Product: Vintage VE660TSB
Price Paid: # sterling (200)
Submitted
05/21/2003
at
04:51am
by
Shrubby
Features
:
8
This is billed as a "John Lennon Style" electro acoustic, and is basically a Gibson J160E copy - made in Korea I think.
It has a solid spruce top, mahogany body/neck, rosewood fingerboard, single coil pickup, and a volume and tone control mounted in the top.
Lovely (looks like) sunburst finish, on the top, and a nice deep finish everywhere else.
Sound
:
8
Haven't tried it with any effects, but it sounds great and really clean when amped.
Nice "thrummy" tone which is fairly well balanced - probably a bit heavy on the base, but this is a big bodied acoustic after all.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
2
Straight out of the box, it needed just about everything adjusted.
I could fit my thumb sidewase under the strings at the lower frets, and there was about 1/2 inch neck relief.
It has a really high bridge as well, so I could only lower the saddle a certain amount otherwise the strings would have been resting on the bridge.
After working on the nut, saddle, and trussrod, it now has a lovely low action, and plays like a dream.
IMHO however, having to adjust the trussrod on a new guitar (especially by so much) is just to scary, and it should have been done in the factory.
The machine heads also rattle, and will need replacing, and the volume and tone controls needed tightening on first use.
Seems pointless to make a lovely looking/sounding guitar, and have all these problems with the setup and fittings.
It's great now, but I could easliy have trashed my new purchase trying to get the action even slightly lower.
Reliability/Durability
:
8
Despite the setup problems, this is a very well built guitar, made with good woods, and has a great finish.
I couldn't see anything falling off unexpectedly, and would quite happily gig with it without backup.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I think it's under warranty with JHS(importers), although I can't be sure.
Overall Rating
:
7
I had a major headache when I first got this thing, and didn't really pick it up that much. After sorting out the action however, it soon turned into my new baby, and it's my old acoustic which stays in the stand all the time now.
One thing I noticed after playing a standard dreadnought, was the pickup (placed under the soundboard, between the soundhole and neck), effectively lengthened the neck by about an inch. Not a big problem, and you soon get used to it. Might catch you by surprise though.
I really do like this guitar, but would only recommend it on the basis that it needs a proper setup to make it anywhere near playable.
