Zachary Guitars D-1

this guitar was made in 2000 in canada. 24 frets, a dimarzio air classic in the neck, and a dimarzio virtual P90 in the bridge. one knob (volume), and two switches that split the coils, and select the pickups, respectively. the body is Pine. yep...PINE. this is one of the IKEA tabletop guitars. the neck and fretboard are maple. the body style is a single cutaway, very reminiscent of an old danelectro. it has a fixed bridge, and kluson tuners. the scale is 25.5 inches. it came with a very nice, form fitted hard shell case.

this is the best sounding guitar i've played. seriously. it can sound deep and woody like a les paul set to the neck pickup, it can get a good tele twang, strat quack, as well as sounds all it's own. for the most part, i leave it set to the bridge pickup in humbucker mode - this is my favorite sound that the guitar gets. the pickups are quiet in humbucking mode, and a bit noisy (like all single coils) when coil-split. i love nearly everything about this guitar, but here are my dislikes: i wish there was a second volume knob so i could balance the sound of the two pickups when both are selected. also, the upper fret access was a bit awkward to get used to at first.

the set up was absolutely perfect. it's the best playing guitar i've played. this isn't a guitar for snobby finished AAAAAAAAAAAAAA top freaks, though. the guitar is unique.

very, very solidly built. other guitars feel like flimsy plastic toys in comparison. all the hardware is top notch. i gig with it without a backup.

i bought this guitar directly from alex (builder of zachary guitars). he is a great guy. i have no doubt that he would do anything he could to correct any problems (as long as they weren't due to neglect or abuse of the instrument).

i have been playing for fifteen years. i have owned guitars by most of the major manufacturers - fender, gibson, gretsch ...as well as some oddball guitars - steinberger, travis bean, kay ...this guitar (or Mimi, as she has been named) is, without a doubt, my favorite. i have no need to own any other guitars (except possibly another zachary in the future).

Here we got a 1999 Zachary D-1, which is the cool Dano/Retro looking model. This one has a red stained Kornia body with a grayish black pickguard, that doesn't photograph well but looks very cool in person. 1 Volume knob, 2 mini toggles for pickup selection (2 humbuckers, an Air Norton and a Tone Zone) and coil splitting. A Wilkinson style bridge, string through the body.

It's got a Mahogany neck with 24 jumbo frets and wooden dot inlays on a rosewood fingerboard. The neck on these guitars are very special. The neck is set deep into the body, which limits fret access above the 18th fret. But, the extra body to neck contact makes the neck more rigid which is what really gives you a live sound with lots of sustain. This is really noticable when you get into the higher frets. Which is kind of a bummer as you really want to play up there more but the access is kind of limited (the Z-2's have more fret access).

The scale of this neck is 24.75 and the radius is pretty flat (14" radius) which is great for string bending. The back of the neck changes shape in different spots which is really nice. It's flatter towards the headstock, which is larger than it looks in the pictures, gets rounder in the mid neck, then flattens again towards the body connection. This is a very comfortable design and I think the best part of these guitars. Chords are very easy to play up and down the neck, you just have to play one to understand what I mean here. Lets just say "it plays friggin awesome".

This one has vintage Gotoh tuners and a very nice "secret material" nut. Which is cut very deep but never binds or pinches. This thing stays in tune wonderfully.

All Zacharys come WITHOUT a plastic finish. This is a very nice feature, lemme tell ya. The guitar sounds very live and it's a joy to play. The stained finish on this guitar is a bit rough as it was one of his prototypes ($500 cheaper too). Alex told me that he doesn't use this type of stain anymore and that the new ones look better. Personally, I like the way this one looks. It's not as pink as it looks in the pictures on his website #060299

It came with a nice hardshell case too.

I'm not into flashy guitar playing. I like simple, layered, melodic type things. So this is a warning..

These guitars are built to shred. It's so easy to play fast leads that it's hard NOT to. In fact the only reason I'm writing this istead of playing disgusting solos all night long is that I split a callous and it hurts to play.

The pickups are Dimarzio's. An Air Norton in the neck and a Tone Zone in the bridge position. These pickups sound good, I really like the Air Norton actually. The Tone Zone has that Dimarzio nasal tone to it. But it rips with a ton of distortion. Split mode sounds decent, I've actually been playing them split more often lately. Of course it has more noise that way but I'm liking the clarity.

I think these pickups maybe too modern of a sound for such a vintage looking guitar. The newer D-1's have Virtual P-90's in them and I think that would be a perfect fit. I'm in the process of building a new rig so I have to wait and see how all the pieces fit.

The guitar itself seems very balanced and live and it plays great so I got a good start.

Ok I guess this is the part where we talk about hand crafting. Alex has some very strong opinions on this which you can read about on his website (www.zacharyguitars.com), if you haven't already. Allot of people think he's just crazy. How can an improvection be a good thing? This gets into Psycology so it's going to be different for everyone. If what he has to say sounds like BS to you. Then these probably aren't the guitars for you. If you think even some of it sounds true then you should try one.

I've had my Zachary for a couple of months now and I have to say. I think Alex is right on! This guitar feels better and has grown on me more than any other guitar I have ever owned, including my 1st guitar which I've had for 25+ years.

It maybe ugly to some but I love things that are well designed. Think of it as the Cannondale of guitars. Yeah, you can depend on one of these.

I love dealing with people instead of corporations and Alex is about as far from a big corporation as you can get. He doesn't care about numbers, if you don't like the guitars then he doesn't want to sell you one. Some people are actually offended by this. I think it's great, talk about no pressure sales.

I've traded a bunch of emails with Alex before and after buying one of his guitars. He is very quick with responses and an all round good guy. I have no doubt that if I ever have a problem he will take care of me.

Alex & family can stay over at my place anytime. I wouldn't say the same of anyone at Guitar Center.

I didn't put any numbers in the ratings on purpose. I think you can tell by what I wrote that I love this guitar. I have the only D-1 so far, which I think it pretty cool. I wish I could buy the Ikea one too and a Z-3 and..

If you are reading this because your thinking of buying a Zachary. I say, go for it. You have sometime to check it out and if you don't like it then you just pay the shipping.