STC-Shaped Guitars

As far as I'm concerned, this guitar is a killer as I play genres ranging from rock to heavy metal - not thrash or black. For those latter musical styles, I think there are other models that are better suited! ;) I play on an Engle Sovereign and it sounds great using the amp's distortion! Regarding its tech specs, go and read the Info tab on this site, and as far as I can tell its finish and so on are really great. It provides a very good sustain and I can use the Floyd any way I like, it won't detune (or very slightly, even when abusing it). Sounds are incredible, especially the clean in the medium position. The bridge pickup is awesome with distortion. The only regret I have is I wish Fender would sell this model with a hardcase, not a softcase. For a David Murray signature model, even if it's made in Mexico, this would have felt more respectful! :-D Value for money is great! To tempt you even more, I suggest you have a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kY0t7x3qv8&spfreload=10

And voila! My Blast is built, I've had it now for a good month, and I'm stick to it every day since! It deserves a little review! Flashback: I've known PM, for... wow ... 7 or 8 years ... He knows my tastes, what I like what I hate ... He even happened to identify specs that I had not thought of or did not want to hear about, though they would be eventually accurate. Hey, Pm's pretty smart! So eventually, my sweet 666, and her twin sister, the 667, are in! In short, my 666! The specs: -1 piece African mahogany body, with a rather very cool shape, sizing roughly like a Washburn N4. -Black finish-dyed, waxed and oiled. -Top notch ergonomics and body contour (heel carved for easy access to the upper frets, tummy and forearm cut). -1 piece bolt on Padauk neck with two carbon fiber rods, two way adjustable trussrod, volute reinforcement. The padauk PM picked has dried for more than 20 years! - Oiled neck: ultra comfortable, nothing can compare to the outstanding feel of the wood. -Thick ebony board, round fretboard end. -Scale 25''1 / 2. - Electronics back cover in mahogany, closing with magnets: farewell screwdriver to change batteries! -Medium jumbo frets with hidden feet (that's attention to details!). -Grover 406BC locking tuners. -Fixed Hipshot.125 string through bridge. -EMG 81 bridge and 60A neck, wired in 18v. -One volume knob ,one 3 way toggle switch, placed further away from the bridge. -Flushmount Dunlop Straplok and output jack. -Metal pickup rings. -Graphtech Tusq nut. -Luminlay side dots (it's cool, it glows in the dark). -"JG666"carved at the back of the headstock, and filled with ebony, the little goodie PM made! At the beginning, I was gob smacked by the body shape, but I wasn't crazy about the headstock. I wanted an angled headstock with a scarf joint, like any Jackson USA. In the end, I find that this headstock is great and is a good match, the overall look is great! One piece neck, with the usual (at PMC at least!) carbon reinforcements along the trussrod: the neck is as stiff as a very stiff neck indeed! You can use any string gauge without any fear of warping it. I let PM decide what shape he would do for the neck. He knows me by heart, and I do not regret it a second! The woods are outstanding. The feel is incredible, you feel the wood living and vibrating. To be honest, we're light years away from mass production of guitars that really feel like cheap plastic compared to this guitar. That is pure excellence! UTILIZATION The neck is to die for: immediate handling, no adaptation in sight. That's superb job. Flat without excess, neither too thick nor too flat. An incredible compromise, far from the Ibanez Wizard ruler, far from Gibson's log. A bit like my good old Lag (I can blame them for a few things, still the comfort of their necks is exceptional),Washburn N4, or USA Jackson (not the horrible MIJ rulers like the DK2). The ergonomics are flawless: between the bevels, contours, the flat bridge, knobs are not stupidly too close to the bridge, there's no mistake here. The guitar is well balanced, with a rather small body (a bit like the Washburn N4, the ESP Horizon). But rather thick (that's for the good vibes!) In short, well balanced, flawless ergonomics, incredible woods, you literally become one with the guitar, I had not felt this way since ... wow ... in fact, I never felt that with a guitar! That's it, I'm just über satisfied and happy with my Blast! I dig my Blast! SOUNDS It's not a scoop, I'm not into fancy music. Definitely not. The pickups I chose prove it :o). Currently, I play on a Fractal Audio Axe Fx Ultra (which replaces with no regrets a Engl E570 and a floor full of pedals), either straight into Fostex PM-0.5 mkII monitors or plugged into a VHT / Fryette 2/50/2 and a VHT / Fryette Fat Bottom 2x12. Holly cow, what a sound! Again, the EMGs are not as extreme as stubbornly believed. The 81,is very precise, a bit compressed. The mount 18v gives more grain a bit more of an organic feel, less compression, without changing it into a passive Duncan pickup though. Distortion is its domain. There it just does an excellent job. It is not so ridiculous with clean sounds, its output level is way less radical than a lot of passive ceramic pickups (think Duncan SH6, SH13, SH8 Invader rubbish, DiMarzio X2N, Super Distortion, Evolution, Drop Sonic etc to name a few). The 60A, wow ... is to my ears the best EMG neck humbucker. An attack closer to the SA than the 85, still with a certain roundness common to AlNiCo humbuckers. Some very interesting cleans, crunch to die for, and far from being ridiculous in high gain. All the notes sound, precise, sharp, the harmonics are here, albeit a tad less rich with ... SP Custom Handwound Pickups! Yes, see my opinion on the PMC Blast Black Maple, which is equipped with these). In short, the Blast blasts!!! OVERALL OPINION I was thinking about a guitar with these specifications for a while now... since 2005! I looked,tried, bought standard series guitars in shops: going to a luthier is more involving, more ... risky ... than picking any mass production guitar. And also I always said that given my pathetic level, I did not deserve a luthier's guitar. All in all, I do not regret my choice one second. I've had quite a bunch of guitars, lots, theoretically, could suit me. In fact, I've never been completely stick to a guitar for ten years. I always found something wrong, whether ergonomics (for example, I don’t feel that comfortable with a Tune O'Matic), or whatever ... sound (eg, my slight disappointment with my ESP Horizon NT2, not as exceptional as expected). The Blast is one damn great guitar! I forgot: the little details that kill. The inlay at the back of the headstock of the 666 was made with ebony taken from my Blast 667. The inlay at the back of the headstock of the 667 was made with Padauk taken from my Blast 666. The neck and body planks come from the same timber as the neck and body of the Blast made for Scarve's guitarist, Patrick, my idol and a cool mate! I chose most of the wood directly in PM's stock, looking at all planks and timber! The "JG 666" inlay was not planned at all, it was big surprise when I went to pick my guitars! It's spoiling his customers, isn't it? I like that :o)

My guitar is a Californian Elite from 1991. Ebony board with boomerang inlays, optional solid two-piece curly maple body, and factory EMG's with push/pull knob for coil split. It also came factory with a tone knob. The previous owner had Dimarzio cliplocks installed, I switched to Schaller straplocks, other than that it is still original. The old USA Hamer are quality craftmanship, they offered lots of custom options then, but with those options, these guitars did cost some dollars back then. Though it is made of maple, and maple is known as a heavy wood, it doesn't weigh more than a regular Strat. Well balanced, not neck heavy at all. The neck feels ultra thin, this is the standard thin neck profile Hamer used from 1990 on, they had a meatier neck profile before. With that deep cutaway it is easy to reach upper frets, but don't expect lots of sustain in the highest fretted notes, these are for short precise notes. Well, I am not a "shredder", so I don't use those high notes a lot, I did record some classical pieces at home and there I could make use of the higher frets. The hardware is Hamer-branded Schaller FR II and M6 mini, the locking nut is drilled from above. Now to the electronics, the Californian comes with single coil in the neck/humbucker in the bridge position. In the 90's Seymour Duncan were standard by Hamer,EMG's were offered as a custom option then, and EMG's are what have been used on my guitar. In the neck position is an EMG SA pickup. Well, it is in the neck position, but compared to a Strat it is actually positioned between the neck and the middle pickup of a Strat, and it is slanted. The EMG is actually not a single coil pickup, but a stacked humbucker. It uses an alnico magnet bar. The sound is clean and clear, not unlike a real single coil, but it sounds different than a true Fender Strat single coil. They don't hum and are noise-free. EMG's have many critics say that they sound sterile with lack of character and while I know what they mean, they still sound good. Give a listen to Steve Lukather's guitar tone in "Talk to ya Later" to hear EMG SA in clean mode and decide for yourself if they sound sterile. The humbucker in bridge position is an EMG 89, which is actually a 81 and a SA in one housing. The 81 is EMG's high output pickup, and so is the 89. In "humbucker" mode with volume on full there is no clean signal, the pickup will definitely distort. It is by far not a vintage sounding humbucker, it is quite fat sounding with strong high mids. This pickup in "H" mode sounds best with gain sounds. I liked it in clean mode combined with a wah pedal (Dunlop GCB95). Of course, with the push/pull pot you're able to "tame" the 89 and switch it to SA mode. In SA mode? But the SA is also a stacked humbucker. Yes, in fact the 89 is 3 coils, so you switch from humbucker mode to stacked humbucker mode. And this is also hum-free, nifty, huh? With it's strong upper midrange the guitar fits well into the band mix. It never sounds too thin. The amps I used it with are a Fender Prosonic combo, a Marshall 6100 (EL34) with JCM900 1960 cab (G12-75), a Marshall 6101 (5881) with Celestion Gold S-303 speaker and a Mesa Boogie Mark V:35 head with 1x12" Thiele cab (Celestion C90).

Mostly used with a Peavey Tube 60 for rock/hard rock/heavy. Perfect workmanship. The blue flower pattern on the body and the tree of life on the maple fingerboard look awesome and are well finished. Just a slight disappointment with a very tiny knot within the wood in the back of the neck, but to me it’s only a detail and it has no consequence on the sound. Note the flower pattern on the headstock. In spite of the transportation it had undergone, the guitar was perfectly in tune when I unpacked it! :8O: As of now, I control its tuning daily before playing and I rarely have to tune it again (although I’m a heavy Floyd user). The neck is comfortable and warm (JEM-type, 5-piece maple and walnut with Titanium trussrod)), the real definition of a left hand’s highway: acceleration comes naturally. Too bad the last 4 frets are not scalloped… Not that it’s that important to me. As a whole, I expected to have a lot of things to modify when I got it (trussrod setting, Floyd), but that wasn’t the case: the original setting was perfect for me, and nothing has changed since then except for a few minor modifications here and there, because of the way the wood slightly alters with time and the influence of temperatures. The pickups are DiMarzio Gravity Storms: warmer and rounder-sounding to my taste compared with the Evolution model. I even find them a little more versatile than the Evos (clean to crunch to the most extreme distortions). I think there’s a little gain in the lows too – to be confirmed. + value-for-money, finishing and sound - the Floyd: why an Edge Zero 2 instead of the Jem70v’s Edge? Even if it does the job, it’s a pein to have to screw the nut to set the bar in place. Overall, I consider it a beautiful guitar in all regards, when I ordered it I didn’t expect such a level of comfort when playing. I was pleasantly surprised when I got it, and for such a price I really recommend it.

I bought this guitar in 92, when I was just a beginner. What a joy to have "my own Fender Strat" for a negligible price. It was a "Squier Series" Fender, made in Japan in the end of 1991. I use this Strat on a Laney GC50 and a Tubeworks RT2100. It survived falling from a motorcycle, so it's really sturdy. I used it for several years before replacing it by a pretty Godin, then I took it out again just to see. Regarding the way it's built, well it's a Strat. Playing comfort is here. The back of the neck is not so well finished, it's a bit rough. Yet, playing on it is pleasant and it has a great sustain. Its electronics is its main weakness. The original pickups lack personality, there's almost no difference between the three of them: no twang, wood or anything. The tone knobs are of little if any use. As for its bridge, the saddles were not set correctly. Intonation was very hard to set, and the B string is still sometimes a problem. The tremolo's strings were too soft, I had to change them. I wanted to see what I could do with it, so I made some mods on it. Changed knobs and tone capacitors, which were too weak. I but a Dimarzio Virtual Vintage as a bridge pickup, a Tornade MS L series in the center and a Seymour Duncan Vintage rail at the neck position. This was a revelation. It sounds fabulous. I manage to get great Strat sounds, it doesn't pale to its bigger sisters. It won't get back to the closet! Last issue to date, the tuners are starting to fail, I've ordered vintage tuners which I'll soon set up. Overall, a great deal with a lot of memories, and now it'll sound for still quite a while.

The guitar I owned was made in Japan during one production year in 1989. Here are some specs: 750 XL - Mahogany set neck construction with arched maple top over mahogany body. 24.750" Gibson short scale, 24 frets, bound rosewood compound radius fingerboard, inverse Mother of Pearl Jackson inlays (sharkfins). Came with non recessed Schaller/Floyd locking trem. Two Jackson branded humbuckers, 1 vol, 1 tone, 5-way switch and black hardware. This was a cool blend of Les Paul woods and scale with a Floyd type trem and 24 frets! It has all the tools to be a killer sounding guitar. UTILIZATION This model is the Japanese made equivalent to the USA Jackson Soloists, so it goes without saying that access to the upper frets is great. This guitar is great for lead and regular guitar playing. It is easy to get a wide array of sounds with the two humbuckers and 5-way switch. It is a very well designed guitar, the neck thickness starts at .750 at the first fret and goes to 2.5 at the 21st fret. Being mahogany and maple, the guitar does have some weight but it is very well balanced. SOUNDS I bought this when I was in high school - around age 16-17 and what a killer, near top of the line guitar it was for that time! Unfortunately, I wasn't into amplifiers and only had a crappy 15 watt Washburn sx-12 practice amp and a few different practice amps at the guitar shop where I took lessons. Then down the road I got a Laney linebacker 50 watt solid state combo, a decent upgrade then and it still sounded nice. So, as undeveloped as my ear was then it sounded great. Great chunky rhythm tones with superb singing leads (from what I can remember). It sounded great distorted and clean. It was my #1 guitar for the next four years until I put it into storage as I moved to a bigger university then on to grad school. Fast forward 15 years later when I pulled it out of my mother's basement. My ear and playing style had developed to a whole new level. I played it with some "real amplifiers" and 4x12 cabs. The pickups were terrible - dull and lifeless. The guitar sounded very sterile due to the stock pickups, nothing like I remembered a long time ago. Chavel really did a disservice to this guitar with the junky pickups they used with these great guitars. I was getting into Suhr guitars then, so I decided to keep the guitar stock for resale purposes and didn't change any pickups to see what this guitar really could have done. These guitars have all the potential in the world - they just need some better pickups. So, I'll give the sound a 6 for that. OVERALL OPINION Like I stated before, the 750 XL has all the potential in the world. It is made of great materials and has excellent craftmanship and is great in many ways - but the pickups really should be changed/updated. So, I like the pickups the least. I like the looks and playability of it the best. The value for the price was fantastic and they have held their value on the used market. In the years it was in storage, I bought and sold many guitars as a hobby, so I have a lot of experience with other guitar brands and models. Knowing what I know now, I would have bought it again and probably looked to get a few more and would have changed the pickups out. In the end, I did sell this as I started playing guitars with ss frets - but with the right pickups this is one great guitar.

This Fender Stratocaster is part of their Classic Series line of guitars. Made in Mexico, they are designed to capture the different "classic" eras of Fender guitars such as the fifties, sixties, and seventies. This model is the seventies Stratocaster. The features list is as follows: *Ash body (with three colour sunburst finish) *Maple neck with rosewood fretboard and 21 frets *7.5" neck radius *CBS style headstock with bullet truss rod *Fender "F" tuners *Vintage style synchronized tremolo *3 single coil pickups with standard controls (volume/tone/tone/5 way selector switch *More stout body contouring overall *Fender Deluxe gigbag included It's essentially your typical 70s Stratocaster in its features, but with better quality control, so many of the issues of the past have been left in the past. For being a MIM, this guitar was surprisingly well crafted and held up very well in various rock and blues projects that I was in. UTILIZATION The issue I have with Strats is that they're generally cumbersome unless you get one with modern refinements. This guitar was certainly no exception to the rule. Seventies Strats are generally very clunky and hard to get around for me and unfortunately, the reissues suffer from this flaw as well. It's inherent in the design but it's still a grievance to me. The upper fret access was average at best. Getting to the 21st fret wasn't overly difficult but it wasn't as easy as I would've liked because of the neck heel getting in my way. The 7.5" radius was a huge problem as well. Bends of more than a half step were almost always choking out, especially as I went higher up the neck. Oddly enough, I replaced this with a real deal 1979 USA Stratocaster and had no problems with the vintage radius... though the contouring was even less pronounced than this MIM reissue. Getting good tones was very simple. The pickups were great. They had a slightly overwound character that allowed them to have a bit more punch and raw attack than the 50s/60s style pickups. It allowed clean tones to be much fuller and beefier, and the distorted tones took on a very throaty, viscous quality that was (to my ears) very reminiscent of Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple or Ulrich Roth of The Scorpions. SOUNDS When I owned this guitar, I was primarily using a 6V6 loaded Orange Rockerverb 50 head and a Haggerty 2x12 loaded with Eminence speakers. As I stated in the above column, the tones delivered by this guitar were great. I was almost surprised that a MIM could sound as good as this one did... The clean tones had that classic seventies "overwound" texture to them. They weren't wimpy, nor meek and quiet. Chords and fast passages asserted themselves with a dominating brilliance throughout a band mix that sat very well with bass and drums. Adding a bit of reverb helped to bring lead based passages some more depth to help them really cut through. They had a great sound for jazzier or bluesier styles and worked very well overall. The dirty tones were great as well. Again, that overwound character comes into play here. The rhythm tones were surprisingly thick and booming for a Strat, but they still had that glassy shimmer from the single coils that allows Strats to cut in a mix so well. Tonewise, the pickups were definitely more vintage than modern (again: think classic Deep Purple or Scorpions) but they had a ton of serious punch and worked well for even heavier rock at times. The biggest thing to watch out for (and Strat users will already know and understand this) is that the 60 cycle hum from the pickups can be problematic. A good noise gate can compliment this but it's still worth mentioning that these pickups aren't noiseless and will hum and buzz when serious doses of gain are applied to the signal. OVERALL OPINION All in all I thought this was a killer example of a Strat. Sure, it was heavy (solid ash body), clunky, not so ergonomic, etc, but the sheer power and pummeling nature of the pickups was a real shocker. Mind you, I replaced this guitar with a '79 and found the pickups to be even better. Perhaps I just like them? It was a very well crafted guitar that held up to whatever I was doing and never gave me any trouble. If you get a chance to try or buy one of these and you're looking for a cool throwback to that era where it was all about the power, go for it. You won't be disappointed.

(Originally written by frapana/translated from Audiofanzine FR) American brand with Korean manufacturing. The production was discontinued in '94 after a lawsuit by Fender. 21 frets 3 active Vester HB 1 single coils, 1 volume control, 2 tone controls 2-point massive bronze Vester bridge Maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, Strat-like head 2-piece ash body with translucent red sunburst varnish, rear compartment for a 9-volt battery. Gotoh machine heads 5-way toggle switch Roller nut High-quality chrome hardware UTILIZATION Very straight and pleasant neck, flat radius, low action, no fret noise problems. Typical Strat playing comfort but it's heavier than an alder Strat (because of the pretty ash body and the massive bronze bridge). SOUNDS With my Hot Road Deluxe amp the sound is stunning! The guitar provides a typical high-class Strat sound in each of the 5 positions, it generates no noise at all and the output level is comparable to DiMarzio Virtual Vintage pickups (I own a Strat with DiMarzio pickups). The sound quality is virtually the same. The massive bronze bridge gives a very long sustain to the guitar. OVERALL OPINION I bought this guitar secondhand in a music store. I first noticed the wood and hardware quality, I tested it at the shop without a 9-volt battery and the sound wasn't convincing. I bought it because I had the idea to replace the pickups. But once I got home, serviced it and installed a new battery it blew me away. I still can't believe it. A super Strat for the price of a couple of good pickups. If you ever see a Vester Tradition Series somewhere try it because you might miss the chance of discovering a very exciting adventure .

I bought this a couple months ago on a secondhand sales site in the netherlands for 65 euro . I would rate myself as a beginner player. The man i bought it from had a couple guitars for sale 2 affinity squires and this lead star guitar.I never heard of it ,did some google and every where i saw only good revieuws so i bought it.When i came home i brought it straight to a luthier who adjusted a upbow,leveld the frets and intonated the guitar.cost me 120 euro but the result is grazy.This guitar sounds very nice and plays great. It has a hugh brass tremelo block in it that makes the guitar feels heavier then my other guitars. The tuners hold,and feel good rotating them ,very smooth.The bridge sadels look like they are made from steel,good quality. The elctronics work good ,i like the five way switch ,you feel it fallung in place when you switch.The guitar makes no humming sound or buzz when i dont play and it is noisless. I found many puctures online from the.musima lead star guitar and they al seem too have a decal that says Musima 1,2 or 3 on it,this one.just has lead star ,writen on it.I have no idea how to date this guitar on any site online using the serial number. It has a sticker on the back reading Made in GDR . German Democratic Republic . Very nice too have a piece of that era and the reason i bought it instead of the affinity squires that were selling almost same price. ....

An excelent guitar for the price. I've got the Yamaha eg-303 for about 20 years ago brand new, I had tested the squier strato, tele, epiphone lesPaul special model and the Yamaha pacific at the time to compair taking in consideration of the "quality/ price" of those other guitars, and the Yamaha eg-303 was really the best option. Light but not extremely light, really strong body, dropped like 100 times and still as good as the first days, the neck is kind of indestructible, today I own a fender telecaster thinline and other strato, I've played in gibson sg and les paul and still own the Yamaha and I have to say that the EG-303 is still my favorite, is hard to compare the pickups because they could be actually better but having that in mind the Eg-303 rocks really good, I've played hard rock, blues, jazz even surf rock and the Yamaha make its way through all stiles sounding really good. Fidelity big time. I have to give it 5 stars cause after 20 years of owning several guitars I never stoped loving the sound of the Yamaha. I think it is originally a beginers guitar but in my humble opinion, with little better pickups it can easily compete with the bigones (fender or gibson).

This guitar was my first headless built by Patrick Hufschmid, and I have to say that it is incredible. At the time I secured my build slot for this guitar I already owned a few other Hufschmid guitars, and I wanted to try something totally different... the Hufschmid Atys model. It is a full size body, with a 25.5" scale length, but no headstock! When I received the guitar I was expecting an incredibly resonant guitar and that is exactly what I got. I fell in love with the "compactness" of the Atys and it is simply a beautiful instrument, not only looks wise but also in feel and sound. One of my favorite things about a guitar built by Patrick Hufschmid is the neck carve. I have never felt so "at home" and comfortable playing a guitar as I do on one built by him. One of my other favorite things is the fact that I am buying a guitar built entirely by hand, without the use of CNC machines. Sort of like comparing an oil painting to a print... these are not mass produced machine built guitars assembled by a team of employees, but are hand crafted works of art, made entirely by one man. That to me is incredible. The specs are as follows: One piece perfectly quarter sawn Sapele mahogany body One piece premium perfectly quartersawn Iroko neck Highly figured quilt maple top with custom green "chaotic burst" finish Premium FSC certified West African Ebony fingerboard 24 fret, 25.5" scale with a 12" radius Exclusive Hufschmied Blue Nut Luminlay blue fingerboard side dots Hipshot hardware/knobs Made to measure Hufschmid Glowbuckers, the worlds first Glow in the Dark resin cast humbuckers Dunlop 500k super pots, and a rare NOS Russian FT-2 0.027uf Teflon capacitor Inlaid into the rear of the body is an actual minted coin, antique nickel finished, bearing the Hufschmid logo Hufschmid 3D Kevlar control cavity design 15 coats of hand applied oil based varnish Clear aerospace grade cell cast acrylic electronics cavity cover This guitar has incredible action, a perfect neck and sounds amazing. I play many different styles of music and this guitar gets me every possible sound I could want! If you are looking for a guitar so UNIQUE that stands out in a crowd... a guitar that is so comfortable to play you won't want to put it down, a guitar that delivers an incredible range of sounds to suit your playing style... do yourself a favor and contact Patrick Hufschmid. He will handcraft you a beautiful guitar, that will surpass your expectations. It is like playing a true work of art! I am a professional guitar technician AND I have been playing guitar for almost 41 years....

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I have owned this guitar for about 3 months now. The builder Patrick Hufschmid is nothing short of a perfectionist when it comes to build quality and the final details that make a guitar a cut above the rest. Starting with the shape, Hufschmid has a unique take on the modern super Strat style, with beautiful bevels and sharp edges that give it a sleek look. It also makes it incredibly comfortable either standing or sitting. The neck shape is a full feeling "C" shape that is super fast and comfortable all the way up. As you'd expect, the fret work is absolutely perfect as well, with no sharp edges or high spots, coupled with a pretty flat radius that makes the guitar almost effortless to play. The body and neck are made from Sapele Mahogany, which is supremely resonant. You can feel that the guitar is alive and responsive when you play it. My guitar also has a maple fretboard, which gives an even more unique look compared to his usual dark fretboard choices. A straight string pull design headstock with locking hipshot tuners gives unparalleled tuning stability, even with heavy bending of the strings, and temperature changes. The exclusive Glowbuckers fitted to my guitar are unbelievable. They are a passive pickup with a fairly high output, but retain a beautiful warmth under clean tones and low gain. With a higher gain tone, the clarity they retain is amazing, with huge chords ringing out for ages. It would happily lend itself to almost any play style and genre. Also, THEY GLOW. Couple that to the glow in the dark side inlays it gives you a very striking look under dark stage lighting and the whiteness of them in normal lighting also makes them stand out. I absolutely love everything about this guitar, from the way it looks and feels all the way to the ethos of the builder. I couldn't be happier with mine and I would highly recommend to anyone looking for a beautiful handmade custom guitar to definitely check out Hufschmid. I can honestly find no faults with this guitar and it's become my guitar of choice over my other 2 customs and Parker Flys. Definitely gonna get myself a 7 string made by him in the near future as well.