Post by gearhunter on Jul 1, 2019 19:54:51 GMT
Hey,
so I just got the replacement for my Fusion II HSH - the first one had a 5-select switch that only sometimes let sound come through
Ok, this now has, optics wise, a few micro issues, probably was already sent back once from the looks of it.
(Btw, is this thing really supposed to have 2 differently sized pot knobs, with differently spaced engraved "crossing lines" in them? Looks weird Can't quite see that on their site. And the pickups are stubbornly tilted, i.e. one coil is closer to the strings than the other.)
But there are other things, I'm not sure are issues because no one other than your grandma (and maybe people who listen to Coldplay without falling asleep) would call me a "guitarist".
I.e., I might have a lack of experience in some regards to be able to tell properly.
The "irritants", though, are not among those...
First off, let me state the intention of this purchase:
So far I've had Ibanez, LTD, Jackson guitars that 10 years and longer ago might have cost 300...400 EUR.
On several famous and semi famous youtube guitar channels, I now saw people playing the Fusion II series very happily and making statements roughly circling around these series being roughly on par with other, more established guitar makers' offerings for 2x that price.
So I though - hey, this could be a worthwhile *upgrade* to what I had so far, and the feature set does seem like it.
My issues now after unboxing and 30min of playing aorund with it:
SUSTAIN:
This thing has pretty much zero of it. Seems to be a special staccato instrument? (J/K)
Is it possible that I'm too spoilt by high output pickups, which this thing perhaps does not have? I use only passives, but my two cheap-ish Ibanez & LTD are fitted with Bill Lawrence 500XL (original, the "Dimebag" PU), and BKP Aftermath respectively, both regarded as high-ish output, despite being passive.
I only have the lowly Peavey VK112's overdrive channel after the guitar, but on my Ibanez, I get at least a few seconds of tone so I can actually play that Santana solo in "Black magic woman" with at least as much sustain as his not so high gain first Boogie... Without the gain boost knob activated, and with gain to 12 o'clock.
Now enter the staccato master 2018 aka my Fusion II: in a blink of an eye, it's gone, even with gain boost on.
The string attack does have some audible buzz, pretty much on any note save for open strings, but only very briefly.
(it's not the locking tuners - I learned quickly that I actually need to *lock* those properly, lol)
My cheapo Ibanez does not have that with the exception of some few fret/string intersections, though.
EDIT: I thought for a moment some of the buzz came from the still present plastic foil on the middle pickup, which has staggered pole pieces i.e. higher in the middle. But every string except the B and e still have marked attack buzz at most frets, worst offenders E and G. G has quicker decay than B and e in the same fret.
It was one of the repeated statements on those review videos that this series is supposed to come well set up, which was also a reason for the purchase.
I cannot tell whether this problem may be due to some setup issues, am not exactly a guitar tech. The action is nicely low, 2mm between E string and last fret. I have like 2.5mm on the Ibanez, so it doesn't seem too wild.
What do you say?
Is it just like this with only my Peavey amp and those type of pickups, no booster pedals or anything? (although split coil is expectedly noisy without such a thing already).
Or should I do certain checks (please explain, if so) with regards to the setup?
GAS ISSUES:
Not me, fool! The guitar!
Having the guitar in the same room with me (esp. when windows are closed) causes a scratchy throat, and more alarming, a tickling sensation in the LUNGS. You should never, ever, feel anything in the lungs. I am, according to countless allergy tests and blood samples etc, not allergic to known things. Have some slight sensitivities to unknown stuff that's sometimes in the air here or there.
But the only other time I had this lung tickling was when I was at a former work place where they had a lot of those Gibson guitars who, IIRC, around 2012 introduced a new kind of lacquer for use in their finishes. I was sitting next to some of them by necessity. I also only had these slight problems, while someone working @ Gibson back then told me he, an allergic but never had asthma before, got asthma-like problems from working there. (not with wood milling or so, no mechanical work whatsoever - just handling the finished guitars). I managed to avoid it in the long run by placing older / unfinished Gibsons in that room.
Now, the very last thing my bedroom (or any other room) needs, is objects which emit potentially asthma causing (to me) chemicals into the air...
Has any one else also noticed this? Does this problem go away after a while?
For now the plan is to let it stand in the cellar for 1..2 weeks, and return it if it doesn't get better.
Btw., the HB ST62 DLX gold did NOT have this problem. Its packaging had it (although different character), and the ST62 itself, after unboxing, had it then for 1 hour or so, then all was ok.
Not so with this one... and for the Gibsons back then, waiting some months also did not help.
Some ppl commented about the nice smell of the roasted neck - well it doesn't seem to come from there, but it's not easy to tell exactly.
It's not really mainly a smell, it's mostly a feeling down the airways. Which makes it even harder to localize, the effect is not quickly on/off - tissue remains irritated for a while, so "smell on this part, smell on that part" does not work.
FINGERBOARD:
Okay, maybe I just didn't read enough about this. But this ROASTED maple(?) fingerboard stuff that some people rave about...
Now trying to play a bit more, I must say I don't like it at all so far. It randomly adds significant friction/resistance e.g. while bending, now googling for this I saw some people call it "sticky", which seems an apt word. I wonder how anyone would like, much less rave about that, it's a hindrance. Or are you supposed to treat it with something, some cleaning oil (lemon?) like some people use?
so I just got the replacement for my Fusion II HSH - the first one had a 5-select switch that only sometimes let sound come through
Ok, this now has, optics wise, a few micro issues, probably was already sent back once from the looks of it.
(Btw, is this thing really supposed to have 2 differently sized pot knobs, with differently spaced engraved "crossing lines" in them? Looks weird Can't quite see that on their site. And the pickups are stubbornly tilted, i.e. one coil is closer to the strings than the other.)
But there are other things, I'm not sure are issues because no one other than your grandma (and maybe people who listen to Coldplay without falling asleep) would call me a "guitarist".
I.e., I might have a lack of experience in some regards to be able to tell properly.
The "irritants", though, are not among those...
First off, let me state the intention of this purchase:
So far I've had Ibanez, LTD, Jackson guitars that 10 years and longer ago might have cost 300...400 EUR.
On several famous and semi famous youtube guitar channels, I now saw people playing the Fusion II series very happily and making statements roughly circling around these series being roughly on par with other, more established guitar makers' offerings for 2x that price.
So I though - hey, this could be a worthwhile *upgrade* to what I had so far, and the feature set does seem like it.
My issues now after unboxing and 30min of playing aorund with it:
SUSTAIN:
This thing has pretty much zero of it. Seems to be a special staccato instrument? (J/K)
Is it possible that I'm too spoilt by high output pickups, which this thing perhaps does not have? I use only passives, but my two cheap-ish Ibanez & LTD are fitted with Bill Lawrence 500XL (original, the "Dimebag" PU), and BKP Aftermath respectively, both regarded as high-ish output, despite being passive.
I only have the lowly Peavey VK112's overdrive channel after the guitar, but on my Ibanez, I get at least a few seconds of tone so I can actually play that Santana solo in "Black magic woman" with at least as much sustain as his not so high gain first Boogie... Without the gain boost knob activated, and with gain to 12 o'clock.
Now enter the staccato master 2018 aka my Fusion II: in a blink of an eye, it's gone, even with gain boost on.
The string attack does have some audible buzz, pretty much on any note save for open strings, but only very briefly.
(it's not the locking tuners - I learned quickly that I actually need to *lock* those properly, lol)
My cheapo Ibanez does not have that with the exception of some few fret/string intersections, though.
EDIT: I thought for a moment some of the buzz came from the still present plastic foil on the middle pickup, which has staggered pole pieces i.e. higher in the middle. But every string except the B and e still have marked attack buzz at most frets, worst offenders E and G. G has quicker decay than B and e in the same fret.
It was one of the repeated statements on those review videos that this series is supposed to come well set up, which was also a reason for the purchase.
I cannot tell whether this problem may be due to some setup issues, am not exactly a guitar tech. The action is nicely low, 2mm between E string and last fret. I have like 2.5mm on the Ibanez, so it doesn't seem too wild.
What do you say?
Is it just like this with only my Peavey amp and those type of pickups, no booster pedals or anything? (although split coil is expectedly noisy without such a thing already).
Or should I do certain checks (please explain, if so) with regards to the setup?
GAS ISSUES:
Not me, fool! The guitar!
Having the guitar in the same room with me (esp. when windows are closed) causes a scratchy throat, and more alarming, a tickling sensation in the LUNGS. You should never, ever, feel anything in the lungs. I am, according to countless allergy tests and blood samples etc, not allergic to known things. Have some slight sensitivities to unknown stuff that's sometimes in the air here or there.
But the only other time I had this lung tickling was when I was at a former work place where they had a lot of those Gibson guitars who, IIRC, around 2012 introduced a new kind of lacquer for use in their finishes. I was sitting next to some of them by necessity. I also only had these slight problems, while someone working @ Gibson back then told me he, an allergic but never had asthma before, got asthma-like problems from working there. (not with wood milling or so, no mechanical work whatsoever - just handling the finished guitars). I managed to avoid it in the long run by placing older / unfinished Gibsons in that room.
Now, the very last thing my bedroom (or any other room) needs, is objects which emit potentially asthma causing (to me) chemicals into the air...
Has any one else also noticed this? Does this problem go away after a while?
For now the plan is to let it stand in the cellar for 1..2 weeks, and return it if it doesn't get better.
Btw., the HB ST62 DLX gold did NOT have this problem. Its packaging had it (although different character), and the ST62 itself, after unboxing, had it then for 1 hour or so, then all was ok.
Not so with this one... and for the Gibsons back then, waiting some months also did not help.
Some ppl commented about the nice smell of the roasted neck - well it doesn't seem to come from there, but it's not easy to tell exactly.
It's not really mainly a smell, it's mostly a feeling down the airways. Which makes it even harder to localize, the effect is not quickly on/off - tissue remains irritated for a while, so "smell on this part, smell on that part" does not work.
FINGERBOARD:
Okay, maybe I just didn't read enough about this. But this ROASTED maple(?) fingerboard stuff that some people rave about...
Now trying to play a bit more, I must say I don't like it at all so far. It randomly adds significant friction/resistance e.g. while bending, now googling for this I saw some people call it "sticky", which seems an apt word. I wonder how anyone would like, much less rave about that, it's a hindrance. Or are you supposed to treat it with something, some cleaning oil (lemon?) like some people use?