My new ARC300

Log Out | Topics | Search Moderators | Edit Profile

Author Message   Funkle Username: Funkle Registered: 12-2001 Posted on Friday, May 26, 2006 - 12:11 pm:    A few photos and a quick review. I liked this guitar the first time I saw pictures of it. I thought I'd give one of these Chinese Artists a try, so I picked one up on ebay for $300. The workmanship is impressive at first glance. The bindings, joinery and finish work are all crisp. Especially impressive is the triple bound fretboard. The binding, inlays and fretwork are all very cleanly executed. The sharp fretboard edges and fret ends do need a little TLC. This is one area where the guitar falls short, but there have been plenty of MIJ models that had similar lack of attention - it's not until you get into the higher end models that time is spent on these details. The frets appear to be level, and the action is low. The top is contoured, and knobs are countersunk into the top like a PRS, nice touch. It has an LP profile, only a little smaller and lighter. When you look beneath the surface, you begin to see signs of rushed production. The first thing I did when I got the guitar was to remove the neck pickup and have a look under the hood. The routs show lots of frayed wood, gobbed on finish, and crumbs and residue left over from the finish process. The flamed maple top is definitely a veneer, which appears to be laminated to a 3/8" piece of real maple. It is hard to tell with all the finish. The hardware is solid and high quality. The no-name tuners, probably of Chinese origin are some of the smoothest I've tried. And the Gibralter III bridge and fine tuning tailpiece are well made. The input jack has some contact problems - the sound drops out and you have to wiggle it get it back. The neck profile is very pleasing. 1 11/16" nut. 20mm @ 1st fret, 22mm @ 9th fret, 12" fretboard radius. This makes for a fairly wide and deep neck, but never does it feel cumbersome or club-like, it fills the hand very nicely, similar to an '80s Artist. As for the tone, it elicits familiar sounds firmly in Artist territory. A clearer, brighter take on the classic LP tone. The pickups are not bad at all for the price, but there is lots of room for improvement here. The tone is a little choked, and lacks something IMO. In summary, it is a sweet guitar. It just needs a little help. I think I will undertake the fretwork myself. I'll round the fret ends and ease the fretboard edges. Clean up the residue in the cavities. Possibly replace the electronics. replace the input jack. Install some Suregrip IIs. I'll definitely be experimenting with pickups to find a good match, probably starting with V2/V1 combo, then maybe some SD/Dimarzio alternatives.   Funkle Username: Funkle Registered: 12-2001 Posted on Friday, May 26, 2006 - 12:14 pm:      Wildfield Username: Wildfield Registered: 05-2005 Posted on Friday, May 26, 2006 - 12:33 pm:    Hey Sven, Nice looking axe. Congratulations! The tuners on the AF105F I recently bought are excellent - silky smooth and light to the touch, yet they hold just fine. Huge improvement over the tuners that were coming on some of their other Artcores. I guess someone presumably in China has gotten tuner manufacturing down. Enjoy your new axe!

Add Your Message Here Post: -Color- Black Red Green Blue Yellow Purple Orange Cyan Gray White -Font- Arial Courier Symbol Times Verdana -Size- Smallest (-2) Small (-1) Normal Large (+1) Largest (+2) Enter Item number: Username: Posting Information: This is a private posting area. Only registered users and moderators may post messages here. Password: Options: Enable HTML code in message Automatically activate URLs in message Action: