« Peavey Axcelerator »

When I was in a band with my friends, I used to love the guitar my friend used to take out of his case and play. It was a gorgeous Peavey Axcelerator. I used to think that I would buy a guitar like that someday when I would earn more money. A couple of years later, I purchased an Ibazez with a single locking tremelo and a jet black body. It was a step up from the old Dean I used to play, which I had bought from a garage sale. The Ibazez looked great and sounded good. My friend, for some reason was looking to add that to his guitar collection and offered to trade one of his other guitars for it. He mentioned that he was reluctantly willing to part with his Peavey if I would trade him my Ibanez on top of some cash. I jumped at the chance, but by being friends, I talked him out of the cash portion of it and made out like a bandit with the Peavey. I have kept it almost immaculate, just like he did. It was really a no-brainer.

The guitar has a wonderful blue clear paint job. You can see the flow of the grain and the excellent craftmanship of an American-made instrument. The double locking tremelo has a gold finish with a pearloid pickguard and gold hardware. It has a Kahler locking nut. It has two single coil pickups, complemented by one humbucking pickup. The single coils can produce a brilliant vintage sound that is so hard to find nowadays. It looks as great as it sounds. You can play a brilliant sounding blues song or beef up the sound with heavy distortion. This guitar can dish it out with the best of 'em! It was my friend's best guitar, both in sound and looks. Now, I have it and I am taking just as good care of it, if not better.

I recently went to the Peavey website and typed "Axcelerator" in the website search. To my dismay, the search came up empty. I am assuming that they no longer continue to make this guitar. It is a pity, for it truly is a great sounding, great looking, light on the shoulders guitar. I wish that they still made them, as I would love to see any upgrades they might have on this model, such as a set neck. My guitar has a bolt-on neck and I would much rather prefer a set neck.

The guitar is in great quality. It's hardware is in perfect condition and has lasted many years and through many recording sessions. It is sturdy and has not given me any problems. I have used it to record tracks, as well as play live. It has not let me down. It is always great to see the look on peoples' faces when I open my guitar case and they see this beautiful blue guitar, with it's pearloid pickguard and gold hardware sitting in the pit of the black padded hardshell case. Their eyes seem to get bigger when they catch a glimpse of this instrument. Once again, it is equally important, if not more, that the instrument not only looks good but sounds excellent. The Peavey Axcelerator does both.

This guitar is my best guitar and I have not played any guitars that are less than the price range of $800 to $1000 that sound as good as this one. I do not know the price of this guitar when it was being sold, but it sounds like a competitor for high end guitar models, such as the Gibson Les Paul. The look of the guitar is unbeatable, especially considering that this guitar is used, yet in perfect condition. A note to the Peavey company: please bring this guitar back!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com