Swing Guitar Technology Standard

This is the new 2007 model from the highly acclaimed Swing company of Korea. It's a Stratocaster model available in shiny finished two-tone sunburst or black, with a H/S/S configuration and a 5-way selector switch, equipped with Gotoh hardware (tremolo bridge and tuners) and Seymour Duncan pups. The bridge pu is a TB-4 trembucker which is basically a JB with adjusted pole spacing to fit the locking tremolo bridge. The single coils are both S.D. SSL-1.
Body is made of 2 pieces high grade American Alder, the neck is Canadian maple with a Graph-Tech nut. Indian rosewood fingerboard. 22 Medium frets. Comes with 2 Alan keys for truss rod and saddle adjustment.

The sound suits my playing style very well. I play mainly old school punk,(classic)rock rhythm guitar and some blues. When I did my research on this guitar I was a bit puzzled about the choice of the TB-4 trembucker because at the Seymour Duncan site I couldn't find a single recommendation for putting a JB in an Alder body. Nevertheless, it works for me. Highs cut through crystal clear without getting brittle and no matter what level of overdrive I dial in, this pup won't get muddy which is great for both open chords and power chords! Lots of mids too. It does lacks some punch and bottom-end however what makes palm muting sounding a bit awkward. The middle and neck pu are sounding not so good overdriven but their clean sound make up for that. Some great sixties Fender tones are achievable with a little help from the good quality volume and tone pots.

My setup: Swing Standard, Boss ME-50 multi effect, Marshall MG 100 DFX (clean channel). I use the 'natural' overdrive setting on my ME-50 for the distorted tones, together with some moderate compression.

About the factory setup I am less satisfied. Right out of the box the action was way too high (for my taste) and at closer inspection, the neck had too much relief. Checking the truss rod I found out that there was no tension on it whatsoever. I am not sure but it might be that because these guitars have to travel a long way to Europe, the factory deliberately slacks the truss rods to prevent damage that could be caused by transport an/or climatological changes? So it took me a day of twiddling with the truss rod and the saddles to have it the way I like it. It's perfect now.
High ratings though for the fit and finish. This guitar looks stunning and I couldn't find a single flaw. The wood grain of the body and neck are just beautiful and the rosewood finger board is of one of the best quality I have ever seen. I do give a 9 rating after all because of my own setup. Right out of the box I would have given a 6 for action and setup.

It feels like a solid tool and I am sure that it will withstand gigging. Regardless of what brand of guitar, I would never gig without a backup. A string is easily broken and I don't want to make an ass of myself having to change a string during a gig...

There is one year warranty. I didn't have had contact with Swing but their Dutch dealer is very helpful. I have purchased this guitar through mail order because of the distance but I am sure that if I had lived closer to them and stopped by, they would have solved my setup problem immediately. So the 10 goes to the Tonefactory.

I have been playing on and off for about 30 years. I also own a modded Epiphone LP Standard. During my band days I have owned several Gibsons: a LP Standard, a SG and a LP Special. Both my Epi as my new Swing can easily hold up against Gibson for a fraction of the price.
This is my first Stratocaster type of guitar and I do notice that I have to get used to the different feel and sound. The sound of the Swing is definatly more refined and articulate as the Epiphone, which is just a brutal beast what I use if I am in a bad mood and want to blow off some steam...
I am really starting to like my Swing Standard. I do like the craftsmanship, the quality parts and it's capability to play powerful chords at high distortion and volume without muddying up. It's versatility in sounds, so I can crank out a nice ballad too if I am feeling romantic. If it had some more bottom end it would have been perfect but regarding the price/quality ratio I still give an overall rating of 10. A pickup is easy to replace ater all.