Hi Rick!
I played Birdseye Pisces for a good 3 hours last night — and what can I say — you’ve knocked it out of the park.
I am pretty sensitive to the tactile feedback on my picking hand while I pick the strings, and this guitar is absolutely spot on where I like it – a good ‘bouncy’ sensation as I pick, notes ring out for days and have a nice ‘bloom’ to them, palm mutes also have that nice percussive sound and feel, and overall the strings feel rubbery/velvety when my plectrum makes contact with them as opposed to feeling metallic/harsh as with some other guitars I’ve had.
Some other key points —
The guitar is comfortable and light.
The figuring on the neck is insane! Pics don’t do it justice! Same thing goes with the paint job — the textured look is very inviting indeed.The new trem — where to start…from a pure aesthetic point of view, it’s pretty small and compact and not overbearing to look at like say Evertune. The surface finish of the components looks really good — love the black anodized look of the hardware. Trem arm is very light and minimal. I was not an industrial design major but have a few friends who were and I can appreciate that a lot of thought went into the design of each component. I am engineer by profession and love when I see a product where every design choice has a great ‘why’ for its existence (as we often say at my workplace…best part is no part). I am sure that over the months I will discover more nuggets of great design choices.
Now for the sound and playability — the trem is like butter. Zero effort needed, no tuning issues. It’s a perfect mechanical whammy! I also love how out of the way it is when I remove the trem — it basically feels like a fixed bridge, I can rest my palm on it without it moving on me unexpectedly which is awesome and unlike Floyd Rose bridges for example.
Moving on to the neck — very comfortable. The advantage profile is very discrete while playing — completely out of the way for the most part, yet is present when you really need it (while playing some lead lines or weird chords for example). I’ll likely adjust my playing style a bit to optimize more for the neck profile and really reap the ergonomic benefits. This will happen naturally as my body adjusts itself to this guitar after playing the other guitars I own.
The sound — incredible, punchy, quiet, and most importantly all pickup positions sound great. This is truly magnificent, because with my other guitars either the bridge or the neck sounds good with a certain amplifier setting, never both. Your description previously was spot on – single coil and thickened single coil tones, definitely not a humbucker, but so far it feels like the best of both worlds. I feel like over the next month or so I’ll have a better sense of the sound of this guitar as I play it through different amps.
I usually reserve judgment on any new guitar for at least a month as I believe there is an adjustment period for my body to get used to the changes, but i couldn’t resist given how immediately this guitar opened up to me. I am sure that in a month’s time I’ll have more nuanced findings and I’ll share those thoughts with you.
TLDR: I absolutely love this guitar, it truly feels like a purpose built machine, and I catch myself feeling like I want to grow old with it — I want it take on some natural wear patterns and be played a lot. I’d like to look back many years from now and view this guitar like how people relish a great original 60s strat today. Most importantly — I want to compose some nice music with this beast, and I’m looking forward to what it brings out of me over the next few weeks, months and years! (Tejasvin)
