Olympia OSP-1 Electric Papoose

3/4 size electric, solid mahogany body, one Di-Marzio designed humbucker, full-width neck, onboard headphone amp. Volume and Tone controls. Has kind of a big-butt Les Paul singlecut shape. Thick, beefy body. Olympia tuners - weak and they don't have a fine enough turn ratio. I replaced them with Grover Sta-Tite (retro-style) w/an 18:1 tuning ratio (18 turns of the knob to 1 turn of the string post). Uses regular (.10 - .46) set of electric strings, but is tuned A to A, like a standard guitar with a capo on the 5th fret. Med-high frets, comfy neck, string tension like a Tele - a tad on the tight side but entirely playable. As I got it the setup was poor - had to work on the intonation a bit (adjustable, fairly high-quality 6 piece bridge) and have a friend adjust the action at the nut but it all came together and while it's not perfect, it's danged close.

The pickup/headphone amp in this one absolutely sucks - couldn't get a clean buzz-free tone to save my life and the "distortion" reminded me of digital distortion - raggedy, thin, buzzing. Crappy electronics for sure. I took it all out and put in a Gibson P-94 (a P-90 pickup that will drop into a humbucker designed space), and replaced the vol and tone pots w/500K pots passive. BIG difference.

With all the above work done (intonation, replace tuners, replace pickup and vol/tone, action adjust) this thing now absolutely SCREAMS! Sounds like a lot of work and expense, but this guitar cost so little to begin with (around $150), spending another $100 or so to get it up to pro-quality (and it definately is - I've been gigging regularly with it) is well worth it. The deal is that it's unlike any other guitar I have or have even seen - for solos it really kicks ass w/a nice tube-y distortion, and as the 2nd guitar in a band it gives a song a high, chimey, crystalline quality if you keep it clean and add a touch of chorus if you're so inclined. Nice contrast w/the other guitarist in the band no matter if it's acoustic or electric. I really love this little thing.

The only thing I wish it had is a second pickup. I plan on routing it out for a second P-94 (in the neck position - the guitar came with on pickup in the bridge position) when I get the nerve to take a router to it....or maybe not.

The setup I've been using with this guitar is: 2 X Reverend Drivetrain II > Ernie Ball vol pedal > Silverface Bassman head modified to run single-ended parallel class-A > home-made semi-closed back cab w/ 12" and 10" Reverend All-Tone speakers. I use one Drivetrain for "crunch" and the other for full-on solo stuff when needed.

It does take some adjustment in technique - the frets get mighty close together up the neck. Almost has a Fender Mando-caster sort of sound clean - like the recording of a regular guitar sped up.

Not great for rock rythym - too high for my tastes and brings the center of gravity of the song too far up to give it any meat.

I give it a 4 mainly for the poor-quality electronics it came with. I'm not a big humbucker fan anyway, but this was just dismal. Almost any guitar new will need some sort of setup (action, intonation, etc) so no points off for that. Also the tuners were poorly matched to this guitar for effective tuning. They work ok - just that you have to have a jeweler's touch on the tuners to get it in tune. Very unforgiving.

One more beef with this lil' guy - the neck attaches with only two screws. It's never given me any problem (I've had it only 6 months or so) and the neck joint feels secure, but two just doesn't seem like enough. Could be that this guitar doesn't have the same pressures that a standard scale length guitar has string-tension-wise but I'm still not sure. They are mighty big screws though, and they screw into inserts in the neck.

No experience with their customer support.

I've been playing 36 years, most of it pro. I have way more guitars and amps than any sane person should - all of it stuff I've gathered over my lifetime because it sounds good. If it were lost or stolen, I'd look for another for sure. It fills a niche in my guitar "toolbox" that no other guitar does, and it sounds great doing it. Besides - it's a hoot to play!