Zerberus-Guitars Hydra

Anyone that has seen a hydra knows the shape and the finish are superb. Mine is the emerald green one and its a really great looking guitar. The body is made from Korina, which is similar to mahogany. Its fitted with a matched flamed maple veneer. The finish is a beautiful transparent emerald green. It has 2 humbuckers, which i was planning to replace with emg's, but i liked the sound of them so much I decided to keep them. It has a 5 way pickup selector a volume and 2 tone knobs, which can give you a huge range of sounds.

I play in a metal band, and the hydra does extremely well at producing a heavy crunchy sound, while maintaining a high level of clarity. I plug into a digitech 2120 and then into a marshall 100/100 power amp. The guitar is very comfortable to play for extended periods as it is quite light.

The guitar was setup very well out of the box, but as I tune to C i had to set the guitar up for that. It handles the low tuning as well as any other guitar. Like i said b4, the guitar feels like top quality. The makers obviously know what they are doing.

The hardware is black, and seems very sturdy. I give the tremolo a pretty good workout and the guitar holds its tuning fairly well considering. I take pretty good care of it so I imagine it will withstand live playing as long as it is required to (until i buy another one). The finish is so nice that I am not game to risk it getting damaged, so its always in its case if i'm not playing it, but it does feel like a reasonably thick finish.

The Zerberus company is very small, but Tony, their Australian distributor is extremely helpful and always willing to talk/help/assist with any queries I have. It came with a certificate of authenticity and a 2 year warranty.

I have been extremely impressed with the hydra. So much so that I have not used any of my other guitars since I bought it. I plan to buy a Morpheus next and probably get rid of most of my other guitars as they are just collecting dust. If this guitar was ever stolen i would be emailing Tony the same day to order another one.

This is a rock/metal guitar with a whammy bar. It has two pickups, very striking visuals and a set neck with 24 frets. The finish is flawless and the top is arched with a flamed maple veneer. The body is Korina, the neck is hard rock maple and the fretboard is made of quality rosewood. The underside ( back ) of the guitar and neck is finished with gloss black paint, but the top is stained wine red, with a natural grain. There is a square nameplate at the 12th fret with the model-name engraved in it. The fret position markers are at the side of the neck, as with other Zerberus guitars. The pickups are adjusted by two volume controls and a five way blade switch but there is no coil tapping. The pickups have blades, a humbucker at the bridge and a slimmer single coil style at the neck. The bridge pickup looks like an Original Bill Lawrence, but is not branded. The neck pickup looks similar to an SD Hot Rail, but is also not branded. Presumable Korean clones, but they sound gutsy. All hardware is black on this guitar. The electronics are passive, but the pickups, as I mentioned, are very hot. The machine heads are Grovers. The guitar arrived setup perfectly with a very low action. The most stunning aspect of this guitar is its unusual appearance: the long flowing pointed upper horn, the duck tail styling of the body, the downward pointing lower horn. The arch top, and the contour lines of the body and horns make this guitar as much a modern sculpture as a musical instrument. Another good design feature is the way the strings are loaded into the bridge. They retain their ball ends, and slot into tubes at the back of the bridge. So string changing will be quick and easy, which is not the usual case with Floyd Rose style bridges. The body weight is also very light, and the balance is perfect both on the knee and standing with a strap. So it is a very comfortable instrument to play.

The sound is suited to rock and metal, but you could probably play anything on it. I have a Roland Cube 30. The pickups do not hiss at all. The guitar sounds better plugged in than acoustically. The bridge pickup is very crunchy and bright. Perfect for metal, rock and blues. I am a bit of a minimalist. It does most of what I want with the bridge pickup. But because it has two volume controls, you can do some blending of the pickups with the 5 way blade in the middle position.

Flawless construction from Korean factory. Guitar was set up in Germany by Frank, the boss and owner of Zerberus. He designs all their guitars and he's a really freindly and helpful geyser. It needed tuning after trip from Germany to Australia, but was ready to play within seconds. The action was very low, but no buzzing anywhere. This is one of the most playable guitars I have ever owned.

I cannot say, because it is too early. It appears solid and well made. It's the kind of guitar that you'd probaly want to own more than one of. Some German musician guy on the Zerberus website said he bought three of them.

Zeberus are very freindly and helpful, but it's a long way to Germany from Australia. The warranty is 2 years, but if anything went wrong, I'd probaly get it fixed locally and send them the bill.

This is a killer guitar. Watch out Ibanez and Jackson! I play acoustic guitar, nylon and steel, and also electric. Jazz, blues, rock originals, classical, flamenco. If it was stolen I'd defintely replace it. ( with 2 ) The best things about this guitar are the feel and playability of the neck, the punchy sound and the unusual overall styling. It is my 2nd Zerberus guitar. The other one was a Morpheus. I love these guitars.