I just bought second hand one of THEBEERHAMMER's rejected EGC's, and I'm absolutely, positively in love with it.
I figured I'd give my best write up of it, and compare it to the really old Obstructures that I had (that in no way is a comparison of their current model)
My apologies for the pictures being not that great, I just need to actually find the memory card for my camera so I can take some better pictures.
It's an EGC Standard, with the addition of a pickguard, the subtraction of a neck pickup, no selector switch, no tone control. Just as I would have preferred to have it had I ordered my own. As many of you know, I kind of have a thing with guitars with only one pickup haha
I've learned that there are 2-3 of these- the original 2 dot inlay, this 3 dot inlay, and then the final version without inlays.
I present to you EGC 956.
This guitar is pretty interesting. It's got the thicker neck option, which I was surprised with when I opened up the case, but actually really glad that it has. The neck is super comfortable. In terms of a comparison to an existing neck thickness, from my experience the neck I could most easily compare it to would be a MIM Strat neck, except just a hair bit thicker. It's definitely not anywhere near the shredder neck that is the thinner option. This thickness doesn't necessarily make you slow down, but it definitely is a good grip in your hand without having to really rely on your thumb as much (at least in my case) bringing the rest of your hand down for such a thin neck.
The raw/uncoated aluminum is smooth with no tooth, and feels great. The radius is pretty wide, but not completely flat. I would guess a 12", or 9.5", maybe. The neck is already starting to wear (which I read was the intent of leaving it raw). I believe I'm the third owner of it now, and either the first or second owner of the guitar are married, because the right side of the neck where the ring finger would be has marks on it from a wedding band. I think it's pretty awesome that it'll show wear over time. The action is consistently pretty low across the entire neck, which makes playing pretty effortless. The coolest thing that I've noticed is that it shipped to me with fairly thin strings on it (my guess is 10's), but I was able to pull off dropping down the guitar to C last night with fairly minimal buzz and flop.
As far as the headstock goes, if any of you aren't familiar, it's most notably been used on the IsotonaG signature model:
I was quite surprised how thick the top portion of the headstock was compared to how it appears to be in pictures, it seems to be about 1/3 thicker than the standard EGC neck, but surprisingly there is hardly any neck dive at all on the guitar. Having a 6 in line headstock is definitely an easier transition for me than the 3/3 traditional headstock and I'm coming to love how different it is.
The overall weight of the guitar isn't nearly as noticeable as the old Obstructures that I had. I recorded with it over at Grrface's house last night and my back didn't hurt at all after using it for over an hour or two. I'd put it somewhere in the 9-10 pound range, but the weight is well distributed and again if there is any neck dive with the model, it's very slight and there really isn't an effort to hold the neck up or anything.
As far as the overall construction goes, it's spot on. The frets are nicely dressed, the neck and headstock have a more industrial look to them, you can definitely see where a machine was used to make the cuts, which I enjoy. The body is smooth, and the textured back piece is a nice contrast to the stark white top piece. My first time playing a guitar with an aluminum nut, and I enjoy it. Even the knob itself is well designed, has a nice tooth to it for easy volume adjustment. I noticed with this guitar that I don't find myself tuning it as much as it warms up, I had feared that tuning stability might be an issue from other EGC owners, but I took the guitar right out of it's case last night, jammed with it for a few minutes, tuned it, and it was good the rest of the night until I REALLY dug into it playing in Drop C with .10's, which I completely understand.
Acoustically the guitar is LOUD, as loud as the Obstructures that I had, if not louder, and you can really hear and feel it ring out without actually plugging it into an amp. I feel like the chambered body also aides in the acoustic property of just how freaking loud the thing is without an amp.
Plugging it into an amp, the humbucker is bold and clear- probably one of the most articulate humbuckers that I've played, and well balanced. To contrast the humbucker, when I had my Obstructures I sent it to Kevin who dropped in EGC single coils. Compared to the single coils, the humbucker has more mids presence and doesn't have the hair of scoop that the single coils did to my ear. The pickup itself is pretty hot, I find myself rolling off the volume sometimes just a hair unless I want to slam fuzz with it. When I first plugged it into the Verellen Spaldo, it made the amp overdrive a bit, which was pretty cool. I noticed that the single coils had about the same amount of output, just a crazy loudness to them. The taper of the volume pot is pretty quick being linear, but I can still do volume swells with ease and it works with just rolling back the volume a bit too, so I'm content.
The pickup handles any sort of fuzz or distortion that I throw at it. It cuts through well, is loud, bold, and just demands attention. Clean tones again are crisp and clear, and the pickup lets you really hear the harmonics of the aluminum, I think that's my favorite part about them- they aren't a distraction or a coloring of what the guitar is all about. The tone itself is just a hair bit on the brighter side of things, on a scale from 0 being dark and 10 bring ice pick, the base tone is about a 7- but I think that's what makes it cut through so well, and it's nowhere near an icepick.
The sustain is great and the harmonics are rich and present everywhere. It's an easy to play guitar. There is no struggle with it. It just flows.
Of course I can't leave anything alone, and I wanted to look inside of it, so I unscrewed the back piece from to top piece and took a look inside:
Anyways, I think that's about it. If anyone is interested, here is what the EGC sounded like through a Way Huge Fat Sandwich, into a Verellen 50w amp and B Custom 2x12, recorded in a basement and minimally edited. As Grrface and I were reviewing what we had previously recorded for the track below, we scrapped everything and started over- I just let it rip and improvised with the EGC.
Anyways, I think that's about it. If you're considering purchasing an EGC, I hope this review helps! If not, I'm sorry!
