S
Poor quality control
Though I live in the States and knew I’d incur a hefty shipping fee, I purchased the MS-60 about nine months ago. It arrived well-packaged but otherwise in utterly unplayable condition.
I endeavored to perform a set-up but the nut, which Thomann says is graphite, is made of some sort of crumbly material that cannot be cleanly filed to remove burrs that impinge the strings. Worse, the Tune-o-Matic saddles could not be adjusted enough to set the intonation. The set screws on the front of the bridge could not be secured tightly enough to stop them from rattling with every strum.
A lengthy email correspondence with Thomann ensued. Clearly, they did not want to authorize a return of the product. The company finally agreed to allow me to ask a local tech for assistance. The tech had to refill and recut the nut and replace screws on the bridge so that the guitar could be intonated. But the vibration of screws on the front of the bridge — the sound of which came through the pickups — could not be eliminated.
Thomann’s guitar department advised me to secure the screws with orthodontic rubber bands. Rubber bands! I attempted to do so, but the bands kept breaking.
They finally agreed to send me a replacement bridge, which I installed. After installing the new bridge, I noticed a significant rattle coming from beneath the tremolo. I removed the system and found that the entire thing simply does not fit properly in the guitar — hence, the rattle.
After doing all this work on the guitar, it remains essentially unusable.
As for positives, I can say that the guitar looks cool, fits nicely on the lap and has no neck dive with a strap, and its neck and fretboard feel nice now that I have filed and polished the frets and moisturized the board. The Roswell neck pickup sounds all right, but the bridge pickup is weak and shrill.
Bottom line: the QC on this guitar was abysmal. The bridge and tremolo both appear to have design defects, though maybe other iterations of these parts are up to snuff. I expected to have to do set-up work on this budget guitar, but I did not expect that a proper set-up would be impossible with the parts as delivered.
I endeavored to perform a set-up but the nut, which Thomann says is graphite, is made of some sort of crumbly material that cannot be cleanly filed to remove burrs that impinge the strings. Worse, the Tune-o-Matic saddles could not be adjusted enough to set the intonation. The set screws on the front of the bridge could not be secured tightly enough to stop them from rattling with every strum.
A lengthy email correspondence with Thomann ensued. Clearly, they did not want to authorize a return of the product. The company finally agreed to allow me to ask a local tech for assistance. The tech had to refill and recut the nut and replace screws on the bridge so that the guitar could be intonated. But the vibration of screws on the front of the bridge — the sound of which came through the pickups — could not be eliminated.
Thomann’s guitar department advised me to secure the screws with orthodontic rubber bands. Rubber bands! I attempted to do so, but the bands kept breaking.
They finally agreed to send me a replacement bridge, which I installed. After installing the new bridge, I noticed a significant rattle coming from beneath the tremolo. I removed the system and found that the entire thing simply does not fit properly in the guitar — hence, the rattle.
After doing all this work on the guitar, it remains essentially unusable.
As for positives, I can say that the guitar looks cool, fits nicely on the lap and has no neck dive with a strap, and its neck and fretboard feel nice now that I have filed and polished the frets and moisturized the board. The Roswell neck pickup sounds all right, but the bridge pickup is weak and shrill.
Bottom line: the QC on this guitar was abysmal. The bridge and tremolo both appear to have design defects, though maybe other iterations of these parts are up to snuff. I expected to have to do set-up work on this budget guitar, but I did not expect that a proper set-up would be impossible with the parts as delivered.
0
0
Report
T
Value for money ! No surprises unfortunately.
I should have sent it back, I suppose. Maybe mine is an oddity, but there are quite some things wrong with it.
- The bridge pin slots are damaged. Due to the lower pin being completely stuck in the bridge, somebody damaged the slots trying to adjust it. I took me quite some violence to separate the two. But the bridge needs replacing anyway. It's crap !
- Hardly any sound from the guitar, even after fixing the bridge which didn't go lower while being stuck. The pickups are simply to low in regards to the strings. And even raised to the max, they are still about 3-4 mm too low. The bridge PU sorted itself when I installed a Super Distortion S, which is taller than stock. To sort out the neck PU, I had to shim the neck to lower the rear of the neck.
- The tuners on mine are, even for cheap tuners, awful. The amount of play and jerk in them, is unworkable. So they will be replaced.
- .009-.042 on a short-scale ? Really ??
- On the upside... yep, there is one. The neck and the frets are very nice and playable.
- The bridge pin slots are damaged. Due to the lower pin being completely stuck in the bridge, somebody damaged the slots trying to adjust it. I took me quite some violence to separate the two. But the bridge needs replacing anyway. It's crap !
- Hardly any sound from the guitar, even after fixing the bridge which didn't go lower while being stuck. The pickups are simply to low in regards to the strings. And even raised to the max, they are still about 3-4 mm too low. The bridge PU sorted itself when I installed a Super Distortion S, which is taller than stock. To sort out the neck PU, I had to shim the neck to lower the rear of the neck.
- The tuners on mine are, even for cheap tuners, awful. The amount of play and jerk in them, is unworkable. So they will be replaced.
- .009-.042 on a short-scale ? Really ??
- On the upside... yep, there is one. The neck and the frets are very nice and playable.
0
0
Report
