Peavey Generation EXP

Made in Chine
paid $179.99
22 frets
1 vol., 1 tone, 5 way switch on metal plate
HSS - stock
Basswood string through body
Tele style
non locking tuners
fast neck
came with 2 allen wrenches

Single coil neck is perfect for blues, mid single coil you can get blues to some really good country out of, and the bridge Humbucker is great for rock to heavy metal. I have read where some have found the nect single coil to be a bit tinny sounding, but I have found this to be the case only with the destortion cranked way up, I play it clean. The sustain on this guitar, like others have said, goes on forever, and depending on your settings, amp, and what gear your using, the 5 way selecter gives you many different options for sound. I use a Silvertone 15 watt amp with a DOD Death Metal Distortion stomp box and a Arion Hot Watt 2 headphone amplifier. My only dislikes was that it didn't have 24 frets - but I knew that before I ordered it. It was also not available in red, which was out of stock, so I ordered the sunburst - which looks stunning.

The guitar played fine out of the box, but the action was a bit too low for my liking, so I raised the saddles two full turns (each saddle has two spots for the tiny allen wrench, simply give each spot for the allen wrench one to two full turns to raise the action of the strings). Once I raised the action, I checked the intonation, and it was dead on. Didn't have to ajest the neck pickup, but did raise the mid pickup a bit more (do this by turning the two tiny screws off to the sides of the pickups) and I also raised the bridge humbucker till it almost touched the strings, the way I like it. I also replaced the stock strings for better ones, boomers, which sound great. Have not unscrewed the pickguard to check inside, but trust everything is fine. The 5 way selecter switch is rock solid, unlike my first guitar which was a silvertone rocket. And all I had to do to the vol. knob was tighten the screw which holds it on, as the knob was very loose (the knobs are heavy metal knobs with a tiny screw in the side - so tightening was easy). And I was very impressed with the output jack where the chord plugs in from the amp, very solid, not cheap like on my silvertone. 5 way selecter is smooth with no noise when switching. The only flaw on the guitar itself was one tiny screw was put in a tad crooked on the pickguard...no big deal.
If you do need to set the intonation, it's the screws to the backside of the bridge.

I don't play live, don't plan to, but it would be no problem with this guitar, as it is build solid and has a solid feel to it. If I have any concerns at all, it would be with the plastic cap on the five way selecter switch - if it had been all metal it would have been a plus...may look into upgrading it later. The sunburst finish is stunning and doesn't appear as if it would wear too easily. The strap buttons seemed solid enough...but i don't leave anything to chance and replaced them with dunlop locking straplocks, which would be a good $20 investment for anyone. I can't see anything that would lead me to believe that I couldn't depend on this guitar, it's rock solid.

Don't know about any warranty and haven't had to deal with the company and if I ever did have a problem I would most likely take it to my local guitar shop. The guitar came with no paper work, which is why I gave some advice on setting the guitar up.

I've been playing for about eight months now, my first guitar being a Silvertone Bullet which was not built well at all. If stolen, I'd lose many nights of sleep while waiting for another one just like it to arrive in the mail. I love the 5 way selecter and the heavy metal vol. and tone knobs as well as all the different sounds you can get out of the pickups. It was my intention to replace one or more of the stock pickups when I ordered it, but now that I've played them, I think I'll keep them as they are. My son likes this guitar so much he's thinking of ordering one - the sunburst is just stunning. I also love the fact that the control knobs are not cheap plastic, but are heavy metal and that it has a rugged output jack. The guitar has a fast neck and just feels good around your neck and against your body. It's not too heavy and it's not too light, and just has a very solid feel to it. I did compare this guitar to two others, an Omen 6 by Schecter and an Rg 321 by Ibanez...both of these guitars cost more, but the Peavey won out hands down. I just wish this had been the first guitar I had bought...it would have saved me from buying a second guitar...

I bought the Generation EXP Custom, which has lots of advantages over the standard Generation EXP. The EXP is a tele-style shape, made of basswood, with a maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. It has 22 frets altogether, and has a very comfortable 'C' shaped neck. The Custom has the addition of Grover tuners, which gives the guitar more tone when played acoustically (i.e. not plugged in).
Its features the addition of an excellent humbucker, replacing the standard's top single coil, which is good for jazz and blues. The single coil is good for strat like tones (naturally), and the end humbucker is very powerful, and is great played through distortion. The magnetic pickups use a five-way selector switch, which uses a special wiring technique to split the humbuckers in the 'in-between' positions.
The Graphtech Piezo pickup saddles are in a hardtail tele-style bridge, plus on the Custom there is an extra pickup inside the neck which, combined with the Grover tuners, gives the guitar excellent warm tones. A minature toggle switch can select between the magnetic pickups, piezo pickups, or a combination of both for some very interesting tones. The guitar has its own acoustic modelling circuitry (ACM), which is powered by a 9v battery. This helps the guitar's piezo pickups sound as close to the real thing as possible.
It also has a stereo socket, which when used with a stereo y-lead (as supplied) splits the magnetic and piezo signals to two different plugs.
The guitar has three control dials - master tone, magnetic pickup volume and piezo volume. Also the guitar has a small trimmer potentiometer under the access cover to limit the sound of the piezo system.
All in all this has to be one of the most versatile guitars to date. There are many combinations for pickups, and you can experiment to get almost any sound out of the guitar.

The EXP can produce any sound you want - from heavy metal to rockabilly - all thanks to the choice of combinations you can achieve. The Custom sounds better acoustically, thanks to the Grover tuners and an additional 5th screw for the neck, both providing great tones. The top humbucker is good for blues and jazz with a mellow, cool, tone. Combined with the single coil, it sounds just like a strat. The heavy humbucker at the bottom is great for driving distortion, and gives this guitar a heck of a punch. The ACM circuitry is great, and run through a speaker gives a very convincing acoustic tone. The only thing I think would be useful would be a seperate tone control for the ACM. This can actually be added quite easily (using a double pot, for example) but it would have been a very good feature for the guitar.

As this is the Custom guitar, it is finished much better than the standard. The main difference is the Custom is made in Korea, and the standard is made in China. The extra price for the Custom is well worth it - the fit and finish are of excellent quality.
The Custom's main appealing feature is the flamed maple top - this gives an amazing look, and sets it apart from other guitars. The headstock is also finished in a glossy jet-black finish, and has a 'faux-binding' effect, where the edges are slightly recessed to show the natural wood colour. This guitar is certainly high quality, and is sure to turn heads.
There are little details that sets this guitar apart from the standard - for example, the screws are recessed in the pickguard and for the switch, which subtly hints this guitar is of the highest quality.
The action of the guitar out of the box was - and is - the lowest I have ever seen. It makes the Custom very easy and comfortable to play.
Overall this guitar shows with pride that the extra #100 or so is worth the difference.

The EXP feels solid and secure. The addition of the 5th neck-retaining screw makes it more reasurring to use. Combined with a strap-lock system (I use the planet-waves lock strap) this guitar is reliable, in every sense of the word. The switch cover is very secure (different to the standard where it was quite loose and felt like it was going to drop off), and all the other hardware parts are solid. The minature switch for the pickup selection could do with a cover, as grime can get inside the workings and make it faulty. I haven't had a problem with this, but for heavy use you can buy small rubber covers for about 50p from electronic component suppliers.
This guitar is all you need - I would gig without a backup. It's very dependable, and will last for ages.

I've never used Peavey's support, so I can't comment. Their website has forums that you can use if you need help with it.

I use this guitar with a Zoom GFX-8 pedal, run through a hi-fi system (to make use of the stereo effects). The combination of sounds you can get is endless. I love this guitar - in my opinion its the best around. If it were stolen, I would make every effort to get it back, but I would definitely buy another to replace it if it were lost.
If you're looking for an excellent guitar, that you can get different tones out of and produce your own original sound, switch easily between acoustic and electric sounds, and want excellent quality and reliability, then get this. No questions.

Appearancewise the Generation guitars are something like a Tele copy but with definite Strat influences. If you own one of these, you can be proud not to be carrying one of the zillions of straight Tele/Strat clones out there; on the down side, you might feel this is something of a mongrel which doesn't look sufficiently distinctive as to have its own character.
My guitar is sold in the UK as the Generation EXP + Piezo, centrally placed in Peavey's Generation range. On paper, this guitar's specs are fantastic - but unfortunately Peavey has so many conflicting specs for these Chinese-made guitars (the specs and even the model designations seem to be in a state of flux) that it's really hard to figure out exactly what you're getting. Having worked through contradictory info from Peavey reps in the US and the UK, and looked closely at my guitar, this is what I believe I have:
* No uncertainty as to pickups - double-single-single coil configuration, with a five-position pickup selector.
* This guitar also has undersaddle pickups for a pseudoacoustic sound that can be blended in or used or its own.
* The guitar may also have Peavey's ACM circuit which helps simulate and improve that acoustic sound. (Newer versions of the Generation guitars may omit the undersaddle pickups altogether for an acoustic sound derived purely from built-in circuitry.)
* The HSS pickups have a volume and tone control knob, while the acoustic output has a volume control only.
* A stereo cable is supplied for splitting the undersaddle and standard pick-up outputs.
* Woods are uncertain: the body is alder or basswood; the neck may be maple, with a rosewood fretboard.
* Scale length is 25.5" (64.8cm). Nut width is a narrow 1.6" (41mm).
* One thing this guitar doesn't have is the weight of a Tele - it's relatively light and well-balanced, comfortable to play in your lap or if you're standing up.

I play this guitar through a Zoom Fire 15 amp. The double-coil pickup produces a nice midrangey sound at a good level; I like playing funky rhythms with it. The single coils are a bit weak - the centre pickup is insipid clean - but produce a pleasant twang nonetheless. None of the pickups seems noisy at all. Whether played clean or with some distortion, the guitar has a nice bite to it, and adding some acoustic output into the mix can produce an appealing bright timbre when used with a bit of distortion. Used alone, however, the acoustic output doesn't have the resonance or woodiness of a real acoustic, nor does it resemble the most quacky piezo output you might get from an electro-acoustic. Instead it sounds like an unusually bassy electric guitar with a bit of a metallic "chime" to the notes. The undersaddle pickups are quite sensitive to pressure, too - medium strumming gives a faint "thumpiness" underlining the acoustic output. So while the acoustic output is great as an ingredient to blend in, you'd have to have a bizarre idea of an acoustic sound to want to use this in place of a real acoustic guitar.
Overall to me this guitar doesn't particularly recall any one sound - it offers a big range of possibilities, and a really good player (ie not me) would get interesting results with it.

Peavey supplies these guitars in a choice of five finishes. Mine is the sunburst, which on this guitar has a slightly fake, mass-produced look to it, but is otherwise quite satisfactory, the black transitioning to chrome yellow via red and orange. There's what Peavey calls "real body binding", which looks like white plastic, not unappealing but nothing special either. The neck has no binding but is otherwise excellent - just feels really smooth and fast, sort of like a slimline D-profile. Frets were competently finished. On the negative side, the narrowness of the nut doesn't suit me personally, and the tuners are really mediocre.
Where the guitar doesn't score is how it was supplied from the factory. The neck was much too straight and one pickups too close to the strings, causing a bit of "drag" on the strings. There was buzzing all over the place, while the intonation was completely out. More seriously, a wiring error meant that the guitar was always on even when not plugged in, and it drained two batteries in the space of a week. That was fixed in a few minutes in the dealer's workshop. Once properly set up (substituting 10s for the 9s it came with also helped the feel), the guitar really started to shine. That said, it was definitely strange that in order to get the intonation correct, the saddles had to be screwed down almost to the base of the bridge, ie they ended up about as far from the nut as they could get; I measured the resulting saddle-nut distance at something like 25.6".

Now that the teething problems are fixed I see no reason why this guitar shouldn't be a workhorse for many years. The obvious upgrade would be to the tuners. Everything else feels very sound.

Peavey in the US and UK were really good about answering my list of questions before I bought the guitar - it's a pity they didn't actually agree on several of the answers. Not good is the fact that the guitar came with no documentation (as of my writing this you still can't get documentation on the EXP series of Generation guitars on Peavey's website either - yet these guitars have been around for at least a year). Also, the guitar came with no form to register ownership and no warranty information whatsoever.

I'm basically an acoustic rhythm guitarist but I keep a couple of inexpensive electrics lying around to take me to other musical places, and the fact I can tear myself away from my acoustic to use this guitar indicates how much fun it is to play. I love the fact that it's reminiscent of a Tele yet so much more comfortable to play, and it is so versatile. Generally a quality product and fantastic value.

This guitar to sum it up is a direct Fender Style cross between a Strat and a Tele. This guitar also has a Piezo pickup that adds acoustic type sound to it. The pickups are all stock Peavey pickups consisting ot 2 sinlge coils, and a dual coil at the bridge. Typical of a fender style is the 5 position switch, tone, and volume. There is an extra knob for the Piezo.

The sounds you can get out of this ax are supurb!!! Playing on this thing brought back memories of the 70's. If the goal was to get a old fender sound, they did a good job of it. Even does a decent job with jazz. The Piezo can also combine with the regular pickups for some interesting fat sounds.

This guitar was setup pretty good when I got it. I had to adjust a few minor things, but it looked like it had been in the store for a while. Put some 1/2Rounds Stainless Steel Strings on it, and it was good to go. There was a crack near the back cover, but it hardly takes anything away from it. It's Cherry red, andother than the crack, the paint job was done very well.

Already played a couple of gigs with it, and this guitar more than holds up to the task.

N/A

I needed this guitar to finish my collection I was looking into getting a Tele(Squier Standard Telecaster) Cause I like the way it played. I was also thinking of buing a cheap folk acoustic/electric. This guitar filled the gap then some. This guitar play cirles around the Squier Tele. This is one of my guitars I would hate to loose. If I did, I would replace it in a hurry,

I was looking for a 6 string electric guitar to bang around on when not playing my Rickenbacker 12 string. I've had a Bullet, Telecaster, Jaguar and '59 Strat in the past so something Fender-like was in order. I couldn't justify spending too much on one and the MIM's didn't do it for me. I bought an OLM "Music Man" copy off of eBay, but was disappointed. Sold it. I'm a Peavey Classic amp fanatic (best tube available for the money, but that's another review), so I started looking at several Peavey guitars. I wanted something with at least 1 Humbucker, preferably 3 pic ups with a 5 way switch and not too expensive. I also like to "personalize" my guitars to make them one-of-a-kind. I can't have a guitar that looks like everyone else's. Most of the hardware on the Generations are Tele interchangeable with plentiful parts available to customize with.

I saw a used gold on on eBay and read some of the review here to see what people thought of them. My Ric is "Maple-Glo" with black hardware and the picture of the Peavey's body color looked to be about the same with a black pick guard, so it appeared it would be fairly easy to mimic the Ric, looks wise. When I got it, the color wasn't quite what I had expected, more of a copper color (a reaction not too uncommon, according to other reviews).

But the guitar itself was way more than I expected. The neck on these rivals tose I tried costing 2-3 times as much. The frets were trimed correctly (something that really bothered me about the Mexican Fenders, I actually cut myself trying one!). The pick ups are balanced well and each gets the sound you'd expect from it's location. I was amazed at the sustain I could get out of something this inexpensive.

The tuners were the biggest disappointment, Two of the six had some slippage. But I was changing them to black Schallers anyway, so not a big deal. But if you don't plan on doing anything to one, check the tuners out before buying. The only other issue I had was the routing for the control plate seemed a little big. The screw holding the control knob end didn't have anything to bite into. Not sure if this is a common problem, but it's an easy fix with some epoxy.

Black Schaller tuners, black DR coated strings, some black roller type string trees, a gold telecaster control plate (see them on ebay all of the time for around $10), a gold telecaster humbucker bridge (eBay, $20-$30) that screws right in, the holes match the stock one. And some gold and black pearloid knobs. For around $250 I have a guitar that not only plays like a $500 guitar, it has the looks of something costing a lot more than it did. That not so desireable gold body color really came alive with the black and gold hardware and I get a lot of compliments on it.There are so many parts available out there to upgrade these, the color and style combinations are almost endless. I just wish that there was enough room to put one of the Bigsby/humbucker conversions on it, in gold. Now that would be a guitar!

Great guitar to start with and at the price, plenty of room to improve or customize and still not break the bank.

Wanted a Fender sound, with a humbucker. And sustain. Got it.

Used guitar, supposedly "owned by a collector" so I'm not sure how it came from the factory. The guy may have been a collector, but the way it was set up when I got it tells me he wasn't a player. 30 minutes and it was set like I like 'em. Other than the control plate routing, fit and finish were surprisingly good. Watch the tuners, though. They look like a Schaller mini, but appear from the markings to be made in China. If you change them to a real Schaller (M6L), the mounting screw on the back doesn't line up and will leave an exposed hole. Other models or brands might match up, but I got such a deal on the M6L's, I was willing to overlook the holes. After all, this is a budget guitar project.

So far, no problems. I don't gig anymore, so I don't need to worry about it being out and about. But, I would trust it to do it's job. Strap buttons were immediately replaced with Strap-Locks (once bitten....).

I've always had good experiences with Peavey, so I have no reason to expect anything otherwise.

I sold every other guitar I owned (4) to buy my Ric12 5 years ago. It's been my dream guitar ever since I saw one in the mid-sixties. But even it succumbed to my desire to personalize and upgrade. Who'd a thought you could improve on a $1400 guitar. But no guitar, no matter the price, is perfect. Even makers of expensive guitars have budgets to keep and comprimises to make.

Pretty tough to measure up to some of the others I've had in the past. I never should have sold the Jaguar or the '59 Strat, but you've all been there. I haven't looked at electric guitars for more that 15 years and was unpleasently surprised at what your dollar actually buys these days. I remember when Japanese Fenders were looked down on as a budget version. Now they go for more than some of the American models. Don't get me wrong, I've had several Japanese acoustics and for the money, you can't match them. But in the under $250 range for an electric, it's either the Far East or Mexico. I'd like to try some of the American made Peavey Tele-style guitars that are out there (used), but I believe that the Generation, with some upgrades, can hold it's own, and surpass, anything in this price range.

I play through a Peavey Classic 30 (with Sovteks) and a 112E closed-back extension cabinet. I like Boss stuff for effects and after trying several other brands, went with a Boss ME-50 multi-effects pedal. The Peavey sounds great through this combination. For the money, I couldn't find another guitar to take it's place. I would buy another one to replace this one if stolen (how do you loose a guitar?) and I'm already considering another one to try some new ideas on. The basic guitar is a great starting place and $100 goes a long way to make something easy to play and proud to show.

I bought the Generation EXP w/ACM Quilt Top Brown Sugar New, in October of 2003. The ACM, acoustic circuit modeling is chip, or model of a HD-28. Acoustic Set up is a tri system, ACM Chip, a Fishman Piezo w/separte pick up on each string, and a pick up in the neck to give the neck tones. HMDBcoil/S/H and a 5 way switch. Vol and Tone for the Elec and Vol only for Acoustic. Grover Tuners,1 side 6. A stereo cord included, signal may be sent to two amps or two channels on the board. The micro swich is a 3 way, Acoustic (UP)
Electric (DN) and Both in the Center positon.

I have many guitars, and most very high end. I hate to admit it, but since I got My ACM, all are but retired. I am a Woship Leader, and he the need to swap acoustic to electric often, My ACM, has a huge acoustic sound that rivals my '76 D-55 Guild, action is awesome. Because you can use so many combo's of pick-ups and combine the ACM with the electric, the range of sounds is almost unlimited
I run mine,via a V-amp, electric in the normal in and ACM Aux where it is unaffected by my effects...

It came ready to play, right out of the box. I made an adjustment to the Single or center coil, because I do alot of finger picking work, and I kept hitting the pickup, Other than that,nothing. The Top is Gorgious and bound, nice weight and feel. Fast neck, and tele style but a little more room, and easier access to the 15th and up frets.

I have many guitars, and most very high end. I hate to admit it, but since I got My ACM, all are but retired. I am a Woship Leader, and he the need to swap acoustic to electric often, My ACM, has a huge acoustic sound that rivals my '76 D-55 Guild, action is awesome.

It carries a 5 year waranty on the ACM and guitar, I have had mine 6 months, and use it more than any other guitar I own or have owned. FINISH IS THICK GLOSSY and Smooth A Peavey REp. was demoing this guitar when I heard it. At first, I heard it, but did not see it, I thought the player was on a Taylor or Guild. Then I saw the Peavey.. I bought it on the spot, but I had to order it... the one they had was just a demo

I am a player of 30 plus years. I have, and have had many guitars over the years,SG,Srats, Tee's, I still have my, Bob Wier '77 Ibanez w/Tree of life, '65 Guild X150 archtop, 4 193o's archtops, Guild D-55 '76, Fernandes Tele, the list goes on. As I sais earlier, my ACM has taken them out of my hands and on the hanger or in the case. I would and might buy a second as my back up. Right now its the Bob Wier, but I have'nt even broke a string, origional 46-9 still on it "PEAVEY" STRINGS.... GREAT GREAT GUITAR

Generation EXP with Piezo.
Only knowledge of manufactor and wood used is from other reviewers.
Two single, one humbucker and Piezo pick-ups.
5 way selector for the s/s/h set up plus a piezo-s/s/h.mix.
Volume & tone controls for the s/s.h, and volume control for the piezo.
Tele style shape, sunburst with white pick guard.

I'm fairly new to electric and play through a Fender DSP90. I'm amazed at the variation in sounds available what with the piezo also being able to mix it with the other pick-ups. Only drawback here is that the volume of the piezo is about three times greater than the s/s/h pick ups so you must make sure you balance the piezo's volume control with the s/s/h if you plan to switch from one to the other.

I'll probably have someone check the set-up although through my amateur eyes it seems ok. The pick guard had taken a bit of a battering from it's life in the local music shop.
Not over impressed with Peaveys choise of colours. I must thank the guy at Music Matters for his patience, he pulled up the Peavey website to view the colours. Settled on the sunburst by default although it is growing on me but as one reviewer said it looks a bit 'toy' like.
The pick-up selector knob pulls off very easily.

Don't know yet. But dispite the 'toy' mention it does have a robust feel to it[apart from that knob]. No hesitation on gigging with it.

n/a

I mainly play acoustic and have only ever dabbled with electric before. Was thinking of going into it big time and tried Fenders, Gibsons and PRS amongst others but didn't really know what I was after. I think the piezo did it for me, it really gives an excellent electric/acoustic compromise but I do love all 5 s/s/h combinations. Still can't quite believe the price. In the Uk a US Tele would cost about #650 and a basic Gibson Les Paul about #800.
Would I buy it again? YES.

2004 Generation EXP Piezo
Ash body
5 way selector
1-Volume and 1-tone for magnetic, 1-volume for Piezo
Tele style with string thru body.
Paid $360 online new

Actually bought the standard first, liked it but it had some serious dings in the basswood body so sent it back and found the piezo version for a few bucks more so splurged, glad I did.

Am using a Peavey Classic 30, and am not even endorsed by peavey.

The Standard EXP was real noisy at the 3,4,5 and fifth selections.

The Piezo model is quiet and superb. Beautiful resonant harmonic tones from the piezo (but don't quite think acoustic sounding, more like a solid body capturing the acoustic vibrations from the strings) give a cello or viola like swirl, best position for me is the second with the piezo at half volume and the magnetic p/u's set at 3/4 volume with a nine o'clock tone. The classic 30 is another review but playing through it with a cranked up preamp and tank reverb is like heaven.

The humbucker is mediocre, but nice to have for crunch rhythm.

If you can squeeze the extra bucks buy the piezo.

Action was set up nice with the factory strings- probally nines. Restrung with 11's and will probally need to lower action.

If you are looking at getting a perfect looking guitar from peavey, I don't think that will be possible. This being my second try, the pickup guard came all scruffed up with no protective lining. The ubiquitious volume knob fell off when taking out of the box- some chinese dude must be very amused at getting the better of us rich fat americans by not tightening the knobs. The battery compartment for the piezo has literally no play for putting the battery in, I had to take the whole back apart to free the power lines- bogus. The black finish is nice and all the components work, decided to keep this one because it sounds so good, and would rather have a banged up sweet sounding axe than one that just looks good.

Peavey needs to spend some extra cents or whatever they use for money in china to get a better pickup selector, it looks like a piece of lego impaled on a toothpick

The guitar looks and feels solid despite cosmetic flaws, good value for $360

Peavey has good support, for the price of long distance call, you talk to live tech. They back their products and have personal experience with them on fixing my Classic 30.

Peavey needs to support all the generation exps with manuals, it is bogus to have to call to find out what knob does what. Again could be posted on web alone and printed by the customer.

Playing for 20 years, have several guitars in my life, and really like the sound and feel of the peavey. Spend the extra cash to buy the piezo model, not the quilted extreme model but the EXP with Piezo.

Perhaps I am naive, but I wished this was made in US, just assumed it would be. I would replace at this point if it was stolen or destroyed. Being able to mix in magnetic pickups with a resonant piezo pickup is my favorite feature.

Wish it had a neck thru body and perhaps a twelve string model available, I bet that would sound great.

Fender and Gibson better wake up, Peavey and other manufactuers are eating their lunch because there are enough people who rather play for sound than image.

This Made in China version of a Peavey EXP comes with a 5-way selector pickup switch with Telecaster-style volume/tone controls. It's got a bridge pickup, 1st coil of bridge pickup and middle pickup, middle pickup, middle and neck pickup and neck pickup.

Has a Tele-style body look to it. I had someone tell me that it looks like a Tele swallowed a Strat.

Rosewood fingerboard, the body has a solid feel to it?feels much better than a Danelectro.

Tuning keys are great. This guitar stays tune fairly well.

Sounds great but then I tend to want a clean sound in the songs I play so I haven?t experimented much.

I bought a Fender Frontman 15R Series II at the same time that I bought this guitar.

The action on this guitar is great. I had one problem: the G and B string would buzz when pressing the first fret. I took the guitar back to Don?s Music City and was told by the guitar tech that the frets had shifted during shipping. He said it was a common thing to happen to guitars?I had never heard this but I have no reason to doubt him. He fixed the buzz problem and I picked my guitar back up the same day that I dropped it off.

BTW, the guitar tech said that my Peavey EXP *felt* like a more expensive guitar.

I?ve had this guitar two weeks and, so far, I?m satisfied. Maybe that?s not long enough to give it a 9 but, wow, what a nice guitar for the price.

I emailed Peavey requesting some sort of documentation. The next day I received an email from Peavey with a bitmap attachment of the guitar pointing out it?s features not much of a document but they did respond fast. Peavey also provide me with a 1-800 number that I could call should I have any questions.

Don?s Music City gets a 10 rating. Nice folks very helpful. I will do more business with Don?s Music City.

I was looking for a guitar that I could play during a contemporary church service on Sunday nights?actually wanted a Tele but was antsy about spending a lot of money (it?s been 20+ years since I?ve performed in front of an audience). This guitar was a good way for me to spend very few dollars to have fun playing again. IMHO, this is a great guitar for the price.

Look for specs on the other reviews.

Tuners are nice. They feel tight and smooth. Haven't had any tuning problems with them.

Hollow under pick gaurd, which I've heard kills the sustain and tone on cheap guitars, but it's fine to me.

Neck feels a bit fat to me, at least fatter than my friends Samick Malibu, but I make do.

I play this guitar through a Behringer GX108 Firebird. I've gotten some great sounds out of this setup. This guitar can distort well, though I'd like more crunch, which may be the fault of the amp. Clean, it can get some nice bright sounds. The tone control ranges from tinny and bright to muddy and bassy and thick. I don't like the muddy part. It's just to, uh, undefined. There's absolutley no clarity. But that's the beauty of it. I may not like that sound, but I can change that in half a second, so I don't mark it down for the ABILITY to sound bad.

I don't know squat about guitar set-up and pickup adjustment. If you don't know either, you'll probably be fine with this guitar right out of the box, just as I was.

I was a bit mad about the color, though. My choices were red, black, sunburst, or gold. I didn't want red or black, and was stuck between sunburst and gold. I looked at the pictures on the dealer site and the Peavey website, and I decided I liked the gold. So that's what I ordered. Instead, I wound up with this orangish brown color. It's a far cry from gold. It's attractive, but had I known I was getting this, I would have picked sunburst. Orange just isn't my color.

The fret board on mine has a beautiful pattern that can only be described as "tiger eye." (Perhaps that would be a good name for it, considering it's orange body and black pickgaurd.)

It does have it's cosmetic flaws that are the only signs of it's origins in China. They are all minor though.

*bits of plastic and wood around the bridge and pickgaurd
*the nut seems off center but its fine
*there are two tiny drops of what seems like dried glue. Unnoticeable, but there.
*the pickguard is not perfectly cut
*the input jack was loose and fell back into the hollow cut for it. I unscrewed the plate and took off the first nut from the input and screwed it on outside the jack. It's fine now.

This guitar seems well built and I doubt any thing will ever go wrong. I'd play with it in a heartbeat without the need for a backup. The finish feels like it will last forever- thick as something that is really thick. Hardware seems trustworthy.

My only experience has been on their website trying to find warranty information and manuals for the guitar. So far I've come up empty. I'm not too impressed, though I haven't tryed contacting the company, and may not be giving them enough credit.

I've been playing for a year on an Alvarez acoustic. If it were stolen, at my current financial state I'd buy another (in sunburst). Except for its color, there really isn't anything I don't like. I'm trying to play acoustic and light rock and pop-punk. This guitar has been perfect for my needs, which vary from clean to grungy. It's all I could want.