« Suhr Carve Top Knopfler Spec »

What you are paying for with this instrument is the build quality and standard of components. Don't expect any case candy or even a fancy case, just a typical g and g type job but a very big centre pocket for storing your nick nacks which is gooood. There is a simple but clear build sheet. I have always been a strat man with a playing style similar to that of Mr K. I have an 80s Schecter ST In my arsenal, an old tele which I never use and threw in a custom shop strat to buy this, which has been a dream of mine for some time. I like and am used to a vintage 60s c profile neck. This guitar has a flat Indian rosewood board. Different but certainly not displeasing. There is a nice shallow draft to the mahogany neck and abalone position markers which are small but can be seen in the ivoroid neck binding in low light. Useful! The stainless steel frets are an excellent choice. Thin and finished perfectly. The body of the guitar is a lovely mahogany (the same as the neck) and is flawlessly made and presented with an angled cutaway heel section. Full ivoroid binding around the solid carved quilted maple cap in a gorgeous caramel colour. So far so good. The guitar is not light, but not too heavy either and given the hardware on board is less weighty than you might expect. All the hardware is gold with the strings nailed down at the nut and into a Gotoh Floyd Rose at the blunt end. Surprisingly, the Floyd was down on the deck when I got this and I had to set it up to float. Mildly annoying on a four grand guitar but I am sure the factory has its reasons. The guitar keeps in tune well and the Floyd is sensitive and does its job well. For me, the wammy bar is a little closer to my picking hand than I'm used to but I can learn to live with that and there is none of the worry of over tightening the arm and wrecking the thread as happens on a traditional strat trem assembly. It seems to function better tuning wise than a two pivot job and the arm seems to sit in just the right area. The only downside of course is that to some, the Floyd is a techy looking unsightly lump and you might find it coming into contact regularly with your picking mitt. Again it's what you're used to. Pickups: two EMG SA and a EMG 85 in the bridge. This is my first guitar with active pickups. The difference in tone and output is frankly incredible...and a little bit devastating. The tones are wonderful, clear rounded with just "more" of everything and the SPC tone control rolls off some brashness very well. The SA85 I think has a very high output and doesn't sit perfectly in my view with the middle pickup for traditional out of phase strat tones. I am having to use middle and neck position to get that. Once you're used to it the bridge pick up will provide a significant boost when selected with a lot of grit and you might not need to engage your overdrive pedal for that blues grind. Indeed, pull the tone pot and your into searing lead mode which feels like a nitrous injection to my ds1 pedal. Be warned though you may find yourself fiddling with the tone and volume control in the middle of your favourite solo to tame the beast. For me the jury is out in terms of working practicality. We will see. So in a nutshell, an expensive, magnificently built instrument oozing class and quality which may take a little getting used to. Oh, and be sure to buy some strap locks first. You wont want to drop this!