Peavey Limited HB EXP

2002,korean,22 fret,laminated quilt maple on chambered body,3 way selector switch with 2 humbuckers(passive).satin neck finish with rosewood fretboard, transparent blue strat type body. Hipshot tremolo. Grover tuners 25 1/2 scale length.

Sounds good, I play variety of stuff from 50's to 00's rock, blues, and country, would work good for all...I'm guessing. Not noisy at all, In fact the bridge pup cuts out when you just barely touch it! when it does work it gives a heavy midrange compressed sound that i sort of like, The neck pup is one of the better sounding "stock" pups I've heard. hopefully after getting the bridge pup fixed it will still sound as nice. My wife went out and bought this for me for valentines day, so of course I love it......it just needs a couple of minor problems fixed.

The action is terribly high, In fact this will be another thing that I want peavey to fix when it gets sent back. after lowering the posts and the saddles as low as they go, it still is too high, so a neck shim will be in order, I am hoping it wont change the sustain or tone, but we wont know until it's done. Other than that the Koreans cnc machines cut these things out to tolerance just as good as the Americans cnc machines.

Can't play out with it until the items i described are fixed. The hardware will eventually tarnish and rust just like any other guitar I've had, Don't take me wrong, I wipe them all down after playing but I'm not going to completely disassemble em to get the sweat out of every nook and cranny. Finish looks like it will last as long as I let it warm up in its case after being in the cold. I don't gig without a backup, ANYTHING can happen! I can depend on any guitar I own as far as i can throw them (which is quite a distance) I spend a lot of time going through my guitars making sure they won't crap out on me in the middle of a song, the only reason I change a guitar during the night is because i want a different sound, haven't changed them at all that i can think of because of breakdown. I'll only give this a 5 for now and rerate the guitar after it's fixed.

I have NEVER had to deal with customer support for any of my other guitars that I've owned, So this will be a first. Hopefully I wont have to go through a nightmare like some other people who post on harmony central!

I just realised I've been playing for over 27 years.....god i'm old! I dont think i would have bought this guitar, but my wife liked it enough to get it for me, so of course I'm going to do as much as possible to make this a guitar that I love. It really wont be that hard because I like the feel of the neck, and the tone of the pups (when they work). The neck shimming wont be a problem, if peavey doesn't do it, will, it's not like i haven't had to do it before, I mean i have been playing for a quite a while. For the money its a pretty darn good guitar, I might try splitting the coils some day as i have a feeling it would have a good tele tone to it, but lets get it fixed first!

This is a follow-up review to the one below for the left-handed EXP HB (double humbuckers, passive, strat style bolt on guitar). I did go back and buy it; then I found out about 3 weeks later (after it was too late to take it back) that Peavey also makes it as a hum/single/single version (the ST). I have since ordered and received one of those, as well (in a gorgeous Transparent Red; that is THE COLOR for these!)...will review that one separately.

Features are as mentioned before, except that it has a FIVE-bolt neck (not four as stated).

Here's where I want to make a few additional comments after having the guitar for about a month.

It sounded pretty nice in the store, but I didn't have a chance to play it up against any other guitars, including any of my own. After having a chance to do that, I would drop the sound rating to about 6-7. The pickups are pretty hot, and are a little harsher in the upper midrange than I remembered when doing my first review. If you want a guitar to overdrive all the time, this thing will do that nicely, but if you're like me and you want some nice, sweet clean tones too, then you may have to do quite a bit of dialing and still not quite get there. I'm going to try changing the volumeand tone pots (which I compained about, see other review); if that doesn't work, I'll try some different pickups, I'm even thinking about P-90's in this thing, since I don't have a guitar with those in it yet.

I've tried raising and lowering the pickups; I think they're just hotter than what I'm used to (or need for what I do).

However, let me say that the ST version I just got (on Monday, Dec. 23rd) has two excellent sounding single coils on it, giving very "strat-y" tones in positions 2-5!! It's bridge humbucker suffers from the same problem; kinda hot, but I don't use the bridge p-up by itself that much, so it's not a major deal on that guitar.

AS mentioned before, great on this guitar, and the ST I just received is set up just as well, with even more gorgeous quilt top that looks like a $1,500 guitar in the Transparent Red! Also, the rosewood on the ST model has some brownish red in it that makes it look like it was stained/dyed to match the trans red. body! Incredible for a guitar I paid just over $350 for!

See previous review.

One other thing I need to clear up from the previous review: these list for $529 (not $429 as I said above), and I paid only $365 for it out the door! Didn't come with a case for that price, but it was still an incredible value!

Since I've received the ST version, I really wish I hadn't bought this one, but hey, I plan to do some mods to it, since it is a very nice looking and outstanding playing instrument...and the neck is pointing in the right ('wrong') direction; what more can I say!? A great value for the price; and I'm not afraid to modify a South Korean made instrument.

To those players who are turned off by foreign made guitars, I say this: South Korea is one country we should be proud to support; they are a democracy, like us, and need all the economic support we can give them as they deal with the threats from their North Korean enemy. They have come a looooong way in guitar making; do yourself a favor and check these out: Peavey has the two pickup configurations (HB and ST) in four colors (Trans. red, blue and green, and sunburst) for left-handed players.

2002 Korean made ('EXP') Limited model with 2 Peavey designed humbuckers. Not sure what the strat style body wood is, but it has a thin quilt top on it, blueburst finish, opaque black on back, with a 'natural' PRS style edge around the top of the body (although I don't see any woodgrain in this edge, so I don't think it's quilt maple; might be body wood...).

Four bolt maple neck is also strat style, rosewood board, black painted headstock, Grover chrome tuners,seemed very solid. One string tree on the B and E strings. Satin finish on neck. Tremolo is flat against the body, three very stiff springs, chrome Tele style volume and tone control, three-way Tele style selector, in strat position. Neck is somewhat C shaped, nice, in between thickness, which feels good in my hands. I'd say 1 5/8 to 1 11/16 width at nut. Can't remember what nut material was (haven't bought it YET; more on that below). At this price point, and as a left handed offering, it's nearly perfect. Had hoped for a S/S/S configuration, but the H/H does not disappoint! Keep reading...

I play blues (50%), contemporary worship (20%), and rock, jazz, country, whatever (30%).

My main performance amps are a Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb (CVR), Peavey Ultra 410 and a 115 Peavey ext. cab (used with the Ultra). Main effects are a Boss RV-3 reverb/delay and a Fulltone Full Drive 2 (awesome ~ that's my H-C review for that pedal!). Also use the reverb and tremolo on the CVR.

NOW...this guitar sounds amazing! (Played it through a CVR in the store to test drive it.) These humbuckers really surprised me: they are balanced, musical, not too harsh (bridge) or muddy (neck), very versatile. You can play stuff in the bridge position on this guitar and forget it's the bridge because it's so well balanced and sweet sounding. Same with the neck, very articulate and brighter than most, not too thick sounding. Middle position great for rhythms, sound different from the other two. Body woods might have something to do with this. It's also been said that these are voiced VERY CLOSE to the pickups on the Wolfgang guitars...since they don't make a lefty of that one, I wouldn't know...if they are, that explains why Peavey has sold so many Wolfgangs! I'm actually planning on selling my Heritage 535 (my real 'blues' guitar) so I can justify buying this $400 import! I was originally thinking of putting coil taps on both pickups for more versatility than humbuckers usually give, but I don't think this guitar needs them...simple three way switch, three great tones! Also, these pickups are dead silent. I played a Dean EVO (Korean) that same day in another guitar shop that did nothing but BUZZ all over the place; it was so bad I couldn't even figure out whether I liked the tone of the pickups! (I had one of my Warmoth guitars with me to compare it to, mine was almost dead silent.) I figure the Peavey was well shielded, the Dean wasn't.

Here's my one gripe in this category, and the reason for a 9: the tone control doesn't work! Here's what I mean. You have full on bright 3/4 of the way down, then suddenly, total mush: no graded variation. I will definately change out the tone control when I get it. I've run into the same thing on left-handed Denelectros and Fenders, and I think it's because they try to wire the pots "backwards' for us lefties, and the resistance strip inside the pot isn't meant to be wired this way. (I have several Warmoth guitars that I've wired up myself and they all have right-handed controls on 'em...who cares?! They work perfect!)

I'll just say that for a $400 guitar, it is very impressive...no surprises or disappointments. Body finish was very nice (but the idiot who played it before me got fingerprints all over it; what a slob!) The neck wood (maple) doesn't look like anything fancy, but the rosewood board looks better than most I've seen on import guitars. Action was perfect, no buzzes and none of that crap high action I've played on nearly EVERY Fender guitar that's hanging on the wall...what's the deal with that!? I think the tuners are about one decimal point out of alignment: the strings don't go perfectly strait over the nut to the string posts. Most people would never notice it...I'm just anal after cutting several nuts myself and setting up so many guitars. I don't think it will affect tuning or playability. Hardware all feels quality, just the gripe about the tone pot not working properly, just like the majority of lefty guitars I've played, so Peavey's not the only one with this problem.

Don't know...haven't bought it yet...looks solid.

Haven'tbought it yet, so can't comment. On other Peavey products, customer support puts everyone else to shame!

Been playing thirty plus years, both acoustic and electric. Own several midrange price guitars, and several Warmoths I've built myself (due to the lack of lefty instruments out there).

I do plan to go back and buy this guitar (maybe tomorrow). When I do, I'll write a follow up review on it. I was very impressed with the tones this double humbucker could produce. It's worth a look if you're a lefty player who is frustrated with the quality and availability of left-handed instruments. Tell your local Peavey dealer to order one in for you so you can check it out ... and no, I don't work for Peavey, never have.