King Loudness « Lean, clean, and mean! »
Published on 04/26/11 at 19:15This guitar is one of the most simple pieces that I've owned, yet it was also a great sounding ax that far exceeded my expectations for a $100 guitar. It has a certain kitsch-y vibe that I really dug, even when compared to my more expensive guitars. It features a poplar body, a maple neck with rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, a hardtail bridge and a single coil pickup with an alnico 5 magnet housed in a custom enclosure. Controls are kept simple, which just a single volume and a single tone. It has a gloss finish on the body, satin finish on the neck, and white binding adorns the body and neck to create a classy looking (yet sassy sounding) instrument.
Oh... and did I mention the too cool for words plaid pickguard?
UTILIZATION
This guitar was definitely geared towards the punk rock styling based on the aesthetics, but it also seems to follow the punk mentality in its design. It's very light weight, the satin finished neck doesn't cause your hand to get too sticky when playing for long periods of time and the lack of extra pickups/controls means your hands don't need to worry about knocking a knob or a switch out of place. I would say it was definitely an ergonomic instrument. It was solidly built but very light. I had no issues playing the guitar with a strap for long periods of time and it was always very comfortable. The upper fret access was very good as well I found, and this was definitely facilitated by the great, satin finished neck.
Getting good tones was very easy because there really wasn't much to work with. I'd dial in a great sound on my amp and the guitar would reproduce that. The alnico 5 pickup was very dynamic and responded quite well to volume and tone rolloff, which made for a wide variety of tones from what seemed like a fairly narrow package.
SOUNDS
I used this guitar straight into a Mesa Boogie Mark III head and Basson 2x12 cabinet. I didn't really get a chance to use this guitar in many band settings, as my band at the time was a progressive/shred band that required more of a refined tone and more options switching wise. Primarily I found myself using it as a 'grab and play' sort of instrument when I just wanted to pick a guitar up and learn something or just jam. Like I stated prior, it's a very simple ax with just one pickup (a single coil at that) and basic controls, so versatility with this guitar comes from the hands and using the volume/tone controls to coax the different stylistic tones out of it. I found that it excelled at more of a twangy, brash sounding country/rock type of tone. The alnico 5 pickup in this guitar reminded me very much of a Tele bridge pickup and the overall feel of the guitar when I played it and heard it reminded me of a nice Esquire (single pickup sister to the Tele). It's not a guitar designed for jazzier or metal tones, but then again, I had other guitars to serve those purposes, so it's not a detriment to this guitar whatsoever. For that spanky and bright sort of raw tone, this guitar definitely excels and it is for that sound that I would recommend it.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I felt this was a killer guitar, especially for the money. A quick eBay search reveals that they routinely go for less than $100 nowadays which is a sheer bargain for such a cool, quirky ax. I've heard of some issues with sharp fret ends and some other minor QC issues (that I've honestly come to expect as par for the course for most cheaper Chinese made guitars), but the previous owner of my particular guitar had a professional work on the neck to get it flawless, so I can't really comment there. There are times I regret having sold mine, and considering the prices they go for now, I may have to get one again because they're just a cool guitar.
Oh... and did I mention the too cool for words plaid pickguard?
UTILIZATION
This guitar was definitely geared towards the punk rock styling based on the aesthetics, but it also seems to follow the punk mentality in its design. It's very light weight, the satin finished neck doesn't cause your hand to get too sticky when playing for long periods of time and the lack of extra pickups/controls means your hands don't need to worry about knocking a knob or a switch out of place. I would say it was definitely an ergonomic instrument. It was solidly built but very light. I had no issues playing the guitar with a strap for long periods of time and it was always very comfortable. The upper fret access was very good as well I found, and this was definitely facilitated by the great, satin finished neck.
Getting good tones was very easy because there really wasn't much to work with. I'd dial in a great sound on my amp and the guitar would reproduce that. The alnico 5 pickup was very dynamic and responded quite well to volume and tone rolloff, which made for a wide variety of tones from what seemed like a fairly narrow package.
SOUNDS
I used this guitar straight into a Mesa Boogie Mark III head and Basson 2x12 cabinet. I didn't really get a chance to use this guitar in many band settings, as my band at the time was a progressive/shred band that required more of a refined tone and more options switching wise. Primarily I found myself using it as a 'grab and play' sort of instrument when I just wanted to pick a guitar up and learn something or just jam. Like I stated prior, it's a very simple ax with just one pickup (a single coil at that) and basic controls, so versatility with this guitar comes from the hands and using the volume/tone controls to coax the different stylistic tones out of it. I found that it excelled at more of a twangy, brash sounding country/rock type of tone. The alnico 5 pickup in this guitar reminded me very much of a Tele bridge pickup and the overall feel of the guitar when I played it and heard it reminded me of a nice Esquire (single pickup sister to the Tele). It's not a guitar designed for jazzier or metal tones, but then again, I had other guitars to serve those purposes, so it's not a detriment to this guitar whatsoever. For that spanky and bright sort of raw tone, this guitar definitely excels and it is for that sound that I would recommend it.
OVERALL OPINION
All in all I felt this was a killer guitar, especially for the money. A quick eBay search reveals that they routinely go for less than $100 nowadays which is a sheer bargain for such a cool, quirky ax. I've heard of some issues with sharp fret ends and some other minor QC issues (that I've honestly come to expect as par for the course for most cheaper Chinese made guitars), but the previous owner of my particular guitar had a professional work on the neck to get it flawless, so I can't really comment there. There are times I regret having sold mine, and considering the prices they go for now, I may have to get one again because they're just a cool guitar.