THIS FRIDAY 7/18 AT VARIETY PLAHOUSE

I’ve been doing a deep dive into the QUEEN catalog over the last few weeks to prepare for THE BEST DAMN QUEEN SHOW EVER featuring the Yacht Rock Schooner and The Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus this Friday (7/18) at the Variety Playhouse! I’m a huge Queen/Brian May fan, so I am super excited to be performing with these guys. Except for @jimstapley. He’s a Twat 🤣🇬🇧❤️🇬🇧🤣! I got so into it, that I ended up buying a Harley Benton Red Special (thanks for the heads up on that one, Seth Waters) for the occasion!

Now for those of you that might give a scabby rat’s ass, I’ll give my impressions after playing the aforementioned guitar for about a week below.

First off, it was $325 shipped from Germany…So, if it sucked, I wasn’t out a big sum of cash. It also arrived at my house in less than a week.

Cosmetically, this thing was pretty impressive right out of the box. The assembly/binding was all pretty flawless. The Antique Cherry finish was way richer and more vibrant than the online photo. The tuners and bridge/trem system were way higher quality than I would have expected at this price point.

The pickups, as I expected, were a little thin and “squealy” at louder volumes. I purchased some Armstrong Burns Tri-Sonic replicas from a guy in Britain, and that seemed to do the trick.

I used it at a rehearsal at full volume, and while the pickups are still a bit microphonic, I could control the squeal factor even at high gain levels.

Admittedly, it does not have the “feel” of a $2000-3000 guitar, but after taking it to Jeff Rice @intownguitarrepair, he set it up to be gig-ready. The neck is a very comfortable “D” shape, very similar to my 70s Gibson Les Pauls. It comes in at a svelte 7.3 pounds, which is great news for the neck and back!

So for the sake of brevity, let me summarize. If you are just playing this thing at home, it is pretty much good to go right out of the box, although I would definitely recommend spending a few extra bucks on a professional setup!