Product: Switch Wild I MIDI
Price Paid: US $399
Submitted
06/22/2005
at
10:01pm
by
midiguitar fan
Features
:
7
2005
Made in China
22 frets
Vibracell one-piece body and neck, rosewood fingerboard
1 master mag volume, 1 MIDI volume, 1 pickup selector, 1 midi/both/guitar switch, S1 and S2 switches.
2 bridge humbucker and a Roland GK pickup
Switch generic humbuckers
Passive humbucker, GK pickup uses a preamp
Vaguely Parker Flyish body style
Wilkinson bridge
Red glossy finish
Black non-locking grover tuners
24 3/4" scale
Gig back and two hex bits for the saddle and trussrod adjustments
I would have liked more controls for the pickups. The Wild I has a coil-tap switch that is sacrificed for the pickup selector.
Sound
:
7
It's a good rock type guitar. It's pretty much like a Les Paul but with the different bridge design. The sustain is very good because of the one-piece construction. I mostly use it with the VG-88 so the native sound is not a priority for me.
Tracking hasn't been that great with the GR33 so far. Part of that might be the springs or the nature of the GR33 itself. But there may be a little too many overtones around the 12-th fret. It's causing notes to trigger one octave too high. So its application as a MIDIguitar is not as good as I had hoped.
I'm going to replace the strings with Elixir .009s and try again, but the Wild I I was using before had similar issues at the 12th fret so I think it's the resonance of the guitar itself.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
3
Action was set ultra low with what felt like .008s. Frets were rattling like crazy. I raised the action and was only able to just barely intonate the low E string by moving the saddle all the way to the backplate after removing the adjustment screw's spring. I'm guessing it will intonate better with .009s. Still, it appears there isn't enough leeway in the bridge placement for light strings.
The frets are not as well smoothed-out around the edges as they should have been, but it's okay. Better than the Wild I's I had.
There are a couple nicks on the rosewood fingerboard of mysterious origin.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
It's a simple guitar. There isn't much that can go wrong with it because of the vibracell material. There is no neck attachment. Nothing to break really aside from the electronics. The trick is to get one that was put together properly to begin with.
BTW, this is a surprisingly heavy instrument for being made of plastic. It's not oppressively heavy, but it feels substantial, dense, not like a toy.
Customer Support
:
6
Read my separate review of the Wild I MIDI to hear my story of customer support. This Wild IV is the end result of problems with two other Wild I's.
Overall Rating
:
3
Based on my experience only, I have to rate this one average.
The Wild IV MIDI is going for no less than $499 and at that pricepoint, for an extra $150 or so you can get a Godin Freeway SA with piezo saddles. I got this because I'm more into the Les Paul feel and I kinda wish I had just bought a GK3 for my Les Paul Custom.
