Does anyone have any experience with Xaviere guitars from GuitarFetish. I've heard GFS pickups were pretty good and was curious about their guitars. I would guess they would be similar to a Squire. They look really nice and the prices seem to be very cheap. I know you usually get what you pay for but their Strat and Tele models do look good, I have no idea how they play.

Yeah, it does not look like a $230 guitar, does it?

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

I have a Monaco Yellow Tele Thinline copy with their Dream 180 pups. The guitar is pretty nice. When it arrived all I had to do was adjust the neck, truss rod, and that made me have to make slight adjustments to the intonation. The neck is a little chunky but I like that. The pups are not my favorite sounding. But I have a couple sets of their pups in other guitars of mine. The Vintage 59 pups sound great in my Oscar Schmidt OE-30, Semi-Hollow 335 copy, and I have a Vintage 59 in the neck and a FAT PAF in the bridge of my Heritage 140 Custom. I also have a set of their Lil Killers in a chinese Strat copy. Those pups sound great. I like the Xaviere enough that I am considering buying another of their guitars. It is a solid guitar with good tuners and bridge components and the electronic parts are great. Soldering is clean and well done. If you go to my bands web site pictures you can see the Xaviere at this party, scroll down a little,
http://www.thissideup.us/morephotos.php ... me=Private Party&all=yes

Bottom line, I would recommend the guitars.

Nope. But I'll bet it sounds and plays like one.

Pianists know that below a certain price, you don't get a piano anymore... you get what they call a PSO, or "piano shaped object."

I think that the online fetishization of GAS as a desirable "disease" and as a natural outgrowth of becoming a guitar player creates a false but overwhelming desire to own a lot of guitars that leads far too many guitar owners to accept a GSO that looks good on their wall as an actual guitar, as long as it can be purchased below a given price.

But that's my $0.02.

check out www.rondomusic.com

and look at the agile al-2000 and agile al-3000

I respect Slapchop's opinion but I disagree. A guitar is not a guitar because it cost more than $1000. They cost less because they are made in China or Indonesia and labor is a fraction of the cost. I have several Chinese made guitars and own high end American made guitars. The quality of workmanship is comparable. In fact I would say that the soldering is better from my guitars made in Asia vs the American made. If I were you I would make a purchase and then form your own opinion. It has never been a problem returning anything to Guitarfetish.com or Rondo Music.

i know those agiles that I linked to are high quality made and paly great. just a little pickup upgrade and the are tenfold better than an Epiphone and comparable to a LP Studio. I had my doubts too and thought people we just saying it because it was $200, but it really is better than an Epi all the way around. I put 57 classic humbuckers in mine and would put it up against a LP Studio for sure.

I've been to their showroom and met Jay Abend, but their guitars seem to look better than they play and sound.

Jay is a DIY guy and I think that these are good 'project' guitars or good for trying modifications on.

I have seen and played worse though.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

I think I'm about finished with expensive guitars. The Vintage(brand) and Esp LTD i just got into playable condition proved to me that i can get pretty much anything playing better. I can see how its different with piano's. You cant just get the files and sandpaper out and get to work on one of them.

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No no and no

only thing about the Rondo's are they have a 1/16" maple cap.

Yes they say solid maple cap, they just don't tell you that it's only 1/16"

http://www.rondomusic.com/alspec.html

The Gibby's are what closer to 1".. Does anyone know how thick the maple cap is on a Epip?

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This is my guitar, there are many like it but this one is mine.

Eracer_team

Can you provide a link to where you found the 1" thick maple cap on les pauls, please.

I find it difficult to imagine. That amount of maple would bring the guitars to roughly 18 ilbs in my estimation. I always thought the cap was the depth of the binding. You never see binding on non capped guitars do you?

Could be very wrong, and I know that they recently started with chambered bodies. I still find 1" a bit hard to accept though, Maple is a very heavy wood.

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No no and no

I guess some people like to take cheap guitars and mod,mod and mod them. Not my thing. I'll just stick with quality made Fenders. Yes, I'm narrow minded when it comes to guitars!

Each to his own liking as I always say.

If the guitar is purchased to do a 14 month world tour, a full recording session for a double CD, and a Guitar player photo shoot, you may be dissapointed. But if the $250 guitar is purchased by somebody who just wants a guitar to play in his bedroom, or in his garage band, PERFECT.
Not every guitar has to be stage-worthy. I have my stage guitars, and I have my "cheap little cool guitars I bought just to have" guitars. Mick Jagger taught us 'You can't always get what you want, you get what you need". " Oh yeah Baaaby"

Yeah, but ... honestly ... I feel the same way about Epiphone. They look awesome. But they don't quite play exactly their Gibson counterparts. I am not saying that they suck ... just that they look a little better than they play.

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

Eracer_Team

It looks like we were both wrong mate. Its entirely probable that gibson use a 1" cap. The Xaviere guitars proporte to use a 3/4" cap.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/xvqutopseho.html

Sorry about that mate.

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No no and no