I have never seen a more beautiful guitar than this one, honestly. The lemon burst is my favorite color, and combined with the yellowish binding, it’s something else. There are many times when I just sit and look at it from different angles, and it brings me joy.
Now, about the playability: first of all, I want to emphasize how great it feels to hold the guitar, which is probably due to the thin layer of nitrocellulose lacquer. I don’t know how to describe it, but the difference is noticeable compared to most guitars I’ve handled. It’s also relatively lightweight, considering it’s a solid body and doesn’t even have weight relief.
Next, I was impressed by how "alive" it sounds unplugged. You could say the wood breathes. Maybe it’s a combination of factors, like the ABR-1 bridge and the long neck tenon, along with the quality woods they chose? I’m not sure, but the quality is definitely noticeable.
The neck is extremely comfortable, especially for bends and vibrato, but even for shredding techniques like legato.
However, the magic truly begins when I plug it into an amp. Thick sound, endless sustain (I finally understand how Gary Moore did it in those live videos I used to watch), and finally, a guitar that makes experimenting with the volume and tone knobs meaningful.
The guitar responds flawlessly to the right hand and dynamics, and it covers all the sounds I want to play. From full, clean tones and classic rock-blues to heavy metal chugging and crunch (best crunch sound ever by far)
For the first time, I feel like I’ve found my number one guitar. I know I’ll probably acquire other models in the future, but I have to accept that I likely won’t find anything better (unless I get another one from the Custom Shop series in a different color, just for variety).