Peavey Generation Custom ACM

It's a made in china guitar and has been discussed a fair bit elsewhere in this thread. S/S/H pick ups, piezos for an acoustic sound with active pick ups, basswood body, rosewood neck, and shaped like a tele.

Everything you'd want for most sounds except for the tele bridge hard twang. But there is a problem, read on.

It was going to be perfect, but here's the problem. I have a Peavey bandit 112 which I love, just a guitar through the amp does me for gigs. But the trouble is the Peavey guitar is just too noisy, and I will go back to that. The pick ups are good - I like the humbucker which wasn't too harsh and is nice and rich, and the two singe coils were OK too. Lots of different sounds for the price and a real bargain.

But here's my problem. It's powered by a battery, both the piezo bit and all three pick ups, and when I got it back to the house and plugged it into the amp there was an unacceptable level of hiss even without strumming a note. I unplugged it, plugged up my tele, no hiss. Plugged the Peavey back in...hiss...took the battery out the back...no hiss now but pick ups incredibly weak.

Took it back to the shop and they said it was hissy too, then took another one off the rack in the shop, plugged it in, and hissssss. I did this with the guitar tech. These guitars are made with an on board amplifier that is just too noisy. It's unacceptable. I so wanted to like this guitar as I like the Peavey ideal and this seemed to be a great allrounder. It's just too cheap though.

The action was too high actually, some of the higher frets aren't dressed that well or the fret wire has been put into the neck badly, but it has a hard body and the notes sing with plenty of sustain.

It's a cheap guitar but like most Peavey stuff it just feels tough, the body feels hard..... the neck feels as though it isn't properly finished front and back but it feels tough too and I enjoyed trying it out in the shop.

The pick ups were adjusted fine, intonation slightly out. But quickly got it to the stage where I could gig with it.

I honestly don't think you could play this guitar live. It's just too hissy. It was driving me round the bend just practising. Maybe the hiss would be hidden in the general noise of what happens on stage with the PA and all that, but plug the guitar in and, whoosh, there is a hiss coming out of your amp.

They are brilliant at getting back - I emailed to ask what the wood used for the body was and they got straight back to me.

I have been playing for 35 years, I've got an American tele, a Mex strat modified, and a beautiful old Ibanez Les Paul copy I bought new in 1977 that plays like a dream.

Amplifiers are Peavey bandit transtube 112 which I love, a little Squier 15 watt amp for practice with I love, and I try to gig us much as possible in a little covers band.

I chose the guitar because I wanted to be able to have all the sounds of different guitars, and an acoustic guitar, in one piece of kit and that's the appeal of this guitar.

I love the fact that it's a Peavey and it tries to give you everything in one place.

I really wanted to love this guitar as it feels tough and I like Peavey because they aren't Fender or Gibson.

But this guitar has a fundamental design flaw in my opinion, I kept it for one night playing it for about three hours, tried it the following morning, then took it back and got my money back. It's a great guitar in theory let down by an unacceptably noisy on-board amplifier, surely that's got to be fixable?

2005 model made in Korea, Tele Syle Body, Basswood with Quilt top (Brown Sugar) binding on back and top, maple neck, satin finish, 22 fret w/ rosewood fretboard & painted headstock.
Pickups: Peavey H/S/H w 5-way switch and Piezo Analog Accoustic Modeling (ACM)circuitry which uses a 9-volt battery, 3-way toggle switch Accoustic/Blended/Magnetic. One tone control for the magnetic pickups, separate volume controls for Mag pickups and Piezo ACM. One stereo output with a "Y" cable included.
Graph Tech saddles on a steel plate bridge, Grover non-locking tuners, and roller string tree.
Guitar does not come with a case but does include all hex keys

Great range and variety of sounds with this guitar. I have been using this guitar for about a month playing country and classic rock. The mag pickups are well balanced with only a slight volume drop on the single coil. The Piezo pickup is very bright and brilliant, it realy stands out. I usually blend the pickups with the mag p/u on full and the piezo at aprox 1/4. I tried using the stereo cable sending the piezo through a pa and the mag p/u through my guitar amp. This works well but I would prefer to have an EQ for the piezo. For now I prefer to use a mono cable to my guitar amp and blend the p/u's using the piezo volume control. I am still experimenting with different setups and may use a separate accuostic amp in the future. The amp I use now is a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe w/Celestian Vintage 30 speaker. Overall I'm very pleased with the tone and sounds I can achieve with this guitar.

Although some have experienced problems with finish and malfunctioning controls my guitar was problem free. I am very impressed with the finish considering the price of the guitar. The tone control was a bit scratchy at first but it seems fine now. The factory set up was good but I changed the strings right away. The 5-way swich feels cheap but does not make any noise, the three way toggle makes an audible pinging noises through the amp when selecting. I realy like the Grover tuners and I'm impressed at how this guitar says in tune. Neck had a nice feel and plays well at all positions.
My main complaint with this guitar, is that it is very neck heavy and does not balance well when using a strap. I am used to playing Strat style guitars with heavy ash bodies so I'm not used to the neck always wanting to droop down. On the plus side this guitar is a lot easier on the back at the end of the night. For the price of this guitar I am very happy with the setup and finish.

I use this guitar live with a backup guitar but have not had to use it. Although light in weight it seems very solid and well built. I like the wide strap buttons but will probably replace them with locking ones. I tend not to abuse my equipment so I expect this guitar to hold up nicely.

Have not had to deal with the company.

Been playing for aprox 15 years. My other guitar is a 1998 G&L S-500 USA and before that I used a 93 Strat Plus Deluxe. I was looking for a guitar with humbuckers and piezo accoustic pickup. I chose this guitar over the similar Godin Solidac because I wanted a fixed bridge and one stereo output. I prefer the Peavey body and headstock design, especially the quilt top and it was more than a hundred dollars cheaper. The Solidac did have locking tuners but I have no problem with the non-locking tuners. I Do wish this guitar had an EQ for the Piezo even if it increased the overall price. Overall I am very happy with this guitar and would definately reccomend it. It is a great guitar for the price, but I would check it over thouroughly in the store and make sure everything works.

Since Mike, in the pervious review, has done such a good job describing the features of this guitar it would be redundant to repeat them again. However, I will say that this guitar offers a lot of technology for $525.

This guitar offers a varity of electric, acoustic and a combination electric and acoustic sounds that can cover most any mucical requirement.

I purchased this guitar Musician's Friend and the first guitar they sent me was a sunburst color. This guitar had fret buzz and the volume pot was defective so I returned it. The next guitar that they sent was a brown sugar color and this guitar had fret buzz and there was a knot in the wood on the back of the neck. So this time I called Peavey and they said ship the guitar to them so I did at a cost of $16 to me. The folks at Peavey said that they would replace the guitar. The replacement guitar they sent had a bad volume and tone control pot. So Icalled Peavey again to the report the problem. I was so sick of shipping guitars around that I asked them to just mail the some new pot and I would replace them myself. About eight days later I received two used pot that they had pull out of another reject guitar. I installed the pot and the guitar and it has been working OK for three weeks now. In addition, instead of the binding being all white it has a vintage white changing to the white but at this point I said just said screw it. The setup was OK. My initial pruchase of this guitar started in late November 2004 and it was February 2005 before I has a working guitar. Sorry no more online guitar purchases and no Peavey guitars me.

I the past fifteen years I have purchased about 18 guitars and I have never seen such poor quality control as Peavey has. As matter of fact I sent the a letter them stating that they needed to improve their quality control process. After having sent them this letter they respond by send me another defective guitar. Getting 3 bad guitars in a row is not a fluke it's just poor quality and a lack of attention to dtails.

Musician,s Friend was willing take the guitar back that Peavey had sent me but I said no because I was fearful getting another bad guitar. So I just fixed the bad one that I had. Peavey was very nice and responsive but these guys are just a sleep at the wheel.

I have been playing for about 15 years and I currently own 6 other guitars i.e., Guild Blues Bird AAA Top, Guild Starfire 4, Hertiage 157 Custom, Peavey Cropper, Schecter PT Custom and a Schecter PT Tele. If this guitar was lost or stolen I would not replace it. Don't waste your time on this peice junk.

Had to create a new review topic - the Generation EXP reviews contained at least three different models and this guitar deserves to stand out from it's cheaper brethren.

2003 Peavey Generation Custom ACM (Analog Acoustic Modeling, I believe formerly known as a Generation EXP Piezo w/ACM), made in Korea. Telecaster style body shape, 25.5" Scale with 22 frets, rosewood fingerboard, excellent heavy-duty tuners and roller string tree, fully bound basswood body with beautiful gloss transparent purple quilted top, large flange strap buttons, string-through bridge plate with GraphTech self-lubricating piezo saddles, Peavey humbuckers at the neck and bridge with a single coil in the middle, 5-way pickup switch, 3-way acoustic/magnetic/blended output switch, piezo/acoustic volume, mag volume and mag tone, stereo output jack. A 9-volt battery powers the ACM circuit, magnetic pickups are passive. Includes a stereo cable (to split the acoustic and magnetic outputs) and all required hex wrenches.

The only reason I did not give this a 10 is that Peavey didn't take advantage of the piezo pickups to install 13-pin synth capability from the factory, didn't include a trim pot to fine tune the piezo preamp volume, didn't sculpt the back of the body, and didn't install an Earvana compensated nut (picky, ain't I?)

I play primarily in a praise & worship situation that tends to cover a lot of styles and tones. Usual equipment includes Behringer, BBE and Boss DI boxes, a Behringer V-AMP 2 or X V-AMP, Digitech RP-50, Behringer GX212 amp, and a variety of mixers usually playing through some EV PA speakers.

When the pace slows down during the set an acoustic tone is usually called for which often results in compromises or switching guitars in the middle of a service. Not so with this guitar!

The acoustic modeling is the best I've ever heard from a solid body electric, full and rich, just "boxy" enough to convince the ear of an acoustic heritage. From what I can tell, additional piezo sensors are employed in the neck and body and combined with the output of the GraphTech saddles in the proprietary ACM preamp to create this eerily accurate tone.

The magnetic pickups are pretty standard fare but dead quite when not playing. Not too bright and not too ballsy, they are very articulate and smooth but can bark when really pushed. They're good for pretty much everything you can think of even though this probably isn't the guitar you want for full-time speed metal. The tone control has a tasteful and effective range and would be useful for those that want it, but I do not tend to use it much myself.

The 5-way pickup switch accesses a good variety of tones but the real treat comes courtesy of the 3-way acoustic/magnetic/blend switch. This allows selecting only magnetic output, only piezo/acoustic output, or both outputs. With a standard mono instrument cable installed, the volume controls can be used to blend both outputs providing an effectively unlimited variety of tones. With a stereo cable installed, the 3-way switch enables or disables either or both outputs and the volume controls allow controlling how much signal reaches your amp/mixer/etc.

The guitar itself is extremely quiet when not being played. The only time I've heard noise from it is when the battery is at the end of it's useful life, in which case the acoustic output can become quite noisy and distorted until the battery is replaced. Even with the battery dead, the passive magnetic pickups are still available.

All in all, this is the most versatile axe I've ever played. The acoustic tones are simply delicious and the magnetic tones are on par with anything else on the market.

Of particular note this guitar is especially articulate. Without sounding plunky, each note seems to ring out much more clearly defined than any guitar I've owned. It makes a huge difference when playing leads and forced me to pay more attention to my technique -- which isn't a bad thing.

This is where the Custom ACM (and Peavey) takes a hit. The first one I received had a notable finish flaw just below the controls and had a very anemic acoustic tone. After comparing it with a friend's Custom ACM we determined that either the neck or body sensor or the ACM board was not working properly. Additionally, the piezo volume of one of the strings was measurably lower than the other strings. Other than these problems the guitar was great, but three big problems with one guitar is just too much to overlook.

The second one I received wins kudos all the way around. The quilted top is just beautiful, binding is perfect, no finish flaws at all. All the hardware is heavy and well chromed or polished steel. The frets look like they've never been polished, but the finish work on them is excellent. The neck joint is tight and there was no significant play in any of the screws or hardware.

Setup from the factory was very good overall with a nice medium-low action and no detectable buzzing. The guitar did need to be intontated but that is not uncommon. I did adjust pickup height to better balance the volume of the magnetic and piezo pickups and lower the middle pickup to allow more free play for picking.

Piezo/acoustic string balance on the second guitar is nice and even across all strings. The control cavity is the usual tangled nest of wires necessary for a guitar to sing to the world but the soldering work looks clean. The control cavity is free of sawdust and thoroughly coated with conductive paint for shielding. The ACM preamp board is mounted with two screws and standoffs to keep it from directly contacting anything else. The stereo jack is a bit chintzy but that's the only obvious sign of any cost cutting.

This guitar seems very well made, everything screwed in nice and tight and no slop that I can find. While I rarely play without a backup the only failure I can imagine would be a dead battery or a broken string - though even that is largely mitigated thanks to the GraphTech saddles. The finish is about average thickness for a gloss finish guitar and will not easily wear off from normal handling. The stock strap buttons have a larger flange than average and will easily hold on to all but the most worn straps (though mine were immediately replaced with Schaller strap locks - once bitten...). The stock tuners are very heavy duty. It takes a little bit more torque to turn them but they operate very smoothly and hold tune very well. They will easily stand up to frequent string changes (if one is into that kind of thing) even under the stress of a motorized string winder.

Peavey's online support is outstanding. Their web site has an online forum where many questions can be answered within hours either by the large user base or Peavey's own reps. I have not had to actually get service from them but am confident they'd take care of me (had I not voided my warranty... more on that later). However, since I've not actually had to put them to the test I can't honestly rate them on service.

I've been playing off and on for over 20 years and owned more guitars than I care to think about. My current stable includes this Genny, a Dean EVO Special Select Tiger Eye quilt top with Roland GK-3 hex pickup, two Yamaha APX-4A's (one six and one twelve string), a Dean Edge 5 string fretless bass, and a Dean Rhapsody 4 string fretted quilt top bass. Accessories include various Behringer V-AMPs, a GX212 and BX1200 amplifiers, VOX T-25 amp, Behringer Digitech RP50 and a variety of DI boxes and a Roland GR-20 guitar synth.

What I love about this guitar as configured is that it is easily the best sounding and most versatile guitar that can be had for the money and it's sharp looks only sweetens the pot. It is just about the best possible praise & worship guitar there is. Really it's great for anyone that covers a wide range of tonal territory during any given set. The acoustic simulation is incredible -- you can see folks staring, trying to figure out who's got an acoustic when there isn't one on stage. The only things I can think of that are missing is a sculpted body (at least a cutaway in the back would have been nice), an Earvana compensated nut and taking advantage of those lovely GraphTech piezo saddles to make this thing Roland-ready.

However, there's more to this story. After being satisfied that everything worked okay I still wanted to hook my Genny up to a Roland synth without having to plunk a GK-x hexaphonic wart on her beautiful face. So I got into her electronics and tried to rewire her with a GraphTech Hexpander preamp. The only problem was that the Peavey ACM preamp and the Hexpander didn't get along. When wired together to share the piezo pickups the volume of the acoustic simulation went WAY down and the Hexpander wouldn't track at all on the synth. I tried every way physically possible to do this and just couldn't make it work. Finally I gave in and ordered a GraphTech Acousti-phonic preamp designed to work with the Hexpander preamp, consigning myself to giving up that great acoustic tone.

In the process of installing all this I had to blow a 1" x 1.25" hole in Genny's side just above the stereo jack and drill two holes in her face for two new switches (one for guitar/synth/blend and another for synth patch selection). The magnetic tone knob was scrapped and replaced with a volume for the synth output. After some experimenting and sticking probes and soldering irons in places Peavey and GraphTech never intended, I came up with a way to still use the body sensors, hoping to salvage some of that ACM mojo. Genny was then carefully reassembled so that everything looks pretty much like it came from the factory that way. The icing on the cake was the installation of an Earvana Compensated nut. Total time experimenting: about 18 hours. Total time for actual installation: about 4 hours.

Low and behold, Genny sounds just as good as she did before the mod! She has a slightly different tonal coloration compared to the Peavey ACM preamp, but some careful checking found that she still sounds like a great acoustic guitar when she wants to. The loss of the tone control is no loss at all (to me) and being able to plug her straight into my Roland GR-20 means no worry about the battery going dead (the Roland provides all the power she needs) and full time, full access to acoustic, electric and synth sounds!

Some would argue that the effort wasn't worth it. A good Brian Moore 81.13 can be had for about the same overall cost and way less effort. I'll admit the Brian Moore guitars have some really cool features (curved body shape, rear instrument output, etc.). But dangit, they just ain't as pretty as my Genny and now she can do anything and everything I want her to. Besides, what's the fun in getting off the shelf what anyone else can get?

My Genny (with a nip, tuck and facelift) is easily the most unique and capable guitar I've ever owned. Jaws drop at some of the sounds that come