NGD - Reclaimed Limited Semi-Hollow Vela

[shinksma]

Arriving well over a month earlier than originally estimated, I finally have received my RL SH Vela, and it is wonderful.

it isn't quite as "wild" as some of the tops out there, but has a nice understated symmetry to it, and a few things to remind you it is indeed reclaimed wood - a single obvious nail hole near the bottom, and if you look carefully some stress cracks along the side.

The Satin Finish is absolutely gorgeous to feel, and looks really nice (and different).

I plugged it into a Roland micro cube amp just to run through the pickups and make sure it generally "worked". The folks in shipping-receiving and a few other co-workers nearby (plus my wife, who is a co-worker) got to hear me work through a bunch of different licks and bars of a variety of songs, trying out the various amp models on the amp. Nice sound, can't wait to plug into my Archon and/or HRDX at home tonight.

This is an awesome guitar, and as a co-worker kept saying over and over: I can't believe how light that is!

OK, some photos. It looks a bit reddish in the sunlight (may or may not be noticeable depending on your monitor):

 

[charliefrench]

Looks lovely. Congratulations!

 

[PAFF64]

Congratulations! Looks great!

 

[QuiltTop319]

Great looking guitar

 

[Ovibos]

Hot.

 

[bodia]

Very nice! Congrats! These all look so good! Love to hear your impressions from your home rig too!

 

[toothace]

Beautiful! Congrats!

 

[Big Mard]

She's a Beauty. Congratulations

 

[veinbuster]

It looks great.

 

[alantig]

Congrats!

 

[shinksma]

I had a chance to play it through my HRDX plus a variety of effects last night. And one of my bandmates played it too, possibly longer than me. He normally plays acoustic, strumming or finger style, no lead picking, so the feel of an electric is very different for him, and he is not used to being able to play with volume and tone on-the-fly. He also turned down the volume and was enjoying the pure acoustic sound of the guitar for awhile (but he plays, um, "strongly", I don't know if I can get that kind of volume out of it!)

This was after a band meeting (we're running sound on 3 out of 4 stages at the Ormond Beach Celtic Festival in a few weeks [plug plug, come out out if you are in the area - just north of Daytona Beach], so we need to plan plan plan!), so I wasn't necessarily listening with a critical ear, just playin' to have fun.

It sounds great! the different pickups, and the split coil of the humbucker, provide a wide variety of tonal shaping. It doesn't feedback like a total hollowbody, more like my SE ZM, also a semi-hollow - just a bit easier than a regular solid body guitar, perhaps.

The satin finish continues to feel amazing, and it is still very light weight (I didn't think that would change!).

Everyone loves the natural look of the wood, too, of course.

I intend to run it through the Archon sometime this weekend, so I'll have more to report after that.

 

[gush]

For some reason I'm drawn to the Vela but this reclaimed wood thing is almost too cool to resist. Hmmmmm

 

[Boogie]

That's smokin' hot, shinksma!

 

[shinksma]

OK, not a tone report, more of a "this thing is awesome report!"

Last night was another band get together (yes, we hang out a lot), and after drinks, dinner, and drinks we just played a bunch of songs and tunes for the fun of it, or to knock some rust off of songs we hadn't played in a while, a sort-of-practice for tonight's gig. I brought the RL Vela, not my usual P24, figuring any truly acoustic stuff will be covered by my acoustic guitar and I'll see how the Vela does in our raw non-PA mix, as it were (so the amp was no louder than the rest of the non-amplified instruments like fiddle, acoustic, etc). Amp was very much nothing special - my usual gigging rig, which for electric sounds is a RAT clone with optional delay/reverb into a Joyo Clean Glass Amp Emulator into a Fishman acoustic amp (I use an LS-2 to also run acoustic/piezo signals through a Fishman Aura into the same amp).

I used the split bridge pickup settings (alone or in combo with the neck) a whole bunch, and got some lovely tones that were far more in the direction of a tele or strat (positions 2 or 4) than anything I might normally coax out of a PRS. And when it came time half way through a lead break to really rock it out, pushed in the tone pot and wailed with a full bridge+neck combo. Wow! I felt super inspired!

And the "acoustic" side chain of my rig also sounded good with the split bridge pickup, neck pup, or combo. Not a true acoustic sound, but something a bit different (that therefore stands out from the other acoustic in the band).

I'm taking the Vela to the gig tonight instead of the P24!

If you are on the fence about a Vela, this RL version, if you can find one, needs to pull you over that edge!