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Post by blindwilly3fingers on May 3, 2022 14:50:26 GMT
Bought this or took the gamble as I previously purchased an Fazley SG copy with good result.
It was on sale for £99 yes that's £99 for a set neck junior double cut! First impressions: how do they do it for this price? I honestly can't believe how good it is (ok I've only had it for 2.5 hours).
Will post pics in next couple of days but have linked Bax promo video.
Right I haven't got time to do full rundown but will explain brief findings, will post full explanation by the weekend. I ordered it at 4.30pm Thursday tracking update late Friday night said that parcel force had the package and it was ready for delivery. 🙃 Obviously being Bank holiday weekend in UK I wasn't getting it Saturday. It arrived at 1pm today, so Bax appear to have upped their game on order processing and delivery wise.
The guitar itself looks faultless lovely transparent cherry finish, it's way beyond expectations. Ok with any NGD you can be a bit blinkered but it does look and feel very good. It looks like a 3 piece body according to Bax specs mahogany body and neck with poplar fretboard. I don't know if it's some form of torrefied wood or just poplar dyed black? Single dog ear P90 pup, wraparound lightning bolt/compensated bridge (whatever it's called).
Out of the box it's pretty well set up: Action: at 12th fret low E 1.5mm high E 1.25mm. it's a bit too low for my liking and if I'm picky I think the nut may be a tad low? Once tuned and checked the intonation it's a just a touch Sharp on the 3 higher strings. Obviously the bridge is adjustable so this should be easy fix. I took a quick reading of the pup through the jack 7k, will do a full reading for Henries at weekend along with full findings.
Quick sum up great little guitar P90 sounds good, the guitar plays ok. 😁 A steal @ £99.
Will do full rundown when time permits with full neck dimensions,photos, fret rocker check etc, off to work in an hour (Nightshift).
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advb
Harley Benton Expert
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Post by advb on May 3, 2022 22:46:46 GMT
Interesting choice blindwilly3fingers . I see Bax have some DEEP reductions on their Fazley guitars at the moment. It looks as though they have left the pickup where it would normally be on an LP Jr but inset the neck to meet the body at the 19th fret and so moved the whole bridge backwards leaving the pickup in a sort of middle position. Might be a very interesting tonal choice and it'll be revealing to hear how you get on with it placed there. Love the look of the butterscotch one. Good spot DefJef . I wouldn't make a very good detective - I saw that the Fazley and HB models looked different but didn't twig that the neck joint was at a different fret or that the the pickup is in a different place relative to the bridge! I do wonder what the high fret access is like on the Fazley. I like the look of butterscotch blonde model too but, although the pictures on the Bax side show the grain nicely, the guitar in the video below has a much more opaque finish:
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Post by blindwilly3fingers on May 4, 2022 12:47:06 GMT
When I first looked at it I noticed the pickup in a more central position, can't say I counted the frets and neck into body position DefJef. I was a little concerned as one of the reasons I don't like strats is because of the middle pup, however being it's a flat top not unlike an LP Special it isn't a problem. It sounds very good both clean and dirty, I'll measure the distance from string to pup. Obviously I haven't got the Harley Benton to compare it against but will measure the distances on a normal LP and special. I will also try to compare it against my 450GT sound wise. I did watch that video and a couple of others before pulling the trigger advb. Even the cherry looked a solid colour, Perhaps the lighting or camera is making it look that way? Comparing against my transparent cherry DC580 their pretty much twins for colour and transparent showing the grain. One of the reasons I went for the cherry was incase it was a solid colour but I really can't knock the finish. As for fret access it's pretty much like an LP the last 2frets are bit of a stretch but reachable, might be easier if a still had a pinky. 😜
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Post by blindwilly3fingers on May 16, 2022 13:19:29 GMT
It's the only guitar I've picked up but time has been very limited advb. I have taken some photos but it's hard to show the transparent finish due to the poly clear coat being glossy/shiny (but mostly my crap photography skills). I will hopefully get time to upload photos at some point this week. The middle piece of the body believe it or not is a bit of a burl/flame mahogany (rare and usually expensive), obviously a scrap piece. Trying to show this in photos is tricky for me. Back to playability I did adjust the bridge about a quarter turn on the high E side and intonation is close to spot on. I like it advb the neck is nice and very comfortable/playable, I still can't believe how good it is for £99. I will get photos uploaded and post specs/dimensions by the weekend, just been very busy.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2022 19:59:52 GMT
I'd never heard of nor seen the Fazley brand down under blindwilly3fingers . Is it a Asian origin generic rebrand for the European market? Down here we have a local crew rebranding generic Asian reasonable quality instruments under the Haze branding, although nowhere near as cheaply as that! Seeing your DC-Junior buy reminds me of my own 'Aldicaster' curiosity buy. Aldi sold the Chinese made ETL-100 ersatz Telecaster annually every February rebadged under their proprietary "Huxley" branding for two or three of years up until 2018. I picked one up in 2018 for just AUD$99 (GBP£55)! After an initial setup, all it really needed out of the box for functional playability, usable tuning stability and noticeable tonal improvement was a set of decent quality strings. Old pic, but here it is since modified with Korean Wilkinson compensated brass saddles, Korean Wilkinson tuner mechs and Alice AE530 .10s which I like and use interchangeably with D'Addario EXLs. The blue appears a little lighter and brighter in this image than IRL. It really didn't need the saddles replaced to play fine. The originals were slotted chromed steel. Brass compensated was an experiment to see how it affected tone and intonation. It did, and I like the brass tone, but any three saddle adjustment screw Tele bridge is always going to have compromised intonation (for that unique Tele sound) IME&V. Wilkinson tuner mechs and quality strings improved tuning stability to 100% and the smooth superior gear ratios made tuning a pleasure rather than a chore. Total cost of upgrades including strings, saddles and mechs from AliExpress AUD$47 (GBP£26). Just with the AUD$5 AE530 string change, it played better out of the box than a then AUD$359 (GBP£200) Squier Affinity Tele and the overall quality and finish was better! Affinity Teles are now AUD$449 (GBP£251) here now.
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advb
Harley Benton Expert
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Post by advb on May 29, 2022 11:22:05 GMT
Oh yes, in the video it does look more like a burnt orange mdf kitchen door doesn't it advb . I quite like that aesthetic too but it's very different to the Bax site example. Some would be quite disappointed with that. Glad to hear blindwilly3fingers version looks more like Bax were promising. There are a couple of "B" stock Butterscotch Blonde FDC418 guitars on the Bax site and, unlike some retailers, they have pictures of the actual B stock items. You can see the grain through the orange finish but the grain is rather plain.
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Post by guesstimator on Jun 11, 2022 17:02:55 GMT
Just bought a fazley fsc318, ivory. Well I have to say that out of the box it was garbage.....nut action was massively high, sounded horrible all along the fretboard. But No sharp fret ends, and decent fret finish (no worse than Hb). Changed nut, strings, adjusted everything to my liking, including tapping back in several frets that were sitting high (after checking with fret rocker). After this I have to say it sound really quite nice. On heavy distortion the pickup is a little muddy but I like that it doesn't have the bass boom associated with many cheaper models...it's really quite open and chimney. I really like the neck profile (21.8mm 1st and 24.5 12th) apart for one thing.....heel rises really early, it's up to full thickness at the 15th fret making higher fret access a little tricky (similar to the vintage v120)...this is where the Harley Bentons really shine (I have 5 Hb single cuts including juniors). There are some non fixable issues that I am willing to accept at this price point...the tuners are not symmetrical, and there are 3 very identifiable finish issues only one of which is annoying though, as the others are in non visible areas when playing. But I'm gonna keep it cos the ivory colour is very close to a pale TV yellow, bridge is good (notchless) and intonated really well.The tone pot does close to nothing untill it is dialled down to 2. I'll probably be changing the electrics, but keeping the pickup, I like how bright it sounds (6.85k DC resistance). Overall, if you are ready for some simple DIY setup it's great fun to play,neck is nice and straight and well finished , sounds good on cleans and mild drive, took me all of 1.5 hours to sort it out. Nice weight, and neck profile is really nice until 15th fret. If you expect a playable instrument out of the box search elsewhere, otherwise it's a cool guitar..specially digging the headstock design [img src=" i.ibb.co/gr6RFvP/IMG-20220611-191530-edit-690604924337851.jpg" src=" aggiungere foto su foto" alt="<a rel="nofollow" href="https://ibb.co/x2378mf" target="_blank"> </a> aggiungere foto su foto"]</div>
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advb
Harley Benton Expert
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Post by advb on Jun 12, 2022 14:37:45 GMT
Just bought a fazley fsc318, ivory. I really like the neck profile (21.8mm 1st and 24.5 12th) apart for one thing.....heel rises really early, it's up to full thickness at the 15th fret making higher fret access a little tricky That looks to be a couple of frets sooner than the FDC418. Not sure I'd like that. On the plus side, I assume that it helps eliminate neck dive.
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Post by guesstimator on Jun 12, 2022 18:38:35 GMT
It's not so much where it joins the body, but where it starts thickening.....looking at the pictures of the heel joint I see that the SC has full thickness heel just after (going from nut to bridge) the 15th fret .... The DC seems to an extra fret and a half before the heel is at its maximum thickness. To be honest it's the same on many guitars, including the vintage v120 which costs 3 times as much. It's not the most comfortable but also not impossible to play......if on tight budget and looking for a junior it can work.....i now hate the fact that my sc junior Hb has such a slim neck argh!
By the way no hint of neck dive
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