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Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

I ordered this guitar on or around the 3rd of the month and it arrived in few days, as always with zZounds! The first thing I noticed was how great the guitar looked as I was unboxing it but after that, things changed!!! First, I noticed that the strings looked as if they were put on years ago, they looked nasty! So, I said no big deal and decided to put on a new set, and when I got the old strings off the nut fell out and hit the floor and so I fixed that, then I had to tighten the nuts that hold the tuners down several of them were just barely even on the threads and when I tuned the strings to pitch I had to do the intonation and it was so far off it's like they didn't even try to set it at the factory, anyway once I got to where I could plug it into the amp and turn up the volume it had this freaky sound coming out of it, it was like someone trying to send a Morris code through the thing, so at this point I was really frustrated and I called zZounds and talked with them about returning it, which they said I could do but as I was talking I tried it through another amp and couldn't notice the noise as much, so I told them let play it over the weekend before I decide what to do. So, as I tinkered with it, I figured out what was causing the noise, it was static electricity on the pickguard so fixed that. So, after all I did, I decided to keep it and here's why, this thing plays great, sounds great, and one thing I like about it is when I use the Tremelo it stays in tune. I could never get my Strat to do that, and even with all I had to do, this thing looks awesome, the finish is amazing, it's got a good solid build to it, it is a little heavier than a Strat, it's a little over 8lbs. so it's lighter than my Les Paul and the neck feels and plays great, I really like the 10inch radius, So I think if they would step up their quality control Michael Kelly Guitars could go far and could be a good completive guitar company because they have some very beautiful guitars. As of right now if you want one of their guitars you may have to do some work on it and if you're willing to do that you will have a great guitar.

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Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

I bought the blemished trans red, and I have to say that even the very small scuffs (you really have to look very closely to see them) it's a beautiful guitar! Plays nice, especially in reference to the humbucker, very nice!

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I ordered this guitar because it had all the features I wanted, even though I had my doubts about (Indonesia) quality control.When I got the guitar I was surprised how good it looked and also how heavy it was- this is not some basswood peashooter that weighs nothing. I would say it weighs anywhere from seven and a half to 8 lbs. The body wood they use is some Asian version of Ash and it is heavy and 1-3/4" thick! Looking at the front the first thing you'll think is that it's some kind of photo veneer, but it is not it is the real wood grain. The neck is very nice not too thin but not fat either somewhere in the middle and no dead frets. Frets look like medium jumbo- which I like. Has locking tuners that seem of very good quality. Neck is also tinted like the body very nice job. So you're saying 'what's the catch?' well there is a catch and it's the electronics. The pickups are all cheap ceramic ones and while they could get you through a gig I'm sure, if you're used to good pickups you're not going to like them. I ripped them all out and put an alNico V humbucker and alNico V single coils from GFS that I just happened to have laying around. Sounded much better still a little harsh, so I removed the little chicklet capacitor and put a 0.47 paper and oil capacitor like a bumblebee but I think it's Russian (very good quality) and that really helped smooth things out. The tremolo seems a very good quality and it works excellent. I did have a small issue with the intonation because the tremble bridge although set perfectly centered and square to the nut was 3/16" short. What this means is that the edge of the tremolo is supposed to be 25-1/4" inches from the nut but the actual length was 25-1/16". I decided to keep the guitar and try to intonate it as is, and I could- but just barely on the low E which is the one that goes furthest from the nut. The neck needed a small half a turn on the truss rod and it was perfect. With the new pickups it now sounds very good. This is a really good modding platform guitar. The closest thing to this is when Fender was making the (Mexican) Ash strats a few years ago which were very nice but also have garbage electronics.So if you know your way around a guitar, and around a soldering iron then by all means buy this and go to town on it. If you're looking for a $1,500 American strat for $429.00 you're going to be very disappointed. But for the money you get a really decent body and neck with some nice hardware just put in the good electronics and you're all set and make sure you check that you can intonate it before you do any work. Good luck.

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