Emperion mail?

[Edika]

I should be receiving mine some time next week since it left Italy today and I live in France (quite close). I estimate it arriving on Tuesday or Wednesday. I will inspect the guitar like crazy and see if everything else is in order. Some of what some of the posters are saying concerning the first run of guitars of new companies is true and having ordered a V I expected something like the old Norax's. Maybe most of us should have waited for them to iron out the kinks and buy a second or third run guitars but it seems that the European market was thirsty for a Rondo like company. Too good to be true? We'll see and most of all the people that didn't order will get a chance to see.

The bigger V body doesn't bother me as I have stated before since I have always thought that most of the V's body's seem kind of small. And even though someone mentioned that the bigger body would not add in sustain, due to a discussion he had with a luthier friend of his, I totally disagree since more wood gives a larger tone with more sustain. More mass more vibration more transfer of energy. And concerning the fret most V guitars I have seen join at the 19th fret with the body and are not considered unplayable. I can reach the upper frets just fine in my BC Rich NJ jrV deluxe and my fingers and hands are medium sized.

While it is good to have some answers from Emperion concerning some issues I agree with the posters that they should have not taken a big order of guitars if it was difficult to handle it. And four months late is not being impatient. Also concerning the V guitars they should have informed the clients before changing the design explaining the reasons of doing so and see if they agree with the changes or not. The cosmetic aspect is important for buying a guitar.

In conclusion I will take photos and try to review the guitar as best as I can.

 

[earworm]

I think next time they should do just like 50 guitars and have them pretty much built aleady at least the bodies and necks and post some good pics of the actual guitars. Then you can order the guitar with what pickups and small customizations you want to it maybe even a predermined paint scheme but with your selection of colors. Yeah over 300 was too much for a first run to me. Im glad michele cleared some things up though, im not sure if that particuliar red norax is supposed to be flamed. As far as things being straight i think its really hard to tell with different camera angles and all, there just quick photos.

 

[avenger]

Any updates on these?

 

[Psionicist]

I havent received mine yet. I am in the US, so I am not sure how long to expect it to take, but I have a UPS tracking number.
It spent the weekend roaming Italy, and arrived in Germany this morning.

 

[Edika]

I was supposed to receive mine today but the fucking DHL (as well as the rest of these idiotic companies) passed after 6 in the afternoon.

I saw in their site that they were supposed to deliver it today from a city almost 400 km away (for people that know France or are French I live in Montpellier and they were going to deliver it directly from Lyon ). I asked my wife to wait for them but at around 4 in the evening she had to leave. Usually they come some time in the morning and of course never after 5 (French people get of work after 5). So while my wife was out and I came at 8 after work I checked my mailbox and of course no paper. So I wondered what is the status of my package? I check their site and there is a "delivery attempted, recipient not home"

Of course if I call them and ask for at least a vague time of delivery they'll say they can't predict it, after pressure they'll give me a time and the guy will pass in a completely different time.

So I have to ask my wife not to go out of the house the whole day or I should not go to work to wait for them, which is of course impossible.

Rant over!

I hope I get it tomorrow so I can examine the guitar and decide what I'll do and of course inform you guys of what to expect

 

[Snytbaggen]

They sent me a mail yesterday where they said they were working on my guitar and would notify me when it's shipped, so I'm eagerly waiting for that

 

[sublevel]

They sent me a mail yesterday where they said they were working on my guitar and would notify me when it's shipped, so I'm eagerly waiting for that

The waiting is killing me arghhhh

 

[Edika]

Mine has arrived at my home and I'm stuck at work . Tonight though I'll try to upload some photos in a NGD/review thread and write my initial opinions on the guitar!

Edit: A not so encouraging thing is that my wife told me that the package is light :/

 

[jerome snail]

Well the package can seem light but it doesn't mean that the guitar is light.

I thought that the package of my BC Rich I have been delivered last week was very light, actually the guitar is pretty heavy

Hâte de voir tes impressions

 

[Rotatous]

Mine has arrived at my home and I'm stuck at work . Tonight though I'll try to upload some photos in a NGD/review thread and write my initial opinions on the guitar!

Edit: A not so encouraging thing is that my wife told me that the package is light :/

Did you order a V?

 

[avenger]

Mine has arrived at my home and I'm stuck at work . Tonight though I'll try to upload some photos in a NGD/review thread and write my initial opinions on the guitar!

Edit: A not so encouraging thing is that my wife told me that the package is light :/

Looking forward to seeing some pics/reveiw. Hope it goes well for you.

 

[Prydogga]

i really find it quite funny that people complain about the guitars being 4 months late and all the little (in my opinion) flaws that they have found in the PICTURES of the guitars.

If the cheap camera shot can pick up these pretty obvious flaws, the human eye could probably find some more, just because it's a photo, it doesn't change the fact that every guitar that has been shot looks very dodgy, camera shots may add 10 pounds, but they don't add lack of binding and wonky placed electronics.

 

[Edika]

Yes I ordered a V. I'll take some photos today and try to see the more obvious flaws and also play it to see what it sounds like. My only problem is that I'm not an expert in guitar setup so I'll just play it like that. I don't know if I'll have time a review by tomorrow but I'll write some comments. I'll do a detailed review in the weekend.

Hope it goes well for me as well as for the other people expecting these and I really hope that the weight of the packet was just an illusion.

 

[Psionicist]

I look forward to your review Edika. The weight posted on the UPS site for me was 5 kilograms,so about 11.3 pounds. That sounds about right. I remember when I got my Agile it was 13 pounds (5.8 kg).
Mine made it to Denmark today, and UPS estimates delivery here by Friday (I am skeptically amazed by that prediction).
I'm a guitar novice but will get some impressions and pics up as well when it arrives

 

[Edika]

Well I received the guitar and it is already packed for return and refund. I send a request to Michele and I am waiting for an answer. There are a lot of reasons but the main one is the pickups:

I ordered Bareknuckle Warpigs. They don't seem or sound like Warpigs. The sound is so weak I was actually surprised. I plugged my Carvin DC747 with stock Carvin pickups and it raped, killed then raped again, buried it for 3 months than dug it out and raped this guitar. More pics to follow.

 

[Edika]

I want to post more images but I would like to get a pick up confirmation and the refund. I am not sure if they will be very happy with the photos I am planning to post and would like to get my money back.

Am I over reacting? Maybe I can send a link to my photobucket folder for people that have ordered an Emperion. What do you guys think?

 

[MJS]

I want to post more images but I would like to get a pick up confirmation and the refund. I am not sure if they will be very happy with the photos I am planning to post and would like to get my money back.

Am I too over reacting? Maybe I can send a link to my photobucket folder for people that have ordered an Emperion. What do you guys think?

They'd bury themselves if they denied you a refund for posting pictures of what they sold you.

I really don't think you have anything to worry about... and if you did, they'd already deny you for posting that you'd post them after getting a refund.

Post away!

 

[Edika]

Hahahaha ok! First I'd like to the most experienced players to verify that are not Bareknuckle pups. I am sure they are not but I would like a confirmation. So on to the pics.

More pics as promised:

Crooked case

The "Warpigs" were supposed to be coil splitted via push/pull. No luck !

Chip under the nut "repaired" with white paint

Fret colour is bronze? The fret wire seems old and battered

More to come after dinner!

 

[cyril v]

The pick-ups, they look like my Warpig BKP's from the top (but then again, thats a pretty generic look), but the back of mine say "BareKnuckle Pickups : Handwound in the UK", the bottom plate does look to be the same design, but again, thats a rather generic look. I guess there is the possibility that since BKP was making a ton of these for this company that maybe they didn't tag the bottoms of these? I dunno, I would contact BKP and ask about that part.

As for sounding bad? There are some people that say they sound bad, and they usually end up having the wiring wrong. Pretty common mistake to wire them wrong for some reason. They should sound absolutely killer if wired up properly.

edit: I'll get some comparison shots for ya in a few minutes.

Bronze frets? They just need to be cleaned, steel wooled or polished... mine get like that sometimes when I'm not even playing them.

 

[Edika]

Back again. Just to mention that there was supposed to be a graphite nut. This looks like a plastic nut to me.
Anyway let's continue.

I don't know if you can see the small defect in the fretboard in the previous photo and this one between the pickup and the 24 fret. It actually extends as a line until the 22nd fret. Probably a small crack repaired

Maybe here it's more obvious

Badly routed pickup cavities

Pictures of the bridge. It is supposed to be a Gotoh bridge with roller balls. Doesn't seem like it. Also if you see the intonation screw in D it seems to be stripped a bit. The colour of the metal upon inspection is copper.

Badly painted corners with small chips

Are these straplocks?

Badly recessed pickup cavity

Messy routing with a lot of excess colour?

These don't seem like Gotoh tuners, but maybe I am wrong. On my Squier MIJ they write Gotoh though. These remind me the tuners on a Ravenwest guitar I owned.

No more photos available. The guitar is already repacked and I am waiting for an answer by Michele that he has initiated the return procedure. There where several places where the paint was not applied as it should and I could see the wood, especially in the cavities. The pickup cavities where roughly routed.

The guitar itself was quite resonant. I tapped it in several places and I could feel the vibrations in the body. That was the same by just playing the strings. It is neck heavy though. I tried with a regular strap and almost immediately it dived. The guitar itself had a decent weight for a V guitar. The neck felt fatter than my BC Rich NJ JrV deluxe. I stand corrected and the access to the higher frets was pretty difficult. But it didn't feel bad in my hands. Th fretboard seemed decent if you don't take into account the defect but the frets slowed me down. I have seen better fret jobs in cheaper guitars. By inspecting the wood in the routed cavities it seemed a bit porous in texture and I don't know if this a trait of Alder, which this guitar is advertised to be. The pickups that this guitar came with are awful. I had to put the distortion in my triple rec in the modern channel more than 15:00 to get a weaker distortion than the 13:00 I use with the Carvin stock pups. Also I had to EQ the amp to cut the Bass a lot and increase Treble, Mids and Presence to sound decent. Not to mention the intensity difference. These are not high output pups for sure.