shimmilou
Established in 1963
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2018
- Messages
- 2,721
They were having a factory closeout on these at Sweetwater, couldn't resist. 
The quality/fit/feel/finish, all absolutely on par with my Korean SEs, which is to say, excellent. The body is heavy, not too heavy, but substantial feeling, just right. The fret ends are terrifically smooth, looks great and is very comfortable to play. I really like the look of the pattern on this particular Spalted Maple veneer (there are/were several others that look cool too). It is as if someone doodled on it with an ink pen, very interesting patterns. I even got what looks like an Owl image below the bridge, very attractive patterns to me (that makes 2 Owls on this guitar). Everything on the guitar functions beautifully as it should, no issues at all.
I like the sound of this guitar better than the first SE Cu 24 that I had, the 85/15 S pups in this one do sound reminiscent of their US counterparts, so no plans to change them. The pups are bright, chimey and smooth, really great, harmonically rich cleans. Driven sounds are also great, very responsive, crisp, chirpy, and just the right amount of smooth, warm wooliness, while remaining fairly articulate. The split coiI sounds are nice also, very Tele-like in the middle position. I have been using a Bugera T50 in "Cathode biased" mode, through a 4x12 cab, and it sounds fantastic, just wonderful tones with this combination of guitar and amp.
After checking/setting the bridge mount screw heights, lubing the nut and bridge pivot points, it stays in tune perfectly with moderate whammy use. With extreme whammy use, it is still very good, but does go out of tune slightly on a few strings. Already have a set of SE stock tuners being converted to locking by Mann, and I will install those as soon as they arrive.
All things considered, this is an excellent guitar in all aspects, and this is the third guitar that I have tried from Indonesia, and all have been at least great, up to fantastic guitars. I see no loss of quality moving from Korea to Indonesia.
Pics first (it really does look better in person)..........then, some bad news.
The quality/fit/feel/finish, all absolutely on par with my Korean SEs, which is to say, excellent. The body is heavy, not too heavy, but substantial feeling, just right. The fret ends are terrifically smooth, looks great and is very comfortable to play. I really like the look of the pattern on this particular Spalted Maple veneer (there are/were several others that look cool too). It is as if someone doodled on it with an ink pen, very interesting patterns. I even got what looks like an Owl image below the bridge, very attractive patterns to me (that makes 2 Owls on this guitar
). Everything on the guitar functions beautifully as it should, no issues at all. I like the sound of this guitar better than the first SE Cu 24 that I had, the 85/15 S pups in this one do sound reminiscent of their US counterparts, so no plans to change them. The pups are bright, chimey and smooth, really great, harmonically rich cleans. Driven sounds are also great, very responsive, crisp, chirpy, and just the right amount of smooth, warm wooliness, while remaining fairly articulate. The split coiI sounds are nice also, very Tele-like in the middle position. I have been using a Bugera T50 in "Cathode biased" mode, through a 4x12 cab, and it sounds fantastic, just wonderful tones with this combination of guitar and amp.
After checking/setting the bridge mount screw heights, lubing the nut and bridge pivot points, it stays in tune perfectly with moderate whammy use. With extreme whammy use, it is still very good, but does go out of tune slightly on a few strings. Already have a set of SE stock tuners being converted to locking by Mann, and I will install those as soon as they arrive.
All things considered, this is an excellent guitar in all aspects, and this is the third guitar that I have tried from Indonesia, and all have been at least great, up to fantastic guitars. I see no loss of quality moving from Korea to Indonesia.
Pics first (it really does look better in person)..........then, some bad news.
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