Vaccaro Astrolite

i got this guitar on ebay a short while ago. it's in great shape. it has a nice custom sunburst finish on it which compliments the guitar very well. a bit heavy, poplar i think, with an ebonal fretboard (what the hell is ebonal anyway?). it has a piece of metal running down the middle of the neck, but it has wood covering it, so it feels like a regular guitar, but it has a metal tuning fork looking headstock (very cool looking). it adds stability as well as unique tone and sustain.

yeah, so here's the part where i gripe.

-the stop tailpiece they put on this is just freakin' lame. it's kind of like a les paul deal, and the bridge itself is fine (it has adjustable string spacing and intonation). but i couldn't even fit my .52 gauge E-string throught the stop-piece they put on this thing! it is some custom made "vaccaro" brand with individual metal trays that swing out on each string. the whole point of having a stop piece like this is so that you can have micro-tuners on each string, which this doesn't even have! it is also tonally dehibilitating to have the strings separated like that! i promptly went out and got a les paul style stop-tailpiece which thankfully screwed right in so that i didn't have to spend an addition $50 to have some guy drill out new holes. vaccaro posted the other astrolite review to their webpage, so i hope they read this and stop putting that truly lame stop piece on their guitars.
-another thing which kind of irked me was the pickup selection set up. the P-90s they put on here do sound awesome, very fat, dense, very well suited for the guitar itself. but on this two pickup guitar, there is only one volume and one tone knob, and you can select between all bridge, 50 % bridge and 50% neck, or all neck. hello? would it be that difficult to put on two vol. and tone knobs so that i can balance out a middle position? i quite like having the ability to play in the middle position and blending in just a little bit of bridge, but on this guitar you can only get 50/50. i think that is just stupid. i'm probably going to look into getting it modified, it probably shouldn't be too big of a deal to get it done (hopefully).

okay, so all bitching aside, the sound of this guitar is really awesome. i was pretty blown away by the sustain that was possible on this guitar, it probably has something to do with the metal neck. i think having more mass toward the neck helps increase sustain. it sounds great just to hit one chord and let it ring out. i primarily just use the neck pickup (due to the aforemention problem), which sounds very fat and has no hum issues. most of the time i play clean with slight distortion. i have been running this through a mesa boogie mark I, and a fender hot rod deluxe. this guitar sounds particularly good through the fender with a little reverb. the low notes have this tight power to them which is very pleasing. when played loud, i can physically feel the bass energy coming from the speakers. very cool. the tone is very balanced throughout the guitar, and sounds great on higher notes as well. i don't play to much heavily distorted stuff, but when i do the guitar sounds a little mush for me. kind of growly/fuzzy. it is very powerful though, great for power chords; for fourth and fifths and such. i guess lately i have been a real sticler for clarity, and i tend to play a lot of voicings with major thirds, which get kind of buried with heavy distortion. but overall this guitar sounds totally cool. for some really i've noticed pretty major tonal differences when you pick the string in different places i.e. more toward the neck than the bridge. i know this is common for all guitars, but for some reason this effect seems to be heightened on this guitar.

the action is excellent. when i first got it, the action was set quite high. i initially thought it was just difficult to play, and played for about a week or so before i lowered the action. that made the guitar 5 times easier to play. i was able to get pretty low action with acceptable fret buzz. fast neck, well set-up, feels good.

i haven't had it for too long, but it seems pretty solid. with a piece of metal running down the neck, i don't think anything COULD happen to it, but you never know i guess.

i've never dealt with them. i've read that they are great, but i've never made contact.

besides the initial problems with overal design of the guitar, which i regard as dumb although correctable, it really is an amazing guitar. it sounds awesome, plays awesome, and looks totally cool. my other guitars (as well as interests and friends) haven't seen much attention lately, and i suppose that is the mark of a quality instrument. it feels good to have this guitar in your hands.

American Made (Asbury Park, New Jersey, right around the corner from my house! WOOO HOOO!!) Mint green Double cutaway. I don't know what the body is, but I think it's Poplar. It's very heavy, like my Mexico Jazz bass. This doesn't bother me though cos it sounds GOOOOOD. It also has a green pearl pickguard, shaller bridge & tail piece, shaller locking tuners, Aluminum core neck wrapped in flame maple, phelonic fingerboard, zero fret, graphite nut, One volume, one tone, one 3-way switch, and 3 high-output Seymour Duncan p-90's. The production models have *2* p-90's, but I was told this was a custom or prototype model. They told me to come by the factory and they would look at it and tell me more, but I haven't been able to do that yet. It's got everything you could want, save for active electronics. At first I thought that the 3 way switch (one pick-up at a time) was strange, but now I think a middle p-90 wouldn't sound good with the bridge or neck anyhow, so It's just as well. I don't even miss using 2 pick-ups at once. The Components are all top-notch, the only way it could have more would be more flash. Hell, a mint green guitar with a green pearl pickguard and a big honken aluminum tuning fork head is flash enough for me!

One word - fantastic. I love the tones I can get from this guitar. I've had to play with it for a while, but I can get a great, smooth, crunchy, overdrive ala "Heartbreaker", Great slap-back, hollow body Rock-a-Billy tones, Nice warm, clean, tones for Ska and Reggae, and with my Tech-21 XXL, saturated overdrive for playing hardcore and punk. Over all it reminds me of a Les Paul Junior, probably because of the hardwood body and the P-90's. But it's got a sound all it's own. This doesn't sound like any guitar I've ever played. It's got a remarkably balanced tone, very even. It cuts though the mix, but without being harsh. Lots of character. And FAT. Very FAT. This guitar really earned this "10".

I bought it used, but it was very well set up. I haven't had to play with it since, really. I just change the strings and keep on playing. Those Shaller locking nuts spoil you fast!! All the hardware is top quality, and everything was put together marvelously. It does look like it was a hand-made pick-guard, it's slightly uneven. But that is probably because of the 3rd pick-up. That's not a detraction, trust me. Really I can't think of a bad thing to say about the construction. Being off the shelf parts, if something goes bad you could just take it to your local repair shop and have them fix it. Except for the neck. But that has a lifetime warrinty, hopefully vaccaro would be good on honoring it should something happen.

I've had it for a few months, and i've played it out all over the place. It's always sounded great, never let me down. All the hardware is Shaller and is solidly built. Very heavy. I don't know what the finish is but it's very cool and doesn't appear to be wearing at all. The fingerbaord is Phelonic, so no wear their. The frets are finished nicely. There were these crap after-market strap locks on there which I Promptly removed. Other than that seem very solid. I haven't taken off the pickguard, but the pots and the switch operate smoothly and solidly. They feel like good quality.

I called the factory once to see if I could get any info about the guitar. One of their Luthiers talked to me for about 10 minutes, answering questions. He invited me to bring the guitar to the factory so they could look up the serial # and see if they could tell me anything more about the guitar. I didn't get bounced around to voice mail, and everyone was very helpful. He told me that should I ever need anything just to give them a call.

I can't say enough good things about this guitar. It sounds fantastic in its own right, without being compared to anything. What they have managed to do is to marry the best of the old with a new approach. It's modern without being radical. Too often "modern" guitars are just ugly with no real innovations. This guitar is different. The tone is just killer. It plays easily as well as any other guitar I have. The only thing with this is that it's slightly neck heavy. The regular production models are much better, although not quite perfectly balanced. Like I said, mine is a prototype or an early custom job so it's a little different. The best thing is, that Vacarro is offering them direct from their web site now. Mine would go for $699. I would definitely recommend you try one before you get on though. They are chunky feeling, but it only took me about 2 days to get used to it. But for the money they are great deals. If you can't afford (or simply don't want to pay) $1700 and more for a PRS than seriously check out the Vaccaro. I absolutely love mine.