Peavey HP Signature EXP

This guitar is sort of a wierd marriage of diiferent axes. Part PRS, part Les Paul. Dual humbuckers, Vol/Vol/Tone + 3 way, 24 3/4 scale, Mahogany core with a quilt maple veneer top, binding ect. Very simple, but excecuted very well. The bridge on this guitar is pretty unusual, you can go string through body or directly from the bridge. I cant explain it better than that, but the option of two different stringing methods is a good feature to have.

The sound is pretty damned good for a stock guitar. Easily competes with Gibson offerings that cost four times as much. I play through a Crate Blue Voodoo 120 halfstack, and my sound is primarily Metal. The stock pickups have enough output to really drive the front end of my amp, so its easy for me to get a good, saturated tone out of this beast. Chuggs very nicely, choke harmonics come out clean.
The clean tones are equally impressive. Not to brittle or too mellow.
It would benefit from some new pickups (i have a Duncan JB to drop in the bridge), but shit, you have to do that to most Gibsons and Fenders to get them to sound OK.

Awesome! This sucker is extremely light and you can dial the action in way low before you start rattling the frets. Soloing on this thing is very easy, due in part to the ebony fingerboard. Very hard, very slick. The guitar itself feels very short, like a Les Paul minus 3 inches of wood. I really like this, but play this with a strap when you try one out to see if it fits you.

Very solid, Peaveys can usually take a good beating.

Havent ever needed them.

This is my only guitar right now. I have been playng bass for about 12-13 years, and have decided i needed a change. About a month ago i got the Crate BV stack and this and i couldnt be happier. I would buy it again and i plan on getting a peavey V-type ST for my next purchase.

Yeah this thing is Korean made, so what! This thing shits on Gibson Les Pauls and US Fenders. Really the only difference between this and the $2000 Gibsons i tried out was...............$1450. Thats it!

This is a brand new unit, manufactured in Korea -- probably by Samick. It's got 24 medium frets, a solid figured maple top over 3-piece mahogany body, mahogany set neck, and a wonderful ebony fretboard that is gratefully devoid of garish ornamentation, with the exception of one 'signature' block inlay at the 12th fret. Hardware is gold. Pickups are two peavey humbuckers. Controls consist of a volume for each pickup and a single tone control, along with a 3-way toggle -- pretty standard passive wiring. Finish on the body, neck, and headstock is gloss -- in my case transparent black. The body style is reminiscent of a PRS, but a tad wider. This is subjective, but it was the body shape that first attracted me to it. It's got a solid through-body tailpiece and a pretty standard tune-o-matic bridge. I'm tempted to give it a 10 in this category because it has precisely the features I like, and none that I don't, but others might find the lack of ornamentation Spartan, so I'll give it a 9.

This is tough because I recently discovered a pickup/wiring setup that precisely suites my tastes, and I'm going to redo this to my own specs (http://www.exotic-scales.com/Electronics/les_paul_wiring.htm), but if I didn't have this specific setup in mind, I'd leave the Peavey just as it is. the pickups are nicely balanced, articulate, but with a nice crunch when you drive them. They're definitely as good as any stock humbuckers I've heard, and I've owned a bunch of high-end guitars over the past few years. (BTW, the pickups I'll be swapping in are a Seymour Duncan SH2 Jazz at the neck, and a Dimarzio Virtual PAF at the bridge -- both with gold covers to retain the stock look.)

First of all, I bought this online, based solely on the specs and pictures, without ever having handled one (it just sounded and looked like everything I'd been looking for). I was definitely not disappointed. When I opened the box I scrutinized it thoroughly, and there are no visible glitches, save a thin line of polishing compound residue near the neck joint. I moist Q-tip took care of that. The finish is spectacular, without that thick, 'poured-on' look you find on a lot of imports. The setup was exemplary ? No buzzes, low action, beautifully polished frets without any hint of scratchiness. Just no place to find fault anywhere.

Difficult to say, but it seems pretty solid. Probably a bit more delicate than, say, a Strat or a Tele. I won't be surprised of the gold hardware wears, as is usually the case. Strap buttons are good and solid, thought I'll probably replace then with strap locks (do that on all my instruments since somebody picked up my Les Paul Standard by the strap, dropped it, and broke the neck.) The finish seems ample, without being too obviously thick.

Well, haven't needed it for this one yet, but I've had occasion to deal with Peavey in the past, looking for help with a Classic 50/50 power amp that I bought used. they were incredibly responsive, and I certainly expect no less if I need them in the future.

I've been playing for about thirty-five years. In that time I've owned some pretty impressive instruments -- A Gibson Johnny Smith, a '61 Les Paul/Sg (original, not reissue), a Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion III, an American '57 Reissue Strat -- I guess I've come to appreciate a well made instrument. I've also developed definite preferences, and it's rare that I find one instrument that meets them in every way. For example, I favor Ebony fretboards, but generally don't like big fancy inlays; unfortunately, they generally come together, but not in this case. I prefer a set neck and a 24-3/4" scale, but I like the basic Strat body shape better than a Les Paul. Here again, the HP Signature it it on the head. I like 3+3 tuners better than 6-on-a-side, another check box for the Peavey. I could have lived without the figured top (to me they all look like the cheap photo-process used on the cheap imports, even when it's a full-thickness cap, as in this case) but the transparent black finish is pretty subtle, so I don't mind it. I would definitely replace it if stolen or lost.

The only thing I would point out is that the neck is on the heavy side (Front to back). Again, I like a beefy neck like some of the old Les Pauls, but someone with smaller hands might find it clubby.