shimmilou
Established in 1963
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2018
- Messages
- 2,649
What a versatile guitar! It was really worth the wait (since Feb), and even better than expected. It is nicely resonant, and has a full, lush sound, rich in harmonics, and awesome sustain. The guitar pup switching is mostly as one would expect from a typical HSS, except for positions1, 2 and 3, thanks to the switching configuration and the coil split from pulling up on the tone knob. Position 3 puts the neck and bridge together, and this is my favorite, whether full hum-bucker or split. The neck pup by itself is fantastic too, very full and balanced, and pairs terrifically with the middle or bridge.
The cleans are sparkly and bright from the bridge, but still full and rich, not harsh, and the higher gain sounds were pleasantly surprising. The tone knob is very useful, and doesn't make the tone muddy, just less bright. Every pup switch position sounds great (a lot like an S type guitar, but better), and I find that I do use them all, of course going often to my favorite position 3. The guitar is very responsive to touch, and it's easy to coax lots of subtle variations in tone, with changes in picking technique. The controllable feedback when using higher gain is approaching a semi-hollow, just wonderful.
The guitar produces killer cleans and driven sounds through every amp I've tried. The cleans, and mild breakup on a DR were dreamy, but my favorite so far is a MB TA15 through a 4x12, and this guitar really smokes with this setup. The amp clean channel is Vox-like, and the drive channel is Marshall-esque, the way I have it set up. With the clean channel set to the edge of breakup, it can go from nice sparkly, crisp cleans with great articulation and richness, to mild breakup, with a little wool, by using the guitar's volume knob, coil split and tone knob, and all switch positions sound killer. The high gain sounds are surprisingly excellent, the full bridge producing some smooth, smokey, slightly woolly and crisp sounds, and it's beefed up when adding the neck pup (pos 3, of course). These 3 pups work very well together, great choices for a wide variety of genres.
It is just a stellar guitar that covers a lot of bases, and I've played it every day for the past 2 weeks since it arrived. I am very pleased with the S2 Studio and definitely recommend that you check it out. Oh, and it looks so retro and cool, IMO.
The cleans are sparkly and bright from the bridge, but still full and rich, not harsh, and the higher gain sounds were pleasantly surprising. The tone knob is very useful, and doesn't make the tone muddy, just less bright. Every pup switch position sounds great (a lot like an S type guitar, but better), and I find that I do use them all, of course going often to my favorite position 3. The guitar is very responsive to touch, and it's easy to coax lots of subtle variations in tone, with changes in picking technique. The controllable feedback when using higher gain is approaching a semi-hollow, just wonderful.
The guitar produces killer cleans and driven sounds through every amp I've tried. The cleans, and mild breakup on a DR were dreamy, but my favorite so far is a MB TA15 through a 4x12, and this guitar really smokes with this setup. The amp clean channel is Vox-like, and the drive channel is Marshall-esque, the way I have it set up. With the clean channel set to the edge of breakup, it can go from nice sparkly, crisp cleans with great articulation and richness, to mild breakup, with a little wool, by using the guitar's volume knob, coil split and tone knob, and all switch positions sound killer. The high gain sounds are surprisingly excellent, the full bridge producing some smooth, smokey, slightly woolly and crisp sounds, and it's beefed up when adding the neck pup (pos 3, of course). These 3 pups work very well together, great choices for a wide variety of genres.
It is just a stellar guitar that covers a lot of bases, and I've played it every day for the past 2 weeks since it arrived. I am very pleased with the S2 Studio and definitely recommend that you check it out. Oh, and it looks so retro and cool, IMO.
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