NGD - SE Cu 24 - Spalted - Indonesian Cor-Tek

shimmilou

Established in 1963
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Mar 15, 2018
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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. :cool:

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. :eek:

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Thx!

Bad news; the bridge pup cut out, quit working, intermittently. Checked the wiring, all good, and found when I pulled on the pup wire, where it goes into the back of the pup, it would start working. While it was not working, I checked the resistance across the pup, and had 1.5 ohms, as if the pup was being shorted internally. I pulled on the wire til it started working, but if I bump the pup on the treble side, it will cut out again, then come back on when I push on the bass side. Definitely a pup problem, likely the wires are touching intermittently where they connect internally.

I called Sweetwater right away, and explored options. I didn't want a different guitar (like the pattern a lot on this one), and didn't want to be without this one while it shipped for repair, as I really, really like it. Sweetwater is fantastic, their customer service is second to none, and we decided that the best option for me was to have them ship a replacement pup to me, a SD Jazz for the bridge, since I couldn't get another 85/15 S without shipping the guitar back. Of the pups in stock at Sweetwater, I felt that the Jazz bridge pup would probably be the closest thing to the 85/15 S bridge pup. I'll soon find out.

I have the pup working for now, and hope it will last until the new pup arrives. I'll have to take the strings off anyway to put on the locking tuners, so a pup swap would be easy to do at the same time. I am still thrilled with the guitar, and I realize that stuff happens, and this pup just crapped out, no big deal. :cool:
 
Sorry to hear about the pickup issue. Other than that, I agree totally about the quality of these guitars. I have two MII CU24s, but mine are Whale Blue and Trampas—not nearly as eye catching as yours! Still, I’m extremely impressed by the fretwork and playability on these instruments.
 
Congrats! I'm a fan of spalted maple tops and CU24 SEs in general. Too bad about the pup, but fortunately you can do the R&R yourself. It was nice that Sweetwater didn't require you to return it for official warranty service. Post when you have it fixed up
 
Thanks for the post, particularly the feedback on the MiI version. I'll confess that the MiK stamp was part of my decision in getting the SW "exclusive" Trampas Green vs. say the normative flame maple versions because I just wasn't certain about the quality comparison, but thought MiK had a decent history.

I found SW custom service very proactive: one nice touch was that they sent me their photograph set the day after purchase so that I'd have something to drool over until the guitar arrived!
 
I had a similar issue with a pickup. Turns out there was a small piece of what looked like steel wool stuck to the magnetic pickup plate. Came right off, problem fixed. You could easily have a stray bit of wire from assembly or cleaning. Try not to pull on the wire.
 
That could very well be the problem elvis. At one point, when I turned the guitar over, the pup cut out, and when I turned it over again, the pup started working. So, it could be a stray piece of wire in there. Turns out that SW doesn't want the defective pup back, so I will probably try to repair it once the new pup is installed. Will definitely report back after pup install.
 
Any pics other than Sweetwaters? Some of those tops are insane. If someone doesnt like the 4 options SW has on their site to look at, add one to your cart. A new one will be added to the 4....
 
I can't get any better than the SW pics. :(

Edit: The one below isn't too bad. :)
 
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Got the SD Jazz bridge pup installed, couldn't wait for the tuners, lol. It matches up nicely in looks and sound. The sound is fairly close to the stock 85/15 S, but the Jazz is just a touch mellower, slightly less aggressive. I have tweaked the poles, heights and amp settings a bit, might tweak some more, but definitely happy with the guitar sounds for now. :)

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