Peavey Axecellerator F

Please read the other guy's feature review, cause mine's set up the same way, and I can't type. Paid $184.50 on ebay, And Jesus, what a buy. I've owned Les Pauls, SG's, Telecasters(no strats) and next to my Ibanez Ghostrider GR520, this is my new fave axe. It has so much character. With the H/S/S setup and coil splitter, it can do almost anything!

I play mostly fingerstyle acoustic (Taylor 414ce) so this is mainly for making noise.( I play it clean through a Fender Princeton Stereo Chorus, and narly through a Line 6 Spider) whan I was looking for a H/S/S style guitar, I was willing to spend $500-$600 on a Fat Strat, but took a chance on this Peavey, and it just fricken blows the Strat down the road! God Bless Meridian,Mississippi!

Well, for $184.50 (thank you!! JCwhatever on ebay) I got the guitar better than advertised with Peavey HSC, and ready to plug in & roll! I don't know what the first guy was talking about (baseball bat shit neck) because mine is a very Strat like. (not Ibanez fast, but perfect for riffin' up and down.) The hardware is first rate, and the transparent red finish and pearloid pickguard are awsome. This is the first Trem. axe Iv'e owned, but the Floyd Licensed Trem looks and feels like a 62 Chrysler.

Built like a brick bathroom. Although the gold finish is starting to fade. (normal, from what I read about any 10 year old guitar.)The only gigging I do is in the basement to piss off the wife & dog, And I believe this guitar will handle that easily.

Never dealt with them. (but Hey, they're in Missippi,USA. (so I'll give em a 10) I also own a Peavey Patriot (199somthing)with Dimarzio pickups) and it smokes! As you can tell, I have wandered from the manger of Gibson/Fender/PRS. (all great, but spendy) Go Peavey!)

Been playing off and on for 30 years, (like I said mostly acoustic) but having owned and played the Majors, this guitar is special, (1)because it was made in the USA, (2)because it is simply a thing of beauty, and (3) it just simply blows a fat Strat away, for 1/3 the price. If it were to be stolen, I'd toast the fricken thief. (he got a heck of a deal!)

The Axcellerator F is a strat-style solidbody Peavey made for most of the 90's (it's since been discontinued). My particular model was made in '96 or '97, and came with a maple neck and fretboard, swamp ash body and a transparent blonde finish.
It also has chrome hardware, tortoise-shell pickguard and a Floyd-licensed locking tremelo system. Other options available for this model included standard tremelo with graphite saddles, solid finishes, gold hardware, Sperzel-locking tuners and rosewood fretboards.
For electronics, this line featured 3 single-coil-sized humbuckers in a strat configuration, and a 5-position pickup selector switch. Some models, like mine, were equipped with two pickups stacked together in the bridge position, along with one in the middle and neck positions. Mine also has a mini-toggle switch that splits the bridge pickup or plays the bridge pickup no matter what position the main switch is in.
As far as accessories, this one came with a hardshell case, allen-wrenches for the tremelo and neck and a really cool owner's manual, which offered info on how to do basic repairs to the axe.

The pickups (called Db2 or Db4 Quads when they're stacked together) are quite a bit warmer than most single coils, but still have a bit of the bite single-coil folks love. I play mostly blues, jazz and rock and have used the Axcellerator F for all three and been pretty much satisfied.
The 2- or 4- switch positions (out-of-phase) don't have quite the magical "plunk" that a regular strat would have but the difference isn't enough to bother me.
This booger stays pretty quiet, too.

The biggest beef I have for this axe was it's neck: it was a frickin' baseball bat until I got it shaved down. My left hand would hurt after playing it for 20 minutes. I talked to someone at Peavey who said that it was made this way to lend to the guitar's vintage feel.
Yeah, well, that might float some folks' boat, but there's a reason that some things become vintage: BECAUSE THEY DON'T WORK VERY WELL! The guitar sat in a closet for a year while I searched for a way to make it more comfortable to play.
However, the rest of the guitar was impeccable. It certainly was put together as well as any other guitar I've owned (somewhere around 35 now). The only reason I'm not giving it a "10" is because of the neck.

This could and has withstand live playing. Peaveys are reknowned for their durability and once I got the neck straightened out, it was my main axe for a while. No problems in nearly a year.
I regularly play without back up when I pull 'er out.

Peavey's great; I've called 'em and e-mailed 'em and they've answered my questions well about this and other equipment. And even if something did come up, I'm sure they'd be eager to straighten it out.

This guitar is a good one. Yeah, yeah, I know folks dog Peavey and occasionally, they have good reason. However, prejudice is an ugly thing, even with guitars. These guitars are muy hip and folks should learn to look past the label. Granted, the neck on mine sucked at first but $100 bucks later, it's become one of my favorite guitars.
I bought this thing looking for a change from my hollow- and solid-body axes with two humbuckers. However, my search was guided by the universal truth that I can't get a good tone out of a single-coil to save my life. The pickups on this one give me the best of both worlds.
It's pretty safe to say that I'd buy another one if this one got stole. I've seen some other Axcellerators going for $400 and less with a case so it wouldn't be a big pain. But who's gonna steal a Peavey (just kidding, Hartley!)???
On the serious tip, it'd probably be worthwhile for some of you strat guys to check one o' these out.