My Xaviere XV 700 came in, here is the review

[YourBurgerMan]

Welcome to Thunder Dome,

I received my Xaviere XV 700 in Lemon drop about nine days after ordering it and wanted to play it and look at it for awhile before I reported on my experience. Now that I have had time to play and examine the guitar, I can honestly say I am a little surprised at the LACK of quality after reading reviews here and on Harmony Central. Let it be known right now, this guitar is MADE IN CHINA and does not compare at all to a regular production Gibson of any kind. If the Agile AL3000's are what everyone says they are, then they should blow this guitar away. I have seen comparisons of this guitar with the Agiles, and those with real Gibsons, so it's bit of a rediculous comparison, but these are going to be towards the bottom, I don't think mine even comes close to an AL3000. I have taken some pictures on my cell phone and I apologize for the quality, but they beat not posting any at all. Mods, if you guys want to move this to the Xaviere thread, I won't mind.

Now for the rant:

If you want the specs on the guitar, check out Guitarfetish's site, they list most of it there. I'm going to start from the top and work my way in. The maple top is covered with an extremely thin veneer, it does have flames, no they don't "pop" at all, and there is no separation line on mine, it not does not look "book matched", instead it has a rather ridiculous continues flame that looks fake. The color is not even close what people call "lemon drop", it is closer to a "honey burst" except the middle is very yellow and the outside becomes almost "UT Orange" at the top where the neck joins. The pics on the website are somewhat indicative of the look, but they show a line in the middle and not so much orange. I would not normally have chosen this color, but they are out of all other burst colors in the 700 series. The back is clearly a two piece and is not much to look at either. The cream colored plastic covers on the back had a large amount of mold flash on them that I had to cut off, it looked silly at best. I will probably sand the veneer off and refinish this guitar as a gold top. The sides of the guitar have strange runs in the finish near the binding that look like speckles, I really don't know how to describe them but they won't show up in pictures, again made in China, and you can tell they don't care what they look like. The body is a real arch top and it has a slight recurve to it, but the top is 1/2" thick, not 3/4" as stated on GF's website. Here are some pics:


Here you can see the cap, but we've seen pics of that before. What you haven't seen in pics is that lump of glue sittin on the top there. I found that laying in the pickup cavity. Hawtness!



Here you can see the arch, and this is a good indicator of the color, think brighter though.

When I pulled the neck pickup, I saw that it was stamped GFS, I know there have been different generations of these pickups, so this one must be the latest gen. The long tenon is huge, but it does not matter because there is a gap between the tenon/neck and the body of mine, so unless vibrations can move through the air, lose no energy, and then reenter the wood, I'm thinking that should knock tone and sustain down a few notches. Again, it’s obvious here that the builders didn't care about what they were putting out, and I have since filled this gap with a mixture of saw dust and Tightbond. Thanks China, you suck.



In addition to the neck gap, I noticed that one of the inserts for one of the tail piece studs sits very loose in its hole, obviously drilled WAY too large. It's quality like this that ensures I will never buy another China made guitar, and that includes an Edwards.


I have since filled this gap with Tightbond also.

Could I be any more critical of this cheap ass guitar? Hell yes, read on!

Here is a view of the control cavity, again, I am sorry for these pics, I know they suck, and so do Samsung Blackjacks.



Here you can see that one of the "high quality" 500K pots is smaller than the others, it is different so I am assuming that they ran out and had to sub in a different one. The pickups do have unused wires, so I guess that makes them four wire, but the soldiering looks pretty nappy and I'm sure it will break if I fart near the guitar. The jack is awesome, it makes this cool hissing noise when I plug in with the overdrive cranked, and when I push on the cable, it gets quiet. I swear to God I JUST got this guitar, and I think it was supposed to be "new".


Here is a pic of the strap button, installed crooked. Why bother installing it straight, when you can screw it in crooked? Wonky is more fun!


Here is a pic of the tail piece, with string stuck in it. I loved this part so much. I had to dig the string out from the back of the tail piece with a small flat head screw driver. Gotta love that China made zinc!


Here is one of the truss rod adjuster, again cheap to the point of not working or being hard to operate. I suppose threaded rod and a 5/16" nut is expensive. Obviously real truss rods must be made by NASA, which is why they are so expensive. When I took the truss rod cover off, a chunk of the head stock veneer fell off, and again, I just laughed.

If you guys have read some of my other posts, you know that I bought this guitar for the wood. I was expecting to replace ALL of the hardware, from the rusty tuning heads (yes, rust on the threads, amazing) to the tail with post inserts that don't fit, it all had to go. Zinc is a silly material anyway that has no place on a musical instrument, unfortunately this guitar is not worthy of a billet bridge, so I settled for a Gotoh bridge, aluminum tail, Sperzel tuners, and a Tusq nut. After installing those parts and still having to wrap the threads of everything with Teflon tape, AND filling the gap in the neck AND the tail piece insert, the guitar seems to sound pretty good. It has about the same sustain as my Gibson V, and the pickups are almost as clear. I plan to replace all of the electronics and then make a final verdict. I'll have about $450 in the guitar by the time it's all done, which is less than an Agile, but it will never look like an Agile, let’s just hope it sounds as good. The upgraded hardware made a HUGE difference in the way this guitar sounds, and if mine is a dud, then perhaps there really is something to the Xaviere line, but I was not expecting such low quality wood work. I needed the core wood to be good and solid, and that is not what I got. This guitar is great if you just want to see what an LP style guitar feels like, but stock, they don't sound that great, and mine sure as hell does not look great. As for Epi vs. Xaviere...I've seen a lot of crappy Epiphones, and I sure would not pay $500 for one, glad I did not pay more than $250 for this Xaviere.

[YourBurgerMan]

I forgot to mention the rust on the frets and the black crap that is STILL comming off of them even after I cleaned the whole board with lighter fluid and messaged in lemon oil. My left hand is gross after playing. And it weighs 8.6lbs, not 7 1/2 or 8lbs.

[TeleDog]

Man, after reading this my humble Agile looks like a Gibson! lol

This is strange, I've read some decent reviews on those things, been tempted by them quite a few times myself.

What I find hard to swallow is the electronics, the guy sells electronics and pots and pickups, so I don't think he just "ran out".. if he sells the guitar, wouldn't it follow for him to at least check what he got from China is actually what he ordered and then adjust or fix those defects?

The gap is something that doesn't surprise me. Heard about that before but honestly thought it was just a one time thing.

I've ordered quite a few GFS pickup sets, always nice, never a problem. But now I know next time I want a cheap guitar it'll be another Agile, I can't complain about mine at all which ironically has a pair of GFS installed. lol

[thatbastarddon]

question for YourBurgerMan, how is the machine head/tuner placement in your XV700's headstock?
i ask because i got an XV500 with similar neck joint(not nearly as bad) issue.
the placement of my tuners, however, is not symmetrical.
bugged me every time i looked at the headstock until replaced with black sperzels.
the only other finish quality issue i could find was with the back plate.
3 of the four screws are drilled properly. one was a near miss, half in to wood and half in to air.

otherwise i have had a good experience with mine.
after a few mod's, tone and sustain are excellent A/B'd with my gibson mahogany studio.
i may pick up an Agile next spring to see what i'm missing though.

[YourBurgerMan]

Originally Posted by thatbastarddon

question for YourBurgerMan, how is the machine head/tuner placement in your XV700's headstock?
i ask because i got an XV500 with similar neck joint(not nearly as bad) issue.
the placement of my tuners, however, is not symmetrical.
bugged me every time i looked at the headstock until replaced with black sperzels.
the only other finish quality issue i could find was with the back plate.
3 of the four screws are drilled properly. one was a near miss, half in to wood and half in to air.

otherwise i have had a good experience with mine.
after a few mod's, tone and sustain are excellent A/B'd with my gibson mahogany studio.
i may pick up an Agile next spring to see what i'm missing though.

Machine head placement was off slightly as well. I don't think it makes any difference in tone, so I really did not care about that, but I could see where they drilled the holes slightly wrong. Now the tuners themselves, that is a whole other story. I had read reviews saying that they were not great, then I read others saying that they were fine.

TRUTH: right here folks, definative answer. THE TUNERS ARE GARBAGE. Mine were rusted, and had atleast 1/4" of play at the base of the shaft, about 1/2" at the top, I wish I could make a video. I will say that the pickups are pretty good. Really, after the upgrades, the guitar holds its own, if you don't look at it, or over analyze the sound it makes.

Guys I lurked on here and read, and read, and read before I made this purchase. When I purchased the guitar, I also bought BOTB and Dan Erlewine's book. I read those as well as some older books on stringed instrument theory and did a speach for school on the late 50's bursts. After reading all of that and seeing those increadable bursts in BOTB(and reading in the back of the book) I realize that just thinking, "okay, I'll get some cheap mohag with long tenon neck and body with maple cap, and I'll get close" was really silly. Never gonna happen. There is so much more to it than that, and the materials and construction of a solid body electric really DO influence how it sounds, not just electronics and general shape. The sustain and tone are created by the vibrating string energy being transfered into the body and then reflected out and back into the strings, and then back again. The pickups are as important, but that 17* head stock angle, 4.5* neck angle, glue used, finishes used, it all has to be there. A cheap China made Poly finished *thing* with off specs can't sound the same, and it won't have the balls if the wood is not right, and the glue is not solid with ALL joints close to perfect. Next time I'll just buy an Agile and forget the long tenon crap, or build a Bull Dog. Anyone know what would happen if you built a LP knock off out of one piece of billet aluminum with as much hardware integrated into that piece of aluminum? Yeah it would be huge $$$, but I bet it would resonate like crazy!

[northlight]

This is a very scathing review, could it just be a bad apple? Rusty frets, rusty tuners and an incorrectly installed tailpiece? That guitar would've been sent right back to where it came from!

[TeleDog]

If you want good wood, get a Warmoth body. They're bolt-on necks, but you get the best wood there is, comparable (if not better) to what Gibson uses. The specs are all there, right from the start, and you can finish it yourself of have it finished by them (rip-off alert here).

The most beautiful tops I've seen are Warmoth, and they are solid mahogany or whatever you want with the flame maple cap if you want that. It's simply amazing, but you pay for it. Unfinished, 500 a body if you get lucky.

Now they have a web site thing that allows you to configure your own body and get it custom ordered without filing out some form and stuff. No guess work!

The Xaviere tuners are known to be shit, I didn't know however that the placement was off!

Back in the day I bought a 68 LP from a kid who basically "upgraded it" (butchered it) and I restored it so more or less original specs. The finish is good though and the wood is immaculate, intact for the most part. I don't play that one much, I wanna think it's vintage although I know it's not much of anything because it was already modded and my restoration is not gonna bring any value to it. But the guitar is well built, and it's something you can't see nowadays, or so I thought.

That guitar with that 60's thing is no better than my early 90's Standard. That one kills! Best guitar I ever played. The amazing thing about my 90's LP is the craftsmanship. It's as close to perfection as a guitar can be IMHO and that craftsmanship translates directly into playability.

But those are heavy, built like a tank, and that's the feeling I had when I bought my Agile. It's not perfect by any means, it has a couple defects in the finish but hey, it's only an AL2000. The top is a veneer, of course, but the flame is so nice, nicer than most Epis I've seen. Not the best woods for sure, but the best cosmetics, but the guitar is so well built you forget about that when you play it. Everything works, everything's in the right place, and the instrument was built really nicely; I actually had to raise the action, no buzzing but I didn't want it to be so low! That amazed me.

What I'm trying to say is that the wood is important, but craftsmanship is crucial. You can have a guitar made by a 2 year old using nothing but the best and that's not gonna be a good instrument.

[TeleDog]

Originally Posted by northlight

This is a very scathing review, could it just be a bad apple? Rusty frets, rusty tuners and an incorrectly installed tailpiece? That guitar would've been sent right back to where it came from!

Drilling a hole that's just too big for the tailpiece (crucial part for any LP style guitar) is not some little flaw. That ruins tone, sustain, playability.

The problem here is that it shouldn't be the customer spotting the bad apple, but the store! They should inspect the guitars before selling them, if they care about what they sell and their customers!

[northlight]

Originally Posted by TeleDog

Drilling a hole that's just too big for the tailpiece (crucial part for any LP style guitar) is not some little flaw. That ruins tone, sustain, playability.

The problem here is that it shouldn't be the customer spotting the bad apple, but the store! They should inspect the guitars before selling them, if they care about what they sell and their customers!

Agreed, as i said, the guitar would've went straight back.

[Mike S.]

Wow, My XV-510 has none of these issues, save for the fact that the tuners are not equal to the rest of the guitar.

You either received a worse case scenario dud, the quality control has hit the bottom of the barrel since mine was manufactured, or you are shilling for Rondo/Agile.

I would have sent it back in the condition you've documented.

BTW,

I have both an Agile 2000 and a 3000 model LP knockoff, and my Xavier is far better than the 2000, and equal to the 3000 IMO.

[diceman]

Ah, good to see some honesty. Most of the time, the people who buy these are people who don't own or have experience with quality guitars. "Just as good as A Gibson!" rather than "Just as good as MY Gibson." Thanks for the objective review. I have similar things to say about SX guitars. Largely garbage - but they get rave reviews as well. One of mine is just trash, the other with some upgrades is playable and "OK."

[YourBurgerMan]

Please understand, I had nothing against Xaviere when I ordered this guitar, I read nothing but good things, however I was ignorant. When I think of making a cheap instrument, I would start with a good base and go cheaper as I went out, that way, if someone wanted to make it better later, they had the option. Example: Mazda Miata. You get the essentials such as good suspension goemetry, not a lot of weight, great balance, and enough room for big rubber if you so choose. Want more horsepower, the path to turbo bliss is there, and the chassis can be strengthened with little or no money or effort. I wanted a guitar that was the same. Instead of a Miata, I got a Sunfire, so I had to cut the car in half, weld in a drive shaft and trans tunnel, convert to rear drive, etc.. Does anyone get what I am saying? It would be nice to be able to buy a finished piece of wood with neck glued correctly and finish applied. I would pay 250.00 for that alone, no hardware, no pickups nothing else. I do want a good truss rod and finger board, and I want that neck joint to be immaculate, that is critical. Bolt neck does not do it for me, I would always be thinking of what I could put in there to increase the transfer of string energy. I could see my self coating the base and sides of the neck with heat sink grease or something...

[Sinster]

My Agile is just as good as MY Gibson, Epiphone and my Bulldog kit

Thanks for the honest review.

[Skynyrdpicker]

I had one of those. It wasn't perfect, but I liked it. The woods on mine were good, anyway. It wasn't the best guitar until I put some work into it, but before I traded it, it was a player that sounded great. Finish wasn't perfect on mine, but it was a blem model. Still decent for what you're paying!

[auriemma]

YBM... I know you bought it as a project, to use the body and neck as the foundation, but if I found all those issues I would have called up and said "I need an RMA for this POS...NOW!" Full refund! Thats just sad.

You could have bought an used 1970s - 1980s MIJ LP copy in decent shape for less and got so more. I won't be looking at Xaviers anymore.

[TeleDog]

There's an Xaviere crowd here and one that likes Agile better. That's normal I guess and people like what they like. One thing is peculiar. Unlike Rondo, Guitarfetish does SELL hardware, in fact, that's what they do most!

To me there are things that do not make sense at all with GFS. I think they just use those guitars to push some hardware too. You get attracted by the nice finish and end up buying a load from them just to make them playable. If the guy tells you he tests all his stuff with this and that amp and with this and that guitar, and he appears to know the right pots and the good wire from 100ft distance, isn't it strange that he just didn't see the obvious defects with that particular guitar? Either he doesn't give a shit or he thinks people will buy the guitars just to upgrade them with GFS parts and he's happy about that. Any person here who has been in the business of selling anything knows you at least make sure what you're selling is not shit. A guitar with rusted out parts is a bit too much, let alone one with a messed up tailpiece or misaligned tuners.

They ship the guitars with shitty tuners, and of course, they sell upgrades... Same for the bridge and all the rest of the hardware. I've done a bit of research after hearing this and well, it appears to be more common than I thought...

The pickups are no exception. Why is it that they ship the guitars with the cheapest GFS pups? Those are good, I installed them in an Epi, but still, either they're trying to get you to upgrade them down the road or the entire GFS pup stuff is a myth and they all sound the same.... Strange, to say the least.

I've asked the guy myself about some of these issues, with the necks not fitting the bodies quite right, and didn't get a straight answer.

All the pickups I've purchased from GFS are great, they sound incredible for the price. But that's as far as I'd go with them, given all this.

[YourBurgerMan]

Originally Posted by Skynyrdpicker

I had one of those. It wasn't perfect, but I liked it. The woods on mine were good, anyway. It wasn't the best guitar until I put some work into it, but before I traded it, it was a player that sounded great. Finish wasn't perfect on mine, but it was a blem model. Still decent for what you're paying!

NO, NOT decent for any money. Would you buy a car with three wheels? How about a bike with one? I paid full price for the product, and I expect it to be completely assembled, not missing wood in the neck joint and where the tail piece unserts press in. The key word there is *press* in, not drop in, which is what it did. Hell, we are already loosing sustain due to the bridge posts screwing into a metal insert instead of the wood, and now the insert is falling out on the tail piece?? I can understand cheap hardware and electronics, I expected that, but I needed the wood to have the correctly sized holes drilled in it, and the neck to be the right size, these were mistakes that line workers made and did not care enough to report. I can take a pic of the blem in the finish on the front if you like, but it would be like beating a dead horse.

Now, on to the real question, why didn't I return it? They are not carrying that model anymore, and it was the one I wanted, NOT a 500 or 510, so if I sent it back, I would probably get another factory second that was sold as new. I'm sure the guitar sat somewhere and now they are trying to get rid of all of them, or, the quality really is that bad. Who cares? I don't now, cause I'm gonna keep hot rodding it.

Who will benefit?

You guys will! I'm going to go through the electronics next, and I'm doing it myself, so expect a write up with pictures. I have a friend with a lathe and a mill, so I am going to convert my metric (big post) bridge to an ABR-1 style mount, meaning it will screw directly into the wood, and I'll probably use some stainless all thread rod for that. In the end, I'll make a video and let you guys hear how it sounds. Should be a fun little trip.

[nwobhm]

Wow, I'm glad I got one of the older ones from a few years ago, had 3. It looks like they cheaped out on everything, even the electronics were nicer on the earlier Korean ones and they were fully sheilded and quiet. The pickup specs and woods have seamed to have changed from the first batch, alinico to ceramic, it looks like they just settled on getting them made cheaper at a different plant, sad.

[Funkwire]

Originally Posted by YourBurgerMan

NO, NOT decent for any money. Would you buy a car with three wheels? How about a bike with one? I paid full price for the product, and I expect it to be completely assembled, not missing wood in the neck joint and where the tail piece unserts press in. The key word there is *press* in, not drop in, which is what it did. Hell, we are already loosing sustain due to the bridge posts screwing into a metal insert instead of the wood, and now the insert is falling out on the tail piece?? I can understand cheap hardware and electronics, I expected that, but I needed the wood to have the correctly sized holes drilled in it, and the neck to be the right size, these were mistakes that line workers made and did not care enough to report. I can take a pic of the blem in the finish on the front if you like, but it would be like beating a dead horse.

Now, on to the real question, why didn't I return it? They are not carrying that model anymore, and it was the one I wanted, NOT a 500 or 510, so if I sent it back, I would probably get another factory second that was sold as new. I'm sure the guitar sat somewhere and now they are trying to get rid of all of them, or, the quality really is that bad. Who cares? I don't now, cause I'm gonna keep hot rodding it.

Who will benefit?

You guys will! I'm going to go through the electronics next, and I'm doing it myself, so expect a write up with pictures. I have a friend with a lathe and a mill, so I am going to convert my metric (big post) bridge to an ABR-1 style mount, meaning it will screw directly into the wood, and I'll probably use some stainless all thread rod for that. In the end, I'll make a video and let you guys hear how it sounds. Should be a fun little trip.

Seriously, though...you should have sent it back. Even if the model you wanted isn't available anymore. Get your refund and buy an Agile, because no matter what you do to it, you're never going to be happy with it, knowing the flaws.

I bought my XV-500 a year ago. The neck joint was nice and tight (although there is excess glue in the cavity). No issues with the hardware. All my pots were full size Alphas. The tuners were bad, I replaced them right away.

There was an issue with my wiring...it was backwards. I e-mailed Jay at GFS to let him know. He responded in around 90 minutes and told me to send it back if I wanted to. I told him that was OK, I could fix that with a soldering iron. I just wanted to give him a heads up in case other guitars were wired that way.

In addition to swapping the tuners, I re-wired the guitar with a new switch (the stock one fell apart when I took it out), Orange Drop caps, and GFS Vintage 59 pickups...which sound GREAT, much better than the Crunchy Pats. I've got less than an additional $95 in parts into it (I already had a set of Grovers on hand).

Now, I knew going into this that it was made in China and that it wasn't going to be comparable to a Gibson. For $209, I'd have to be seriously deluded to think that. But it was a good player out of the box for me. With the mods I've done, it's a very good gigging guitar. Plays well and sounds great.

I think it's great that you are going to use your guitar as a modding platform and keep us updated on the process. That's one of the most valuable things about a forum like this. But, again...you really should have returned the guitar, considering the issues it had/has.

Good luck!

[hbucker]

Maybe I didn't read it closely enough, but I didn't see in the original post where you described how the guitar actually plays and sounds. You remarked how the gap in the neck joint would kill tone and sustain, but didn't describe the actual tone and sustain. To me, this matters more on a guitar like this than many of the construction details.

Where am I going with this? It's a $200 guitar. Based on your description, it must be a pretty bad $200 guitar. None the less, I would guess that very few $200 guitars would stand up to the scrutiny, construction wise, that you've put this guitar under. I don't have a problem with that and I mean no offense. It's just a fact, IMO.

To me, these guitars have only one job: play and sound fairly decent. NOT to sound and play like or better than a Gibson. But to generally perform to the standards of anyone needing a decent looking, workhorse player.

I would never ever buy a guitar like this without assuming that I had some fairly serious adjusting & setup in front of me. Frankly, that's part of the fun for me. But most of what you describe means nothing to me unless the guitar doesn't sound good and/or is just hard to play. I can only assume that it doesn't, otherwise you would have mentioned it more directly.

If I were you I would use the warranty and send it back. Sounds like guitar you could never grow to love. Indeed, it sound's like you may have gotten one of their 2nds... A friend of mine bought one of their 2nds/Blems and it was similar to what you describe. But it did play and sound o.k. for the most part.

[TeleDog]

Originally Posted by Funkwire

There was an issue with my wiring...it was backwards. I e-mailed Jay at GFS to let him know. He responded in around 90 minutes and told me to send it back if I wanted to. I told him that was OK, I could fix that with a soldering iron. I just wanted to give him a heads up in case other guitars were wired that way.

In addition to swapping the tuners, I re-wired the guitar with a new switch (the stock one fell apart when I took it out), Orange Drop caps, and GFS Vintage 59 pickups...which sound GREAT, much better than the Crunchy Pats. I've got less than an additional $95 in parts into it (I already had a set of Grovers on hand).

Now, I knew going into this that it was made in China and that it wasn't going to be comparable to a Gibson. For $209, I'd have to be seriously deluded to think that. But it was a good player out of the box for me. With the mods I've done, it's a very good gigging guitar. Plays well and sounds great.

I think it's great that you are going to use your guitar as a modding platform and keep us updated on the process. That's one of the most valuable things about a forum like this. But, again...you really should have returned the guitar, considering the issues it had/has.

Good luck!

And just a wild guess, you got the better sounding pickups from GFS. I will ask again, how come they do not offer any other pickup just their entry level pups with their guitars? To me, it's obvious the guy is selling guitars to serve as blanks for you to go install GFS hardware on them.

I've been digging on this, and the more I read the more I realize these issues seem to be the norm. You can send it back, sure, but the problem is that it would seem there's a reason to "send it back" in quite a few of the posts.

The guy sells hardware, not a hidden fact or a secret. What's the reason then for the crappy tuners? People would gladly play for that and save themselves the time and aggravation, the shipping and markup on the spare part.

I was seriously considering one of their semi-hollow bodies, but that is in the past. I am not going to buy some piece of crap with a 99% chance it's gonna be defective right from the start. Repairs and mods on semi-hollows are not that easy in most cases.

[Sinster]

My Epiphone 08 Custom has a gap where you can drive a Semi through..

At first I was bullshit about the gap and was rattling the cage of and Epiphone was going to warranty it.. I was going to send it in but the guitar sounds great and I love the feel of it, plus it was a mental thing.. I have no issue with it and it's pretty solid.

[The_Sentry]

Great review Burger Man....

And thorough.....

(Makes me wonder if anyone from Guitar Fetish will look at this....maybe, maybe not...)

[dspelman]

Originally Posted by diceman

Ah, good to see some honesty. Most of the time, the people who buy these are people who don't own or have experience with quality guitars. "Just as good as A Gibson!" rather than "Just as good as MY Gibson." Thanks for the objective review. I have similar things to say about SX guitars. Largely garbage - but they get rave reviews as well. One of mine is just trash, the other with some upgrades is playable and "OK."

My neck-through Agile Custom is sitting next to the Gibson Axcess Custom at Gary Brawer's shop in San Francisco. Two of the guys there have made a point of commenting on the construction of the Agile. They haven't compared it to MY Gibson (because why would they trash a >$4000 guitar to its owner), but they've made it clear that they'd gladly own the Agile *over* some of the Gibsons that they've had in the shop. Playability isn't an issue, either, but that's mostly their doing. They've superglued the frets and done a complete setup (with PLEK), and with a slightly wider and thinner neck than stock (and a 16" radius), as well as the scarfed Axcess-style neck heel, it plays a good deal faster than your average Gibbie, particularly in the upper fret region. Both guitars are being set up identically (virtually all of the metal and electronic bits have been shaken out of the guitars), and aside from the weight (the Agile is solid, this particular Axcess may actually be chambered rather than cheesed, and it's got a thinner body to start) and the neck shape (the Axcess has a 12" radius and is otherwise standard...for an Axcess), they'll be identical.

Not much experience with the SX guitars. I've got my eye on one $139 "SJM" at some point. But this is a tossaway guitar -- hell, a couple of steaks at Pacific Dining Car (plus sides and tips, no booze) will run you $175. I figure if it plays reasonably well, it might be fun.

[YourBurgerMan]

I'll rebutt some of the comments I've seen here, others I'm just gonna let lie. Sinster, man that Epiphone is pretty pricey to see a neck joint like that, I'm sorry to see that! As for sending my guitar back, you ALL know I would get another one just like it, so I will not be wasting two weeks waiting to get another one with identicle color and possibly worse problems. I paid about three dollars for Tightbond at the local Lowes and I got a hand full of saw dust for free, that is what I used to fix the real issues with this guitar. I did not comment on the sound because that is subjective and what one person considers crap, others will think is great. Since I have not played a "holy grail" '59 through an old marshall tube amp, I probably have no idea what good tone is anyway. HOWEVER, that being said, I DO know what good construction is, and a gap in between the neck and the body will impact ANY guitar's tone in a negative way. If I had wanted a guitar who's neck joined at the 22nd fret, I would have bought an SG, and no matter how cheap the guitar is, I will NEVER excuse that or the tail piece post hole being too big. As for Agiles, I'd like to have one, I would not consider anything less than a 2900 or 3100 and would most likely buy a chambered tobacco 2900, cause that guitar is just sex! However, it is not a thick maple top unless you pay $600.00 for an M model. I paid $220.00 and was supposed to get long tenon neck and thick maple top, would have been FTW, but it was made in China by people that don't care. FAIL. Should have sold the V first, then bought a real deal LP BFG! Remember that SX is NOT Agile, I am betting they are poop.

NOW, as for my opinion of the sound of the guitar opposed to my Gibbo? Prior to upgrades, Gibbo would not even come out for compare, he had more important things to do like slaying demons and humping super MILFs. After mods, Gibbo still wins ever so slightly for cleaner distortion. After my upgrades, the Xaviere has sustain for days, man! It will sustain better than my Gibbo and I'm not done yet, I'm expecting the pickups to be the weakest part of this guitar when I'm done, as opposed to them being the best part before. Playability is good, for me, but again, I am not a tone expert, and have not been able to play a really expensive guitar, on a good amp, in a quiet room, alone! I will post up some recordings of the Xaviere and the V when I am done with it, and you guys can decide. I will say that I have not spent more than a half hour straight playing the V, ever, but I jammed out on the Xaviere last night for two hours. LP shape + thin body + less than 9lbs = failed test today due to no study condition brought on by rockin all night. Keep in mind, I don't know what tone is, and I'm willing and able to break my guitar down and fix little things that make all the difference. If you can't do that stuff, stay away from Xaviere, I would not buy their hardware either. Sperzel for life!

[Skynyrdpicker]

Originally Posted by YourBurgerMan

NO, NOT decent for any money...

I feel ya, not defending crappy workmanship at all. I was more referring to the one I had. Looks like you got a dud. Mine was definitely worth what I had payed for it, but it was from a few years ago. Still cool that you're going to hotrod the thing, keep us posted.

Originally Posted by nwobhm

Wow, I'm glad I got one of the older ones from a few years ago, had 3. It looks like they cheaped out on everything, even the electronics were nicer on the earlier Korean ones and they were fully sheilded and quiet. The pickup specs and woods have seamed to have changed from the first batch, alinico to ceramic, it looks like they just settled on getting them made cheaper at a different plant, sad.

My thoughts exactly. Nothing at all like the XV-500 I had.

[Sinster]

I can tell you from experience that the gap really doesn't affect tone or sustain.. 4 Epiphone (Including the one with the gap), 1 Agile, 1 Gibson, and 1 Bulldog kit so I have something to compare it to.

[Funkwire]

Originally Posted by TeleDog

And just a wild guess, you got the better sounding pickups from GFS. I will ask again, how come they do not offer any other pickup just their entry level pups with their guitars? To me, it's obvious the guy is selling guitars to serve as blanks for you to go install GFS hardware on them.

I've been digging on this, and the more I read the more I realize these issues seem to be the norm. You can send it back, sure, but the problem is that it would seem there's a reason to "send it back" in quite a few of the posts.

The guy sells hardware, not a hidden fact or a secret. What's the reason then for the crappy tuners? People would gladly play for that and save themselves the time and aggravation, the shipping and markup on the spare part.

I was seriously considering one of their semi-hollow bodies, but that is in the past. I am not going to buy some piece of crap with a 99% chance it's gonna be defective right from the start. Repairs and mods on semi-hollows are not that easy in most cases.

Yes, I said the replacement pickups were GFS.

The semi-hollow Strat and Tele-type Xavieres have Dream 180 pickups and the P-90 equipped ones have Mean 90s...these aren't considered entry-level GFS pickups. For that matter, neither are the Crunchy Pats. They are what they are: Super Distortion clones. For overdriven stuff, they sound great. I wanted a more vintage-voiced pickup because I play clean a lot of the time. That's why I changed the pickups. I still have the Crunchy Pats, and I'm going to put them in another guitar. They're not junk by any means.

[YourBurgerMan]

Originally Posted by Funkwire

Yes, I said the replacement pickups were GFS.

The semi-hollow Strat and Tele-type Xavieres have Dream 180 pickups and the P-90 equipped ones have Mean 90s...these aren't considered entry-level GFS pickups. For that matter, neither are the Crunchy Pats. They are what they are: Super Distortion clones. For overdriven stuff, they sound great. I wanted a more vintage-voiced pickup because I play clean a lot of the time. That's why I changed the pickups. I still have the Crunchy Pats, and I'm going to put them in another guitar. They're not junk by any means.

You said it, those Crunchy Pats sound great with distortion! I'm gonna use what I know to put as much wood into those puppies as possable and see what it sounds like. I am getting alot of fuzz out of my bridge pickup, and it I think it is because I damaged the switch while I was working on the guitar, but I'll be fixing that shortly.

Quote: (cause I can't figure out how to do multiple quotes in a single post)
Sinster:

"I can tell you from experience that the gap really doesn't affect tone or sustain.. 4 Epiphone (Including the one with the gap), 1 Agile, 1 Gibson, and 1Bulldog kit so I have something to compare it to."

Well, I don't have much experience, other than my Gibson, and an early 90's Peavey Predator, but.....

Not doubting your experience (since I have none), and I mean NO disrespect with this, but how can vibrations that are created by the strings being moved by your pick or fingers transfer to the body and neck of the guitar and then back to the stings as effectively when there is a gap there? See, the reason that I am sure this is a critical quality issue, and these things NEED to be exposed, is that people need to know that when they upgrade, the tones they are seeking will not be possable, even with good pickups and hardware, due to the fact that the wood simply won't make them when it has a defect like that. I think of it this way, it does not matter how awesome your hardware, electronics, pickups, cables or amp are in the quest for bada$$ tone if the wood is not solid, and really, a good quality wood that vibrates like crazy (although I think there may be some misconceptions about that too, and I might not know anything past those). Now, lets say that your wood is good, construction is solid, and electronics are good, but your hardware is poop. Guess what? I'm willing to bet that your guitar will still be leaving something on the table, it all must work together, and there are alot of axes out there that could sound ALOT better. Lets say everything on the guitar is awesome, hell, lets call it an original '59 in excellent condition, now lets plug it into a cheap amp. What do we have? Well the damn thing might not sound any better than my Peavey until they both are plugged into a JCM800, now the '59 leaves the Peavey in the dust, realizes its FULL potential, and then really rocks. I *think* construction is extremely important to a musical instrument's ability to create awesome sound. Wood is also important, but I'd take a cheaper piece of wood that would still carry a vibration made with care over an expensive piece of wood that was cut into a shody guitar build. This is what makes me so mad when I see a gap like the ones in my guitar and yours, and since I have seen it in those, I wanna see it in everyone else's, 'cause I bet its there. I'm gonna post another thread someone else on here asking to see 'em, I bet they are everywhere. LETS GET MAD!

[Sinster]

Originally Posted by YourBurgerMan

You said it, those Crunchy Pats sound great with distortion! I'm gonna use what I know to put as much wood into those puppies as possable and see what it sounds like. I am getting alot of fuzz out of my bridge pickup, and it I think it is because I damaged the switch while I was working on the guitar, but I'll be fixing that shortly.

Quote: (cause I can't figure out how to do multiple quotes in a single post)
Sinster:

"I can tell you from experience that the gap really doesn't affect tone or sustain.. 4 Epiphone (Including the one with the gap), 1 Agile, 1 Gibson, and 1Bulldog kit so I have something to compare it to."

Well, I don't have much experience, other than my Gibson, and an early 90's Peavey Predator, but.....

Not doubting your experience (since I have none), and I mean NO disrespect with this, but how can vibrations that are created by the strings being moved by your pick or fingers transfer to the body and neck of the guitar and then back to the stings as effectively when there is a gap there? See, the reason that I am sure this is a critical quality issue, and these things NEED to be exposed, is that people need to know that when they upgrade, the tones they are seeking will not be possable, even with good pickups and hardware, due to the fact that the wood simply won't make them when it has a defect like that. I think of it this way, it does not matter how awesome your hardware, electronics, pickups, cables or amp are in the quest for bada$$ tone if the wood is not solid, and really, a good quality wood that vibrates like crazy (although I think there may be some misconceptions about that too, and I might not know anything past those). Now, lets say that your wood is good, construction is solid, and electronics are good, but your hardware is poop. Guess what? I'm willing to bet that your guitar will still be leaving something on the table, it all must work together, and there are alot of axes out there that could sound ALOT better. Lets say everything on the guitar is awesome, hell, lets call it an original '59 in excellent condition, now lets plug it into a cheap amp. What do we have? Well the damn thing might not sound any better than my Peavey until they both are plugged into a JCM800, now the '59 leaves the Peavey in the dust, realizes its FULL potential, and then really rocks. I *think* construction is extremely important to a musical instrument's ability to create awesome sound. Wood is also important, but I'd take a cheaper piece of wood that would still carry a vibration made with care over an expensive piece of wood that was cut into a shody guitar build. This is what makes me so mad when I see a gap like the ones in my guitar and yours, and since I have seen it in those, I wanna see it in everyone else's, 'cause I bet its there. I'm gonna post another thread someone else on here asking to see 'em, I bet they are everywhere. LETS GET MAD!

So you are a believer that a Chambered Gibson doesn't have the same sustain or tone as a non-chambered Gibson?


BTW - Dream 90 (neck) rules in my Bulldog kit