in paffarin wax. This keeps the pickups from working like a microphone when standing near a loud amp or when you knock in the guitar. Then I re-wired the guitar to eliminate a common ground loop. This eliminates noise too. Now the only noise my guitar makes is the noise I want it too! To learn how to do these mods go to guitarnut.com. I made a new pickgaurd out of a white marbled plastic from a plastic shop. It looks pro. Did the back cover too. Remember to foil the back side of the pick guard! When I built the new nut, I lowered the action on that side and the bridge, then filed down the frets that were buzzing. Now my action is at 0.008 of an inch off the frets. It plays like a dream. Basically I turned a piece of shit guitar into a nice instrument with a little ellbow grease. Investigate, get info, and improve your axe! I have let seasoned 20 year guitarists play my guitar and they are blown away at the tone and ease of play from a super cheap Korean beginer guitar. I paid $75.00 for it and bought $60.00 tuners and $3.00 worth of wax for the potting and it sounds like a $1000.00 guitar. Yeah, I could have just got a good guitar from the start, but I feel like I "created" this thing now. I'll have it for the rest of my life.

my guitar is a mahogany wood neck its a strat body, a thin neck, my bridge style is tune o matic, it has volume and 2 tone controls, it has a solid top, it has 22 frets. it was made usa like 6 yrs ago for me it was a custom since i am a lefty

it suits it because i go from heavy to light rock its very versatile.
its got pretty rich sound, its pretty regular so thats what i dont like but its a sweet guitar

i encourage anyone to get it for a first time user

its reall durable seeing that i dropped it once and im still playin it

its sweet

2001 model distributed by Midco and bought from the music store I am employed by.
22 frets.
Solid body instrument.
5 way selector, 3 single coil pickups and master vol-tone-tone control arrangement.
Mahogany body
Rock maple neck w/rosewood fingerboard
Metallic white finish on body, clear satin finish neck
Strat-style body
Traditional style tremolo
Stamped tuners
25.5" scale w/ medium frets and perloid dot inlays

Off the shelf this guitar wasn't much in sound. Just another bargain guitar. I sell these every day to beginning guitar players with a 10 watt Gorilla amp.

Off the shelf... Setup was mediocre to okay. Action a bit high, but not painfully so. Pickups were in the right positions and the neck pocket tight and well fitted. The body's finish was almost flawless. A nice thick polyester coat just like all the imports wear in metallic white. The neck, finished in clear satin was nice and clean, no buff/sand throughs or rough spots. The fret ends nice and smooth... That's right.. Smooth. The fret slots well concealed with the right color of putty. Side dots nice and clean. One small wormhole in the fingerboard was ill repaired at the factory.The black nylon nut a little sloppy in the string slots and not properly shaved on top, but functional. The ugly truss rod cover, ill fitting. The metal hardware nice and had almost no flaws. The pickguard routed cleanly and well protected under the plastic wrap stuff they use. Plating a bit too thin, as I scratched it quite easily on the neck plate when I tried to remove the "serial number" sticker.

As it is, this guitar is not well suited for live playing. The tuners are okay for the bedroom, but not the stage, the tremolo under duress will fracture (The metal seems a bit cheap) And the pickups are on the "cheapy" side. However, the finish is strong and will last seemingly forever. Strap buttons...? Strap buttons never stay on. What a stoopid question. A longer screw will always be needed. As is, the model would probably work onstage if you like your sound as such, but I wouldn't depend on it solely.

We sell these in the store where I am employed. My mission was to prove this guitar as a base model and not solely a beginner's guitar. Customer support for me is impeccable. LOL! My distributor wants me to keep buying these, of course. Warranty...? I long voided my warranty already... Keep reading below.

I have to admit... I was out to prove a point. With better hardware and some minor setup/repair/modification, this guitar would be a decent strat-clone. A base model, you could call it. Like a Camaro without the mag rims, CD player, A/C or ground effects package. A place to start. Just like all those Mexican Strats everybody wants to buy and upgrade.

I am an experienced luthier with 15 years under my belt, but this was an extremely easy job to undertake for anyone.

I simply began by disassembling the guitar and reshaped the peghead to my liking (not a necessary mod, but I wanted to do it) I then sanded the front and back of the peghead and re-lacquered them... I will admit to changing the logo with a readily available water applied decal that I got at a hobby store (Okay, it was the SPAM logo if you must know) After a final coat of lacquer and drying and sanding and buffing I reamed the tuner holes and mounted a nice set of Schaller mini's with perloid buttons. Prior to refinishing I had plugged all the screw holes on the front and back of the peghead with a groovy flourescent plastic rod. I decided to leave off the funky truss rod cover. The hole bothered me less.

Now, the body was fine is almost all respects. Cleanly finished, but a little rough in the cavities. I guess the asian species of mahogany they used rough routs that way. It doesn't appear that they bothered to fine rout the cavities. Now I said mahogany... It's solid and slightly aromatic (I've got Jacksons hanging in the store that are made of this as well), but there's no plywood in this guitar. I wouldn't have bothered with this project had it been plywood. Without putting too much money into this, I routed the pickguard to accept a humbucker in the lead position and left the neck and middle alone. I did, however, use a flat metal humbucker ring to "cover my tracks" where the old rout was. I did replace the pots and wiring and had to do some minor routing where "real" sized components didn't quite fit.

I've already used this guitar on three tracks of a new song I'm recording and have been quite happy with its clean tone from the stock neck pickup and with the crunchy sound I'm getting from the DiMarzio replaced lead pickup.

My point was proven.
I had a solid foundation on which some poor components were placed in the sake of economics.
This guitar was a winner in all respects... BEFORE the mods!
This guitar is as good as or better than any mid priced import after the mods.

2000 Lotus L625
21 Frets
2 Single Coil Lotus Brand Pickups
1 Humbucker DiMarzio X2N Power Plus Pickup at the bridge
2 Tone Control, 1 Volume, 5 way selector
Ash Body
Made in India

This thing sounds better than my Ibanez on the diMarzio but the Lotus pick-ups, well, they suck. I can hold a note longer than any guitar I've heard. I use a Black Widow equipped Peavy amp and Ibanez DS7 Distortion and it's awesome.

This guitar kicks ass and looks good too.

This guitar is very dependable. EXTREMELY STRONG. The finish is thick and doesn't chip. The Ash body gives it the strenght of a rock.

n/a

If this thing was stolen I'd call the FBI in because I dont think I could replace it. I cant find it anywhere.

I recommend this guitar for anybody who jumps around on stage alot.
It may be a Fender Strat Copy, but no Fender can put a fight up against this thing.

Note: This guitar belongs to my son. My wife's new husband bought this for him, and the dumbass didn't know what he was doing. It's about 2 years old. I just recently played it a bit, when my son brought it over so that I could teach him a few things. I was dissappointed.

This clone is just like a standard Stratocaster. Three single coils, 5 way switch. It has 21 frets and it was made somewhere back east. I think Indonesia. One volume, 2 tones. The bridge pickup isn't connected to a pot (it could be if they were 500k pots). Sometimes the 5-way switch gives out and won't let you select the middle or bridge pickups. It has a red finish and a black pickguard. It has white hardware, which makes it look rather ugly, in my opinion. It has a shitty tremolo bridge. The tremolo-bar has fallen out and won't go back in. It doesn't stay in tune very well, and notes buzz out very easily.

My son likes to play alot of punk rock (Bad Religion, Social Distortion, The Suicide Machines, The New York Dolls, The Ramones, Bad Brains) and the single coils on it did not suit his style very well. You need humbuckers to get a good heavy sound. He is using a Fender Champion 30 that I gave him for Christmas last year. It's noisy on all of the settings. As prementioned, it did sound crappy when I used an Ibanez distortion pedal on it. I dislike most everything about the guitar. It's hard to learn on such a crappy guitar - I know, I've been there.

My son set the action himself to what he preferred, and it wasn't too bad. The neck seems to curve forward a bit at the top, so lower frets buzz out. I haven't tried to adjust the truss rod, but that may help it a bit. The frets are different heights, showing that they haven't been filed correctly.

It's a heavy, sturdy guitar. It had a few dents in it, and scratches, I'm guessing that's from my son. I would never gig with it, nor would I let my son. The finish seems okay, but the hardware seems very tacky. I know it's tacky, in fact. I would never trust the straplocks, either, but they don't seem too bad.

I have been playing for 14 years (since I was 16), and I own three guitars: Hamer USA Studio Electric (Dual P-90's, Cherry Red), Hamer Californian USA Electric (SC+HB, Matte Black), and a Kramer Pacer Electric (SSH, Dark Blue). I play through a Randall RG100 Head and a Crate BV412 Cab. I have mulitple effect pedals, mainly Ibanez and Marshall.

I've already stated what I hate, this guitar is aimed towards idiots like my son's step-dad and unknowning kids.

The guitar was bought for my bro but he didnt like playing so it kinda got to sit around for about a year.So I'd say it was bought about in 98.It has 21 frets w/3 singles.Not sure what the neck is made of.The finish is tight metalic blue w/white pickguard(every review said they had the same).

The soung is ight not the best but its not a peice of sh*t but it does have that twang that everyone is talkin about.I do have a peice amp but i have played on other amps and it does sound pretty good.its a good beginner guitar but once you play for a while you can tell the its not that perfect clean crisp sound that you want.

I read all the reviews and it must be the pickups that make it sound kind weird.Im not into the whole changing all your stuff on your guitar.Their are nothing wrong with it as i can tell it play perfecty fine.

This thing is built like a rock.It has gone through a lot of sh*t.It been droped so many times(prolly b/c its heavy as hell I will admit that)but it feels strong.I played on some ibanez's and they just felt cheap like they would brake.If I had to throw a guitar out of a 3 story building they play it after I would definatly want to have this guitar.So I would say get this guitar if you beat the hell out of your guitars and if your on a budget(b/c you can get them cheap).

i never messed with them it prolly be crazy tryin to talk to some arabian people.(I ment that not as racial comment so if you are arabian that please dont take offence)

All the other reviews made it sound like this guitar was a total piece and you cannot make it sound good.What i have to say to them is basicaly if YOU suck the guitar is going to sound like sh*t.But if your good you can make anything sound good.Im prolly goingto get a new guitar just b/c I want to blow some money.Dont get me wrong I love this guitar and will play it till it totaly brakes(even then I'll prolly still keep it).Its never let me down so Ill never get rid of it.Just wait some day you'll see some bada$$ band and their guitarist band playin a lotus(that will be me)

ok, i got suckered it to buying this on sale, it really blows, the features...or the feature would be the body its pretty sturdy ive dropped it a bunch of times no scrathces at all, but the neck and the pickups suck

the sound buzzes, and the high notes suck, i play metallica so this isnt really for me, but with a boss metal zone petal the distortion isnt too bad

the neck seems straight, the finish is nice and shinney, its got a 3 ply pickguard, but came with no unintentional flaws (unintentional is the key word there)

i acctually dared to play this live, and me and the guitar came out alive, i didnt have any problems, although the fat neck makes power chord changes hard when your standing up, but the strap buttons are solid, it is soild as a rock, (its super heavy so i guess that would make it solid...)

i never called the company (i cant speak those weird ass arabian languages)

i wouldnt recomend buying this if you already own a guitar, but if you are a begginer i would suggest, to buy this guitar, change the pickups and the neck, the body isnt too bad, but if you soup this up you can save alot of money. thats what i did, and im glad i did it, now the only thing that bothers me is the 5 way swith sticks, and the wammy bar sucks, but i dont use the wammy bar much and the swith is good enough, but dont buy this and try to soup it up with humbuckers, you have to rewire the whole thing, and the wireing is kinda different on it so it would be more trouble than its worth, just put singles coils in it!!