Custom77

I’ve used this guitar with independant effect pedals (Whammy, Zvex Super Duper 2 in 1, Zvex Fuzz Factory, Boss RE-20 and EHX Memory Man with Hazarai), the multi-effect part of a Boss DR-880, or directly into my soundcard using Mixcraft. I mainly play rock and blues. As a whole, it mostly reveals its potential with a good overdrive or distortion. Constructionwise, you immediately remark its size (as big as my bass). The neck sports 24 frets. It stays really well in tune, with only minor adjustments needed from one day to the other. Regarding its pickups, the sound can cut very well depending on the selected position. And the middle position sounds very interesting. Yet, I feel the tone control to be less noticeable. I own a Godin XTsa : an excellent, very versatile guitar. I mostly play using my Roland GR-55 and I almost only use guitar models. I bought the Custom77 Blackout Standard because I wanted a guitar that would sound very different from the Godin XTSA. That’s a real success, both soundwise (it’s really rock-oriented) and regarding its look. So far, I hardly feel like playing it without a saturation. For ACDC/Deep Purple/others-style sounds, it’s way more convincing than my Godin. The lows can easily be heard. It doesn’t take long before you get a big sound for nice riffs. The original strings have a heavier gauge than what I’m used to but that’s not a problem. In the end, my first impression is very good. I don’t regret this choice a single second. It provides a good sound panel through the different pickup selector positions. The clean sound is nice, but saturated sounds are to be prefered. IMHO its look is awesome, vut you know what they say about everyone’s tastes… A fun fact: the salesman told me the Blackout’s body had been inspired from a Chevrolet.

(Originally written by Power Bibi/translated from Audiofanzine FR) Replica of Neil Young's Gibson by the Custom77 team. http://www.custom77.com/html/produits-242-1.html Features (taken from Custom77's website): Guitar made in Korea - 3-piece mahogany neck - Mahogany body - Maple top - Set neck - 60's-type slim neck profile - Rosewood fingerboard - 22 frets. - Die-cast sealed lubricated machine heads - Bigsby B70 - Synthetic bone nut - Alnico "Mini77" mini-humbucker pickup - Alnico "P77" P90-type pickup - Two volume controls - Two tone controls - 3-way toggle switch UTILIZATION Very pleasant neck with 60's profile. One of my favorite necks among all my guitars... Typical Les Paul access to the upper frets... This means that you can get to all the frets except on the E and A strings where you'll reach only the 17th fret! The weight of the guitar is pretty generous with at least 8.8 lb. SOUNDS But lets get to the point! I play almost every music style but mainly crunch stuff like Led Zeppelin, etc. Clean sound: Both pickups (mini humbucker and P90) provide possibilities my other guitars can't. For clean sounds, I generally like single coil pickups although they sound too slim and I find humbuckers sound too bright. Here, you get the best of both worlds... The P90 pickup in the bridge produces a round and full sound. The mini humbucker sounds tighter. I don't use tone controls a lot and with this guitar I always turn them all the way. Up to now I hadn't uses the center position on my guitars, but this guitar showed me the possibilities this position has to offer. To get a well-balanced clean sound I set the mini humbucker volume at max and turn the P90 volume halfway. It surprised me how much fun it is to play Chris Isaak with a reverb (and the Bigsby :-p ...). Crunch sound: Perfect!!! The crunch sound is full and well-defined with a bluesy character. I get wild with Whole Lotta Love, Lemon Song, etc. I play with a small Ibanez Valbee amp and it sounds great when it's a bit cranked. Imagine it with a good tube amp and a 12". I use mainly the mini humbucker for crunch sounds. Distortion sound: It's clearly not its best. The sound has not enough definition to play Metallica and the like... But it sounds ok for Stoner rock (Queens Of The Stone Age). This guitar made me start playing Nirvana again (Negative Creep, Scentless Apprentice, etc.) because of the dirty distortion! I like every sound it provides with my PB!!! It's also great with a Whammy pedal! OVERALL OPINION I've been using it since January 2009 and after having had to return it to Custom77 (due to a broken toggle switch) I can't stop playing it! The main disadvantage of this guitar is the bigsby tremolo system, which makes tuning unreliable (in the other hand I just installed new strings, so it might also have to do with that...). But it's definitely part of the style of this guitar! I like most of all its looks (I love this relic version) and the clean and crunch sounds! This guitar has it's own personality and it doesn't look like any other. I don't regret having bought it at all! I didn't try it out before buying it. I chose it for its looks, the pickup combination and Custom77's reputation... I wish them all the best and I thank them for their awesome after sale service... I might buy another Custom77 model, a Needless Pins or a Raw Power...