Fullmoon 1971
Werewolf, there wolf, there castle
So as some of you know I picked up a fantastic 2001 McCarty a few weeks ago from my local guitar store, while I was there I also tried out the S2 singlecut. It was a joy to play but a bit too run of the mill (I have a few SE's including a fantastic Bernie plus a beautiful 2014 Gibson LP traditional to cover my singlecut needs) it did however get me thinking about the S2 series.
Fast forward to this week and I decided to treat myself to a SE-24 Custom with maple fingerboard, so I go online to a store I know that has one and while I'm browsing I see a 2016 Vela in Ice Blue Firemist for £650. I check the pictures and she looks brand new so I decide to take a chance. Well she turns and she's a flawless no even any light surface marks on the pickguard, and boy is she light 6 ¾ LBS. Just like my PRSi the neck carve feels like it was shaped for my hand alone, everything just feels "right" The mahogany body is a beautiful shade of blue and a perfect finish. The Mahogany neck's unbound rosewood fretboard features the simple dot inlays.
The pickups on this model are what really attracted me to it and I think they sound amazing, sweet to spanky clean, mean to scream, for me the neck pickup is the stand out unit here (though I'll admit I have a think about “Dynasonic” Style pickups – Pure Duane Eddy. Twist up/down the tone/volume pots and the guitar can go from lead screamer to powerful rhythm in a second. I can get the guitar to go from dark and dirty to bright, smooth and silky depending on what I do with the vol/tone pots. The bridge pickup coil tap is really useful with it almost but not quite a tele sound and the mixed sound with bridge split reminds me of position 3 on the 5 way rotary on my Standard 22.
Fast forward to this week and I decided to treat myself to a SE-24 Custom with maple fingerboard, so I go online to a store I know that has one and while I'm browsing I see a 2016 Vela in Ice Blue Firemist for £650. I check the pictures and she looks brand new so I decide to take a chance. Well she turns and she's a flawless no even any light surface marks on the pickguard, and boy is she light 6 ¾ LBS. Just like my PRSi the neck carve feels like it was shaped for my hand alone, everything just feels "right" The mahogany body is a beautiful shade of blue and a perfect finish. The Mahogany neck's unbound rosewood fretboard features the simple dot inlays.
The pickups on this model are what really attracted me to it and I think they sound amazing, sweet to spanky clean, mean to scream, for me the neck pickup is the stand out unit here (though I'll admit I have a think about “Dynasonic” Style pickups – Pure Duane Eddy. Twist up/down the tone/volume pots and the guitar can go from lead screamer to powerful rhythm in a second. I can get the guitar to go from dark and dirty to bright, smooth and silky depending on what I do with the vol/tone pots. The bridge pickup coil tap is really useful with it almost but not quite a tele sound and the mixed sound with bridge split reminds me of position 3 on the 5 way rotary on my Standard 22.
