narad
Progressive metal and politics
Sooo... haven't had a NGD in a while, and actually bought this guitar maybe a year ago, only managing to have it shipped over to the UK this week.
It's a Mayones Regius Koa limited. There were 2 others made -- Jonathan has one of them but is too lazy to NGD it -- and they have the best koa tops I've ever seen on a Mayones, almost all 3 looking exactly the same. Rest of the specs are the obvious: 25.5" scale, ebony board, limba body, hannes bridge, schaller tuners. Not sure what the runners are but most of the neck is maple.
If you know me you know I really dislike gushy guitar reviews. My take on this is that I'd played 2 other Mayones guitars before that were lower spec, with SD pickups, in a Japanese guitar store and thought they seemed well made but a bit sterile and lifeless sounding. The overall vibe was that it felt a bit plasticy or a bit toyish, quite possible because they're very smooth and there's plastic binding on most of the edges you actually wind up touching. Actually, this is still my impression.
But on the other hand, the craftsmanship is top notch, better than many other of the SSO favs that are well regarded. There's only a couple guitars I own that I consider flawless, and I still need to examine a bit closer, but I'm very impressed with Mayones build quality. Every join is super clean, the binding is perfect, the side dots are right on. There's just a lot of additional laminates here between the abalone purfling, 2 multi-ply strips there, mutiply laminate below the neck binding, etc. They're all perfect. Where the gloss body meets the satin neck, a very clean line. Well done, Mayones.
And to the sound, there's two variables: Mayones, and the black water neodynium moderns that are in there. BW was great to work with by the way, and whipped up this nice set with ebony covers and gold poles for a very competitive price. I'm just personally a bit surprised at the sound: it's so polite and smooth! In my head I thought I was getting something super aggressive, maybe in the range of the nazgul or lundgren m7. These are very weird - they have a lower mid darkness with just a hint of aggressiveness, but the upper mids/highs are backed off and super smooth. Full on in the high register, you're still miles away from ice pickiness. Closest pickup in overall sound? I think of it as a less harsh BKP aftermath, about the same in the low-mids, and greatly tamed on the highs.
Not that I even have to, but switching to the neck for leads yields an incredibly vocal, legato-friendly sound. I don't have much hands-on with the JPs, but the liquifire is the first thing that comes to mind.
Neck or bridge, exceptionally clear. Can also clean up easily to do more classic rock sounds, but it imparts more of a hi-fi sound that makes it more like a studio recording than a classic rock cover.
So not at all what I was expecting, and I've had about a year to be picturing the sound in my head. A welcome addition, and very different from your sound, but a bit of a surprise. Now I still need to find that really crushing heavy sound I was after in the first place! Still play with my amp settings a bit, maybe I can dial some of the meanness in.
Anyway, here's some pics. I botched the exposure on all but one and my red shift software was already active by the time I pulled them into lightroom to fix it, so I hope I didn't mess them up. I see now a couple are a bit blurrier than they seemed in the preview :-/
Summary:
-- Mayones: excellent craftsmanship, great wood selection, a bit sterile
-- BW neodynium moderns: exceptionally clear pickups, but not as mean sounding as you might expect
It's a Mayones Regius Koa limited. There were 2 others made -- Jonathan has one of them but is too lazy to NGD it -- and they have the best koa tops I've ever seen on a Mayones, almost all 3 looking exactly the same. Rest of the specs are the obvious: 25.5" scale, ebony board, limba body, hannes bridge, schaller tuners. Not sure what the runners are but most of the neck is maple.
If you know me you know I really dislike gushy guitar reviews. My take on this is that I'd played 2 other Mayones guitars before that were lower spec, with SD pickups, in a Japanese guitar store and thought they seemed well made but a bit sterile and lifeless sounding. The overall vibe was that it felt a bit plasticy or a bit toyish, quite possible because they're very smooth and there's plastic binding on most of the edges you actually wind up touching. Actually, this is still my impression.
But on the other hand, the craftsmanship is top notch, better than many other of the SSO favs that are well regarded. There's only a couple guitars I own that I consider flawless, and I still need to examine a bit closer, but I'm very impressed with Mayones build quality. Every join is super clean, the binding is perfect, the side dots are right on. There's just a lot of additional laminates here between the abalone purfling, 2 multi-ply strips there, mutiply laminate below the neck binding, etc. They're all perfect. Where the gloss body meets the satin neck, a very clean line. Well done, Mayones.
And to the sound, there's two variables: Mayones, and the black water neodynium moderns that are in there. BW was great to work with by the way, and whipped up this nice set with ebony covers and gold poles for a very competitive price. I'm just personally a bit surprised at the sound: it's so polite and smooth! In my head I thought I was getting something super aggressive, maybe in the range of the nazgul or lundgren m7. These are very weird - they have a lower mid darkness with just a hint of aggressiveness, but the upper mids/highs are backed off and super smooth. Full on in the high register, you're still miles away from ice pickiness. Closest pickup in overall sound? I think of it as a less harsh BKP aftermath, about the same in the low-mids, and greatly tamed on the highs.
Not that I even have to, but switching to the neck for leads yields an incredibly vocal, legato-friendly sound. I don't have much hands-on with the JPs, but the liquifire is the first thing that comes to mind.
Neck or bridge, exceptionally clear. Can also clean up easily to do more classic rock sounds, but it imparts more of a hi-fi sound that makes it more like a studio recording than a classic rock cover.
So not at all what I was expecting, and I've had about a year to be picturing the sound in my head. A welcome addition, and very different from your sound, but a bit of a surprise. Now I still need to find that really crushing heavy sound I was after in the first place! Still play with my amp settings a bit, maybe I can dial some of the meanness in.
Anyway, here's some pics. I botched the exposure on all but one and my red shift software was already active by the time I pulled them into lightroom to fix it, so I hope I didn't mess them up. I see now a couple are a bit blurrier than they seemed in the preview :-/
Summary:
-- Mayones: excellent craftsmanship, great wood selection, a bit sterile
-- BW neodynium moderns: exceptionally clear pickups, but not as mean sounding as you might expect
