All user reviews for the McInturff Guitars Polaris

An excellently made instrument in North Carolina USA.
Specs:
Specs:
25 1/8" scale
1 11/16" nut width
Body: Double cutaway, one-piece pattern grade mahogany body
Neck: Set Mahogany w/ Indian Rosewood fretboard, graphite nut
Frets: Tall Dunlop 6155
Inlays: Abalone Dot
Electronics: Three-way blade-type switch, volume, tone
Pickups: twin Seymour Duncan "Seth Lover" humbucking pickups
Hardware: Grover Tuners (14:1), Schaller tune-o-matic w/ stop tail
Headstock: 3/3 configuration, straight string pull


UTILIZATION

The body style of the Polaris is rather interesting the first time you look at it. It doesn't really remind me of any other guitar on the market and it makes you look twice. Mine came finished in a gorgeous transparent cherry finish which really shows off the one-piece mahogany body
Upon picking this guitar up, the first thing I noticed was how solid and substantial it felt. The guitar truly feels like a one-piece guitar. One can't help but notice the impeccable workmanship and care that went into this guitar. A close examination of the neck joint proves to be one of the best in the industry.

The neck is a longer scale and the width of the neck is perfect for people who play acoustic guitar on a regular basis. The neck radius is somewhere between a PRS wide/thin and wide/fat. This guitar finds a good balance between the two. The fretboard is incredibly flat and easy to move around on and access to the upper frets is very good.

This guitar has a superb fret job, these frets are fat and tall and are cut perfectly. Running your finger along the side of the fretboard produces no bumps or rough edges.

The solid one-piece mahogany body is not as heavy as you'd initially think. It's not light, but it's no vintage Les Paul, either. While the body may look a little odd-shaped, it's actually very easy to hold and balance on your knee. The controls are well positioned and easy to reach except for the three-way toggle which is at an odd place at the bottom of the guitar.

With the two humbuckers and three way switch it is easy to get a nice and workable sound.

SOUNDS

I used this guitar with custom built Peters amplifiers, which are kind of a cross between a Peavey 5150 and high gain Marshall/VHT with a little Boogie thrown in. The amp was paired with an Avatar 4x12 that had Celestion G12h -30's and a Splawn 4x12 with Governor/ManOWar speaker combo.

I usually go for a nice thick Jerry Cantrell AIC tone, to use with my modern rock/metal band.

This guitar had a super thick and boomy bass tone and decent mids and balanced if not toned down highs. I found it too bass heavy and somewhat muddy under high gain.

The guitar had some nice and thick lead tones and nice deep toned cleans.
My least favorite sound was high gain rhythm playing.
In the end, even with a few pick up swaps, the guitar did not have the tones I needed.

OVERALL OPINION

This is a wonderfully made instrument that has all the makings of a great guitar. Just fantastic workmanship. But the guitar did not have the tones I needed (see above).
This guitar would be great for more classic rock tones but has way too much bass to be used with high gain playing.
I like the quality, some lead and clean tones it sould produce the best.
I didn't like how it held up under high gain rhythm palying, where I spend the majority of my time. I even swapped pickups in it to get it to work for me, but it was just inherently bassy.
Value for the price used was great!

I have been through many guitars and had a number of years where I would buy, try and flip, which enabled me to have many guitars around to try out.
In the end, it was too bass heavy in tone and I sold it.
Knowing what I know now, I would have passed on buying it, even though I broke even.