Subway Guitars Angel Girl

NEW 16?x 2 1/2" fully bound blond laminated spruce top single round cutaway arch top with a single floating Johnny Smith style pick-up, one volume pot on a custom ebony pick-guard. Twenty frets that you can reach with rectangle block style markers. The body is Korean and the hardware is Grover super Roto-Matic gold "stair step" tuners, gold tune-o-matic floating bridge, gold tailpiece. The body, neck, headstock, and f-holes are all fully bound in an ivory colored plastic. Fatdawg owns Subway and labels his guitars ?FATDOG? and this model is ?Angel Girl?. The $80 hard shell case came from Canada.

Acoustically, Angel Girl does not have the tone of a Gibson L-5 due to a reduced jazz box. The plastic nut is horrible. Plugged in, sound is very warm and pickup is quiet for Jazz and R & B. If redesign, have the Front and Back Arch equal to the Epiphone?s DOT. And playing ten years, I prefer smaller dot markers, which would result in more wood on the fret board. Currently set up with flat wound ?12? strings (wd 3rd) and plug into a 62 Gibson Falcon with 12? Weber VST speakers. I plan to drop the strings back to ?11?. I believe that heavy strings for an Angel requires special adjustments

The Action needed adjustments, (strung with 11?s), when Fatdawg handed the Angel over to me. Reaching all twenty frets and learning your 7th, 9th, 11th, & 13th, no problem at all. Smaller jazz box allows ease to play standing or sitting. According to Blue Note Guitar, Berkeley, CA. ?16? jazz box are harder to come by? therefore if size is a playing issue keep reading. The finish overall is mirror like and the frets are nicely installed. Subway only had to drill one hole into the guitar for the cable, mount the tuners, tailpiece, pick guard, floating pick-up, strap buttons and wired the volume pot. At this time, I could not located the tone cap, but I am planning on installing a tone pot and cap.

I took the Angel to various group lessons at Blue Bear Music, San Francisco, CA. The Angel gets moved around and holds up well. But the hardware started to rattle that jazz instructor could hear it. The acoustic volume is adequate for practicing in the hallway and playing in class. This is the guitar to take out and play, leave your 65? Gibson at home.

Fatdawg is a guitar guru, able to build guitars to fit your need. Stop by if you are in Berkeley. Now for the knock, about three months, I took the guitar back to have the neck adjusted, he stated that it was good enough. I returned two months later to upgrade floating pick-up, Fatdawg declined. ? NOTE: If you do not know how to handle repair tools, take your guitar to Mr. Gary Brawer, San Francisco, CA. You can create bigger problems if you overturn an adjustment or two?. I solve the action, fret buzz, and mounting screws noise by reading a guitar repair book, releasing the string tension, slowly adjusting rods, screws, and intonation. Going really slow and having the right tools, problem solved, up to a small buzz on high e string. I did not want Subway to Repair because I never forgot the first time I requested to see ?Angel? and the employees stated, ?Never heard of that Guitar?, I walked out, Fatdawg walked in and pulled an Angel. Kind of Scary! So off to Guitar Solo, San Francisco, CA. for bone nut surgery and they stated ?this may not improve the tone and the plastic nut maybe cut low. To me $50 bone nut to; a: correct the action, b: a bone for floating pick-up, and, c: bone is the preferred material. DONE :) She plays fine now, hung up in the Living Room watching MTV.

Overall, Angel Girl is not for beginners and not for players who can?t adjust things. It is a Beginner?s Jazz Small Box that you can take out and jam. But Jazz Lesson requires learning Ionian, Dorian, & Mixolydian Modes and you end up hearing stuff to fix. I like this guitar, to sit beside my collections of old Gibsons, old Ibanezs and Fender Tele thinlines. I will upgrade the pickup, tone pot with cap and hidden controls under the pick guard when I continue my jazz lessons at JazzSchool, Berkeley, CA.. Compare, solid spruce tops, Washburn Orleans, Aria FA71, and Epiphone Emperor Regent