Vela

Joined
Dec 14, 2015
Messages
672
Location
Whoville
General thoughts on this guitar? What kind of music would you use this for?

What do you guys think of the neck pickup? What's it's strengths/weaknesses? I don't really understand it... is it a single coil? Is it high/low output compared to a strat or P90? Does it take well to overdrive or fuzz?

I get the impression that this guitar is aimed at a cleaner, more jangly sound and may not be the right choice for crunching/chugging guitars. Thoughts?


Edit - Any chance a mod could correct the spelling in the title for me?
 
Admittedly, I'm playing my Reclaimed Vela in a more rock-ified country capacity right now, which does like the brightness available in the Starla pickup. But in my living room, with the Klon and BB Preamp cascaded (my typical lead setting), it is searing with a commanding crunch. I could genre hop pretty well despite the available brightness. The volume and tone controls work very well to dial back the sizzle, too. Personally, I love it with all that power behind it with those pedals and have played it that way for better than 1/2 of the show over the past 3 gigs, using only the volume to control the crunch factor. Stepping out of the BB brings beautiful cleans, which is a huge strength of this guitar, too. Without gushing too much, I wish I'd bought one way before now.

The neck pickup is amazing. Back down the tone knob and step on some fuzz for a serious treat. This Type-D doesn't get enough love, imo.

The Starla output is way higher than single coils or a P-90. The Type-D is like described above.
 
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I have a Vela and love all the options i get with the pickups. The neck pick up takes everything i throw at it well. I used to never use tone and volume knobs much. This guitar has opened up a whole new world to me. Over drive and fuzz seem to work very well for me on both pick ups. Get one!
 
Mine is the most acoustically vibrant and loud electric i think I've played. It is flexible for any kind of retro, pop, rock, blues, country, and so on. I don't reach for it on any kind of metal track.
 
It's a great guitar, but contrary to what others have said, it's no Tele. I bought one to fill a Tele shaped hole in my heart and ended up selling it and just buying a Tele.

If you go into it with an open mind and not expecting it to sound like anything but its own thing, you'll find a very nice, well built, and great sounding guitar.
 
I have had a couple and find them to be more similar to my Gretsch Duo-Jets. The neck pickup is, essentially, PRS' take on the Dynasonic (or DeArmond) pickup Gretsch has. I find the S2 Starla pickup to be PRS' take on the FilterTron.

The Vela sounds great and does roots-y music AMAZINGLY well. They are light-weight and VERY balanced. I found they excel with fuzz, and sound GLORIOUS through a Vox amp or a Deluxe Reverb. The bridge pickup offers a nice jangly tone when either of the amps I mentioned are slightly pushed. The neck pickups can be jazzy on its own, or help tame the jangle from the bridge when both are engaged. I also noticed that you can pull off an awesome blues tone on the neck pickup when using an overdrive pedal.
 
Like Mark said, the neck pickup is based on the Dynasonic pickup, which is a 1940's single coil design used by DeArmond and Gretsch. An ingenious design really, it uses slug magnets but the little screws allow you to adjust the pole heights individually.
 
Don't get me wrong, there's no replacement for the tele sound and if thats what you want, get a Tele. But I was never very happy with the bridge pickup in mine and had been wanting to swap it out for something with a little more umph. That's the the vela gave me, and why I sold the Tele rather than start down the pickup swap route.
 
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...But I was never very happy with the bridge pickup in mine and had been wanting to swap it out for something with a little more umph...
Also being in love with the comfort of the Vela, I definitely see the allure of a PAF-like bridge pickup in this all hog guitar. Having one with a JB or 59/09 sounds very interesting because having 3 Vela with completely different pickups would be easily justified.
 
I didn't care for how the JB mixed with the neck pup in mine when i tried it. However, if you were just going to hot rock the bridge most of the time....:cool:
 
I didn't care for how the JB mixed with the neck pup in mine when i tried it. However, if you were just going to hot rock the bridge most of the time....:cool:
Good to know. I'm thinking, one in Eqyptian Gold and maybe a Tremonti bridge...
 
I have had a couple and find them to be more similar to my Gretsch Duo-Jets. The neck pickup is, essentially, PRS' take on the Dynasonic (or DeArmond) pickup Gretsch has. I find the S2 Starla pickup to be PRS' take on the FilterTron.

The Vela sounds great and does roots-y music AMAZINGLY well. They are light-weight and VERY balanced. I found they excel with fuzz, and sound GLORIOUS through a Vox amp or a Deluxe Reverb. The bridge pickup offers a nice jangly tone when either of the amps I mentioned are slightly pushed. The neck pickups can be jazzy on its own, or help tame the jangle from the bridge when both are engaged. I also noticed that you can pull off an awesome blues tone on the neck pickup when using an overdrive pedal.

Finally played one today. Plugged it into a Mini-Rectifier. Vintage high gain, gain around 12:00... then played clean to lead with the guitar's volume control.

Really dug both pickups. The bridge had something cool going on in the mids and didn't push the preamp as hard, which was cool... I have lots of PAFs and higher output humbuckers, so this was a nice change. The neck sounded great... not really sure how to describe the sound... it just sounded really good. Not muddy like some pickups, but not brittle either.

I'll probably pick one up in the future. Fills a nice niche since it's quite different than the standard G or F sound.
 
I love mine!

A couple of questions I've been dying to ask someone, since I haven't been able to see one of these in the wild...

How different is the Pattern regular neck on this compared to the old Wide/Fat neck that I find on my SEs?

I'm also wondering about the neck back angle on the Vela. Is it relatively flat like a Telecaster, or is there some neck angle like their stop tail guitars? I'm kind of used to having about a 1/2 inch between the strings and the body when I'm picking.

Thanks
 
How different is the Pattern regular neck on this compared to the old Wide/Fat neck that I find on my SEs?
Not a lot of difference. I have W/T, W/F, DGT ,and Pattern, and I love the pattern. It's very close to the DGT and not far from W/F. I find it very comfortable.
I'm also wondering about the neck back angle on the Vela. Is it relatively flat like a Telecaster, or is there some neck angle like their stop tail guitars? I'm kind of used to having about a 1/2 inch between the strings and the body when I'm picking.
I'd have to break out a ruler, but it depends if you're measuring from strings to body or strings to top of pup. Strings to body, you're good, or darned close. Buy one from a vendor with a generous return policy and you have nothing to worry about.
 
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