The SMASH series of guitars (by Swing) never fail to impress me in terms of tone & playability. I was at Standard Value recently to purchase some accessories & I couldn't help but give the S1 another test-drive. The instrument in whole is an impressive player, through a deserving amplifier, it sounds incredible. The maple fretboard version has a more defined top end bite which a typical Strat player would love. I own the ash-bodied, rosewood fretboard version which sounds very impressive under lots of drive & I could hear the difference between these models. However, it's rather self-defeating advocating this to the masses because the general mindset is that, if the name on the headstock doesn't mean a thing, it's rubbish.This is especially true for the impressionable youngsters out there who are starting out. I'm not blaming them for treading the Gibson/Fender path because these are indeed formidable names in the industry but there are other impressive alternatives which should be considered. The paradigm shift has not occurred... yet?
6 comments:
greetings, are v7 v8 pickups on ibanez rgs really that bad? ppl keep telling me get a fender or gibson, pickups sound better... shouldn't tone and stuff come from the fingers?
Hahahaha... tone is subjective...
I have an old RG with stock pick ups which scream~! doesn't take seymour duncans or fender stuff to make a guitar sound good...
Takes good fingers and good amp ^.^
Pedals, boutique pick ups and the like just add on to the tone value.
I personally don`t like the Smash guitars at all, but I got a J&Danny Brothers Les Paul and it kicks ass!! Soundwise it only differs from a real thing with amount of sustain, but I also own a RAT2 distortion so the sustain problems are not an issue anymore. And we have this veeeeery old and veeeery cheap lap-steel in our studio. It was sort of "let`s use the cheapest parts on this one and see if it`s gonna play at all". And it DOES play and does it well =) So through my own experience I found out that name is still not everything there is to a guitar.
the SMASH offerings are amazing with the right amp. chances are, when you visit a guitar store, someone would just hook it up to a small, practice amp for you, which isn't doing good for any guitar in general.
pickup/ guitar tones are subjective; it's all too personal. the instrument's performance is largely attributable to the amp it's plugged into.
Go and hook it up to the sound drive 612 or something at Standard Value, it'll definitely give you a different impression...
I was just there, and the pinnacle with the sound drive amp made the ibanez gio series there sound like a les paul... (ok, maybe not exactly, but made me totally sold on the pedal..)
subversion, what's your take on the Swing R2?
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