Reviews

Product Reviews, Left Handed Guitar Related Or Not!

Guitar Review : Music Man John Petrucci BFR Dargie Delight 2

This one is long overdue, but finally I am going to review my (take a deep breath!) MusicMan John Petrucci 6 BFR Dargie Delight 2 left handed guitar.  That’s a whole lot of name right?  Well luckily it’s also a whole lot of guitar!

The name can be shortened to MM JP6 BFR DD2, but i’m guessing that probably won’t help you a whole lot will it?

You may be wondering what the words in the guitar’s name denote, well let me explain.  BFR stands for ‘Ball Family Reserve’ and basically means that it is the cream of the crop if you like.  The JP 6-string model comes in two flavors – the super-douper standard models, and the uber-super-douper BFR models.

The Dargie Delight BFRs are just a very limited edition run of BFRs named after the owner of Ernie Ball’s son.  My particular model was produced in 2009 and there was only a short one month order window to buy one.  As a result they are very rare, with the lefty model being exceptionally rare.  I haven’t seen another around so please let me know if you have one!

Music Man John Petrucci BFR Dargie Delight 2 Lefty Guitar

For those of you who are unaware of who John Petrucci is – get out of my site…now! Come back when you’ve listened to Dream Theater’s entire discography.  If you really want back in my good books you should probably listen to his solo work as well.

Review – Vintage V100 Icon Lemon Drop

Time to review the latest guitar to grace the LeftyFretz guitar rack – the Vintage V100 Icon Lemon Drop.  I’ve had this guitar for exactly one month now so I have had plenty of time to get suitably acquainted with it.

For those who have never heard of them, Vintage is a UK brand which is rapidly gaining respect within the guitar playing community. Vintage worked with acknowledged guitar industry guru Trevor Wilkinson to produce their current range and this really comes across in the quality of the instruments.

The guitar was purchased from Reidy’s online store for the bargain price of £265 ($400ish) including next day shipping so it’s really verging into beginner guitar money.  You’ll also be glad to learn that Vintage does not charge extra for their left handed guitars.

I’ll give you a quick sum up of the main features, but head over to the Vintage website for the complete low-down.

  • Mahogany Body
  • Flame Maple Top
  • Mahogany Set Neck
  • Rosewood Fretboard
  • 24.75” Scale Length
  • 22 Frets
  • Wilkinson Hardware/Pickups

The reverse-fitted neck humbucker and out of phase centre position wiring creates one of the most recognisable guitar sounds of the genre – real “Black Magic”.  The guitar is also extensively reliced to give it that authentic ‘used’ look which so many players are lusting after these days.

Review – Ibanez ORM1L Omar Rodriguez Signature Guitar

This week we have a review of the rather unique Ibanez ORM1 Omar Rodriguez Lopez signature left handed guitar.  Usually I wouldn’t even consider a guitar with retro styled looks such as this one but then I noticed that it was a shorter 24” scale length and my curiosity got the better of me.

Okay, so it’s more a recount of my past month with the ORM1 than a proper review, but hopefully you can still take something from it.  Information on this guitar is rather thin on the ground so hopefully I can help point potential buyers in the right direction.

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT? NOT ENTIRELY…

I sauntered into my local guitar store exactly 4 weeks ago to the day intent on giving this interesting little guitar a thorough investigation. ‘Little’ is the keyword  here folks as this thing is tiny, I thought someone had mistakenly hung up a GuitarHero controller when I spotted it hiding in the corner. I was almost a little too embarrassed to request to give it a spin.

The sales rep grabbed it down for me and set me up in the store’s soundproof booth so we could have our intimate one-on-one session.  First off, let me tell you i’m glad the room was soundproof because this thing sounded HORRIBLE. To be fair there were a lot of factors affecting the sonic diarrhea taking place in that booth.  I was incredibly sweaty due to it being a beast of a day, I had no idea how to fine tune the amp, the action was ridiculously high and the ORM1 pickup was just weak sounding and incredibly shrill at the same time.