Thoughts on SBS Steve Brown Sound Guitars after a month

[mystix]

I purchased one of these a day or so after they were released because it looks cool and because Steve Brown is a beast! Here are some pros and cons:

Pros:
- Shipped within a few days of ordering
- Looks really cool… total shred machine
- Sounded great
- Plays fairly well

Cons:
- When it arrived, the neck had a weird wet feel to it. I had to use 0000 steel wool to get that weird layer off
- Volume knob wiggles even when set as tight as it can go
- And this is a big one… the 3rd song into the first gig I brought it to, the neck pickup died. The ground wire somehow became loose. Over 30 years of playing owning hundreds of guitars and that’s a first

This was purchased this guitar as a live guitar because I sometimes don’t want to bring my Suhr or custom Strat. I wasn’t expecting that level of quality, but I was expecting to have a working guitar that didn’t die during it’s first gig.

I am going to try to use it again live, but I’m definitely going to have to bring a backup(I planned on this being a backup to my main guitar). I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

I was planning to buy another one, but I will hold off for a while. Until this one proves to be a gig worthy guitar.

 

[CanserDYI]

Pic isn't working. I'd be pissed if my new guitar died like that during a set, frankly.

 

[mystix]

Pic isn't working. I'd be pissed if my new guitar died like that during a set, frankly.

Weird...

 

[CanserDYI]

That neck looks awesome against the purple!

 

[ArtDecade]

Love me some Trixter, but I remember him playing a holoflash Hamer.... and that is the guitar I would like to see them make available.

 

[Crungy]

Your SBS is frickin sweet! That is fucking nuts though, to have that happen at a gig. Hopefully a little attention to that ground wire takes care of it, along with the qol stuff you did already.

 

[TedEH]

When you say the ground wire came off.... as in the wire from the pickup to the switch or something just came right off? How would that even happen unless it's reaaaaally shoddy soldering.

I've had switches or pots die before but even with my hack-job wiring, I've never had a wire come loose while playing. I know wiring is "minor", but I'd be pretty annoyed.

 

[ArtDecade]

A dead neck pickup is a feature - not a flaw. No one needs that thing anyway.

 

[Yul Brynner]

It looks way better in your pictures than theirs.

 

[Decapitated]

Love me some Trixter, but I remember him playing a holoflash Hamer.... and that is the guitar I would like to see them make available.

 

[Decapitated]

Saw Trixter open up for KISS back in the day.

 

[eaeolian]

When you say the ground wire came off.... as in the wire from the pickup to the switch or something just came right off? How would that even happen unless it's reaaaaally shoddy soldering.

I've had switches or pots die before but even with my hack-job wiring, I've never had a wire come loose while playing. I know wiring is "minor", but I'd be pretty annoyed.

It's a $400 guitar. I expect something to be wired like shit.

 

[mystix]

When you say the ground wire came off.... as in the wire from the pickup to the switch or something just came right off? How would that even happen unless it's reaaaaally shoddy soldering.

I've had switches or pots die before but even with my hack-job wiring, I've never had a wire come loose while playing. I know wiring is "minor", but I'd be pretty annoyed.

the ground wire came off of the volume pot. i fixed it, but jesus

 

[TedEH]

It's a $400 guitar.

I'd expect that from a $40 guitar, not a $400 guitar. I've been saying for the last while that standards for "cheap" instruments felt like they were improving, but this would clearly be a step in the opposite direction.

 

[Yul Brynner]

I'd expect that from a $40 guitar, not a $400 guitar. I've been saying for the last while that standards for "cheap" instruments felt like they were improving, but this would clearly be a step in the opposite direction.

Where are you buying a $40 guitar brand new?

$400 is the new $40 you know. It's not the 90s anymore where you can score an 80s RR1 for $700 because tiger print guitars are out of fashion and thought never to be fashionable again.

 

[ArtDecade]

Where are you buying a $40 guitar brand new?

$400 is the new $40 you know. It's not the 90s anymore where you can score an 80s RR1 for $700 because tiger print guitars are out of fashion and thought never to be fashionable again.

... how dare you...!?
Tiger Print never, ever, EVER went out of fashion!

 

[Mathemagician]

View attachment 129414

That’s so fugly. I want it.

 

[TedEH]

Where are you buying a $40 guitar brand new?

It was a figure of speech. The obvious implication being that I don't believe that a guitar cheap enough to expect wires to not even be connected should exist.

I mean, yeah, sometimes you get a lemon, but a lemon is never "the expectation". I've played around with $100-$200 starter/learner guitars and never encountered bad-enough-to-disconnect-during-regular-use soldering on them.

Maybe the one exception I can think of is if the pots aren't tightened down properly and are spinning in place on the body - then you'd possibly have enough movement to break a connection, but that's both not what it sounds like here, and not a case of bad soldering.

 

[jl-austin]

Should have bought a used prestige! Haha

(I'm not even sure if you can get one for $400)

 

[eaeolian]

It was a figure of speech. The obvious implication being that I don't believe that a guitar cheap enough to expect wires to not even be connected should exist.

I mean, yeah, sometimes you get a lemon, but a lemon is never "the expectation". I've played around with $100-$200 starter/learner guitars and never encountered bad-enough-to-disconnect-during-regular-use soldering on them.

Maybe the one exception I can think of is if the pots aren't tightened down properly and are spinning in place on the body - then you'd possibly have enough movement to break a connection, but that's both not what it sounds like here, and not a case of bad soldering.

I know what you're saying, but QC is the place where everyone cuts corners to give the profits a little boost. Just because Sony could do it in the '80s doesn't mean you can skip that step to help your bottom line - unless you condition people to accept garbage, which seems to have happened in the software industry and is spreading beyond.