Product: Switch Stealth Oscar
Price Paid: USD 150
Submitted
01/21/2008
at
06:54pm
by
Diaos
Features
:
7
It's a plastic guitar but it doesn't feel or play like a toy. It's pretty heavy (which I like) and fuctions just as any more tradition guitar would.
Since the guitars are molded it takes a lot less money and time to assemble. They used this time and money pretty well seeing as how the fret work it nice and the guitar's equipped with Grover tuners and some pretty hot (for stock) Humbuckers.
The Vibracell thing is complete hype. Switch's claims are just BS marketing:
-It doesn't have better sustain (see below)
-It isn't somehow "tuned" to itself (if it were, wouldn't having it against your body render that moot?)
-The material doesn't add anything noticeable to the sound. (Again: if it were, wouldn't having it against your body render that moot?)
-Yes it's a little more resistant to moisture but it goes sharp and flat with temp changes just like anything else.
It really no better or worse than wood.
Sound
:
5
Actually it sounds pretty good.
I use it for a bunch of different rock-rooted sounds and it pulls them off pretty well. With the bridge pickup on and a no distortion the guitar sounds really nice and full. While their might be better guitars for specific genres, this thing covers a lot of things pretty decent.
The sustain isn't amazing as switch's vibracell hype. I A and B'd it with a cheapo epiphone in the same style and the epiphone's notes rang slighly longer. It doesn't have bad sustain per se, but it isn't something I would brag about if I were selling these things.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
5
You will have to set it up yourself. My action was too high and the neck wasn't quite right. After I fixed it up though it played great. Like any guitar, it took some time to adjust, but now I just pick it up and play.
The finish is shiny black (even though it looks matte in some pictures) with all black harware. It doesn't exactly look like plastic unless you go right up to it. It's got a slighly spooky warped les paul shape to it that I really like.
In my opinion the stealth series look alot better and way less tacky than the regular one. The silver raised plastic "Switch" logo on the headstock looks dumb as hell but what do you want it to say? Behringer?
Reliability/Durability
:
9
When you buy a guitar this cheap you can usually count on some problems: setup being screwy (even after meticulously fixing it), switches breaking, strings breaks, rough frets, tuning instability, noise from bad soldering, and the way too common fall-apart input jack.
Thankfully after about 6 months I???ve seen none of these problems and I don???t think I will. The pots feel a little easier to turn than I'm used to, but I'll fix that when I get around to it.
These guitars are solid and I think the only thing the low price on these reflect is that it???s very hard to sell a plastic guitar in the current market. Everyone has a hard on for wood and tradition.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
N/A
Overall Rating
:
10
It's an awesome guitar for the money if you can get around the fact that it's not wood. They were $350 at one point but then Musician's friend dropped them down to poverty level so I picked one up and gave it a shot. I'm still impressed.
This is my main guitar right now. Why? Because it's reliable, plays nice, and sounds decent. It's also cool that I never see anyone else around playing gigs with these things.
