Okay had a while to muck about with the new Edwards. TL:DR It’s really very nice indeed.
Came delivered very well packaged in a semi-hard Kinsman case, inside TWO boxes with padding between. Cracked it open, went ‘WOW’ and then ‘HEY WAIT?’ I had asked the seller to be upfront about any and all dings to ensure I had ‘no surprises’ and he said it’s as new with no buckle rash. Two things struck me straight away: there is a screw missing from the truss cover, and there is a small straight crack in the finish on the front. Le sigh. That being said I think this kind of thing is par for the course with second hand guitars and gear and should always be held as LIKELY.
Anyway I’ve sat on the issue and decided neither are deal breakers given the smallness of the crack (which does not look like an impact crack) and the ease of getting a screw. The other reason this is not a deal breaker is because HOW VERY GOOD THIS THING PLAYS. I will mention the issues to him however – I think you should always check everything and make the buyer explicitly aware but I won’t be pushing for any recompense given the price already.
The Kinsman case is a nice plus, however it’s not really right for the guitar as the moulding inside do not account for the angle of the headstock – laid flat in side this pushes the neck off of the neck rest. Still that case wil be great for my non-les pauls. I do want a decent les paul hardcase now.
The guitar plays INCREDIBLY well. The set up gets my full approval for slinkiness. The ebony fretboard and fret finishing is a bender’s wet-dream (FNARR FNARR). It’s like the front of the neck is totally lubed – so smooooooth. Love it.
I had an initial disappointment in that I thought there was some bleed into the neck binding of black dye but on jabbing at it it proved to be surface and came right off.
The nut is set up perfectly. One thing though: if this ever needs a new nut the tech is going to have a hard time. The binding and the nut are unified by a thick poly covering which will come off when the nut is removed.
I’m unsure if this is the nature of a hard smooth fretboard of ebony but the acoustic string sounds are LOVELY. I can hear some harmonics that haven’t ever heard before - the sound is crystalline and pure. Looks like some very posh strings with thread binding near the ball end – maybe they are partly responsible? I hate myself for this but I can honestly say the strings ‘sing’ (BLAEUGH WASH MY MOUTH OUT)
The neck shape is quite interesting (a ’59 apparently). Ideally I’d prefer the early 50’s baseball bat a’la my Jim Deacon LP, however this is not much smaller. The weird thing is that it actually thickens again as it approaches the headstock to create a thick area around where the headstock joins – presumably to give strength to this notoriously weak spot. DAVE RIDICULOUS ANALOGY TIME: If the Jim Deacon is a nice pair of comfy shoes then this Edwards is a slick and sexy pair of black stilettos – not entirely comfortable but boy, do they make you feel sexy.
The pickups sound really good though the neck does its job better than the bridge which is just on the thin side for my taste. Rolling back the tone evens that out.
All the switches work as expected!
The overall impression: it looks and FEELS like a million dollars. Very very nice ineed. This guitar is James Bond in a TUX.
So the aim of getting a complete guitar requiring no project stuff is DONE. However….there are a few things I’d like to add to this lovely package:
1. A decent black and white strap that has the same classy vibe – preferably a stretchy one for comfort.
2. Some of these:
3. A nice les paul hard case – preferably black with white lining or white with black lining
4. To truly complete the Custom Black Beauty replica it would be lovely to get some repro ‘Staple’ pickups BUT they are both spendy and require deeper routing…though I have found the following which drop right in a p90 route. As it stands if made an initial pup change I’d look to the bridge pup.
http://www.thornguitars.com/gt90pu-htm/gt90pu.htm
5. ONE OF THESE AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
@ this entire thead
have you seen the price of these things new! Almost cheaper to buy a Gibson.
