OK... I was bored and thought I might have a look at the Invader which has sat in its case for longer than I care to admit so out it comes and .... to no-ones surprise but my own it is filthy. Frets are green with verdigris, fretboard is just nasty and the body doesn't so much gleam as absorb all incoming light because it's so covered in fingermarks and general crud.
In my defense, I'm sure the last time I played it was in the middle of summer, with all the sweating and stuff that the local climate induces....
Anyway, I tore into it with all manner of cleaning gear including copious amounts of elbow grease and it now looks lovely, if a lot pointy! A new set of strings - D'Addario EXL-115Ws; I've changed to these from my custom Ernie Ball set simply because I couldn't get the new EB set I wanted for less than a kings ransom here in Australia and a number of direct sale by internet companies told me that discount shipping from the US isn't allowed by EB, wankers! - and we're good to go!
(I've gotta have a wound 3rd!!)I then spent some time having a decent play with it and gee; what a monstrous noise it makes, no doubt due to the extremely heavy body - possibly mahogany?? - it'll sustain for ages and the MMK 45 at the neck loses absolutely nothing to the SD at the bridge; nothing at all!!
I found to my surprise that the pull pots on the two lower control knobs are individual coil splits; one for the neck and one for the bridge; no phase reverse as I'd previously assumed!
I managed to get very good similes of the Shadows stratty sound and the twangy, trebly Tele sound by judicious use of the tone controls and applications of gobs of reverb and echo, but it is in humbucking mode that this thing kills; engage them while in sensitive singer/songwriter mode, with a little chorus and other lovely, flowery sounds and it is a lovely sweet noise that'd make James Taylor search out a darkened room with a box of tissues but discard the sounds of summer and engage "kill everything" mode - overdrive or distortion, your pick - and boy, oh, boy; Here we go!! Just sublime screams, whoops, dips and dives and all quite manageable with very little tendency to devolve into feedback squealiness; who knew that it was capable of such things?! A bridge better suited to that style of playing than the standard strat-style would be highly advantageous, but you can't have everything!!
It is not at all awkward to play either on the strap or on your knee but does tend to fall away from your body a little on the strap; not unmanageable or even uncomfortable, just a fact of life if you're used to standard body guitars.
It's a very, very capable machine and I like it a lot... it made the Spectrum GT that I picked up next - no slouch itself! - seem a little staid and boring!!
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
