Product: Magnatone Zephyr
Price Paid: US $175
Submitted
04/17/2003
at
07:23am
by
Mike Morris
Features
:
4
Magnatones entry level guitar. Small body, incredibly thin, has two non symetrical cutaways that are heavily rounded. Mine is an antique sunburst finish, but Magnatone was (almost) famous for using metal flake and other wild finishes. Has the same basic bridge as the Tornado and Hurricane guitars, although its vibrato is a much cheaper 'Tiesco' looking unit than its big brothers. The bridge sits in a pocket and is allowed to move back and forth when vibrato is used. Funky non-sealed tuners with plastic buttons on an otherwise nice maple/rosewood neck, 24" scale I think, and uses a zero fret with a string retainer. Two single coils, one volume, one tone.
Sound
:
2
I've only played through an amp on a couple of occasions as the pickups sound terrible, very middy, and they squeal at almost any volume level. I've seen eBay auctions that sellers claim wonderful tone from these guitars... I wonder what they are comparing them to? My guitar does not have the stock pickguard, so it is concievable these are not the stock pickups, but they look like all the other Magnatone pickups I've ever seen, although my brothers' Toronado sounds pretty darn good. Rating is for the electronics.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
8
OK, enough of the bad stuff, the reason I bought this guitar is that it 'Feels' great. The neck is small and comfortable. This guitar has a very jangly Rickenbacker sound and feel to it, possibly cause of the suspended bridge and zero fret, I dunno. The finish is checking very prominantly now, but it looks kinda classy, showing its age. Despite the cheapo electronics, the guitar itself feels very polished and it is easy to play.
Reliability/Durability
:
3
I would never use this guitar live, unless...oh, nevermind. I have used it alot over the years though, even taking it on trips as a beater, which it excels at!
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Out of Business.
Overall Rating
:
5
Overall, this guitar could be the ultimate 'bedroom' or couch guitar. It's light, comfortable, has a addictive 'ringing' tone to it (acoustically that is) and cheap enough that you don't mind when the kids knock it over. But it screams out 'Cheesy' in the electronics area, the pickups just flat out blow, blow chunks. Interesting peice that I may sell as eBay prices on these guitars seem to have blossomed in the past months. If it were stolen, I probably wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
