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the_carl wrote:In general, yeah, they'll all need some setup work, and there's the occasional report of bad fretwork. Hit or miss like Rondo. For a po' man's guitar, though, they're not bad, probably no worse than most Squiers or Epiphone. Elwood got one of the Jazzmaster clones and liked it: viewtopic.php?f=149&t=14934&start=324

Agree with this completely. I have a jazz copy, and it definitely needed a proper setup. As far as feeling cheap, well, you get what you pay for. They make for great gigging guitars though. The pickups in mine actually sounded pretty good...kind of like a strat meshed with a jazzie. To be honest, I like mine. I mean, for recording and jamming I will almost always turn to one of my Fender Jazzmasters, but, shit, for the price I never think twice at taking one of these guitars to some shady club. These things sound surprisingly good, and you won't feel bad for adding a few unnecessary (or necessary) battle scars. I say go for it.

kosta wrote:So I take it these are not so good? I've never played one.

They're about like newer Squiers, if my tele is the "norm'

The neck is fine. It's subjective, but the neck is a bit wider and flatter than a normal tele. I've heard them referred to as a "shredder" neck, but I wouldn't go that far... it doesn't feel like an Ibanez.

The hardware is... made of metal. I never got the idea of cheap hardware when it's a block of metal, some screws,and some springs. I get that some of it cold have poor finishing, burs in the bridge saddles, etc.

The wood... seems hard. [pause for snickering] I don't frankly know if it's what they said it is, but the guitar is acoustically very resonant (it's a semi hollow).

The frets are fine. Like any cheap guitar they're not perfect, but there aren't any ends sticking out. There are a couple of spots where it seems like a fret may be a little high or low. If you like your action really low, you'd probably notice. Id imagine a simple fret leveling would fix that, but it doesn't bother me enough to care.

It stays in tune fine, but not with the stock strings. The nut is graphite and seems to have been cut pretty well. Doesn't seem high or low...

The setup out of the box was pretty bad. I think that's why a lot of people hate cheaper guitars. It's natural to just want to adjust the trus rod, but you really need to do a real setup. I shimmed the neck a little (just take the neck loose and stick some card stock on one end)-- it wasn't necessary, but the screws on the saddles were sticking up a bit much. Once you get the setup sorted, it plays as well as basically anything else (as would any guitar).

The finish is almost perfect, save for some roughness in the F-hole. The neck on mine is a satin oil sorta finish, and it glosses up nicely after you play for a while. You can tell it's not a high end finish, but it's done really well.

The wiring is really terrible. The parts use are fine, but the wiring itself is bad. And the guitar hums pretty bad, despite having humbuckers. I've been meaning to do something about that. Also, they used a linear taper pot for volume, and audio for tone-- which is backwards. And I think they may have wired the tone control like Gibson tends to, so the volume control is realllly muddy if you turn it down at all.

But this is coming from someone who tends to prefer cheaper guitars, soooo.

im definitely tempted to get one of the tele copies. at around 150 it seems too good to pass up

kosta wrote:One of you dudes HAS to get this one:

The ILF zeitgeist could not design a more ILF guitar if it tried.

I've got one of these Xaviere's for a project guitar - a Strato-Telemaster-Jazzy. I put a maple Squier Strat neck on it, but the pickups I've left stock so far. I'll end up upgrading them sometime, but the GFS Fatbody overwound Tele bridge will get used again, 100% sure! The neck pickup is OK. Too muddy alone, but sounds good in the middle w/ the Fatbody. I'll prob take the pickguard off and put a P-90 or Jazzy pickup in the neck.



All the things said are pretty much true. They NEED a setup, and sometimes pretty extensive - otherwise don't bother. The necks look a lot better than they feel. They should have went the other way - less on looks, more on feel and tuners. My 'cheaper' Squier neck feels like a pretty good step up, and the stock Squier tuners are much better quality.

As finished guitar bodies with passable hardware and better pickups than a Squier (including 90% of the Duncan Designed pickups in the better Squier's) they are quality project guitars. The crapshoot element is there tho. I'd much rather buy a used Tele or SG off craigslist after trying it than hoping a B-Stock Xaviere isn't going to take as much work as my JT90.

Sweet looking though, even if it was a pain in the ass. Nice one there man.

Zounds Perspex wrote:damn, I wish Gibson made SGs in this color.

Oh, they will, for an extra 2K on a custom shop order.

Hmmmmm. They certainly are interesting to look at, and I could use a cheap guitar I wouldn't be worried about getting stolen, but I have no clue what they sound like.

Damn. If I wasn't making payments on a synth and sending applications to graduate school I'd totally get one of the jazzy copys as a backup for my blacktop.

My xaviere xv910 is great. All around. It's the seafoam looking semi hollow I'm sure some of you have seen. I got it used from a guitar/amp tech, however, so the hard stuff was already prob done to it. My only complaint is occasional buzzing...but that's from the trapeze.

kosta wrote:Sweet looking though, even if it was a pain in the ass. Nice one there man.

Thanks! Not really a PITA, but if you don't like taking necks off, trying a shim, adjusting, etc., you'll be better served with a Squier. The caramel finish on the ash body looks more striking than in the picture, will look great without the pickguard. Have a Fender Nashville bridge for it. I'm about ready to start a thread on neck p-90's or jazzy pickups of choice so I can finish it in one go thru...

Muse FTW wrote:Hmmmmm. They certainly are interesting to look at, and I could use a cheap guitar I wouldn't be worried about getting stolen, but I have no clue what they sound like.

If you don't mind doing setup or paying for a good setup, you won't be bummed about how they sound. The pickups are good enough to just upgrade pots + caps unless you really want your 'cheap' guitar to have Duncans or better.

kosta wrote:One of you dudes HAS to get this one:

The ILF zeitgeist could not design a more ILF guitar if it tried.

false.

block inlays and jag trem.

Gearmond wrote:false. block inlays and jag trem.

Very true!

Block inlays are meh.

What it needs is a Bigsby.

it's a 200 guitar, of coarse it's going to need to be set up and of coarse it's going to have corners cut to get it to that price point.
my biggest problem was changing the neck to a stock fender. the neck pocket was too wide for the change. nothing near a tight fit, which i cannot deal with and didn't want to do the shimming on the side of the neck pocket. fortunately the stock neck is comfortable for me so i just kept it on there instead.
i do not like their pickups very much but i change pickups in everything anyway, so that doesn't bother me. if i were using this on gigs, i'd think a hardware change would be in order but it's not a pressing issue for me at present.
all in all:
it stays in tunes very well, the frets were fine (no sharp edges or overhangs), has that rattle-y jazzmaster/jag sound like it's suppose to approximate, looks good, was cheap.
i am very happy with mine.