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sclitheroe
Copper Member
Canada
29 Posts |
 Posted - 04/10/2010 : 18:02:12
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quote:
Hi sclitheroe
Please tell me-us a bit more about your AV6, it's pretty much at the top
of the Greg Bennett range.
I belive they also have an AV7, but I'm not too sure what that gives you above the AV6?
Reason I ask, is I missed out on one of their lower end AV1's
this weekend, I was playing it & it felt pretty good,
So I went home & did a bit of research on the AVION range, but it was gone when I went back later in the afternoon.
It was all Black with white binding.
I may look for an AV6 in the future.
GB guitars originally didn't have much of a reputation here in OZ.
Regards & thanks Dr. Bob 
I’m not an expert on guitars at all - my previous guitar was a really cheap (plywood!) Samick, the kind that you buy for a couple hundred dollars when you are in school and dreaming of being a rock star. I was getting more serious about guitar as a hobby though in recent years, and knew I needed something that would stay in tune, that had halfway decent pickups, would intonate reliably, etc....
I actually bought the AV6 off of ebay about 3 years, it having been barely used, and after talking to the guy on the phone to establish some credibility and reliability in my head - I paid about half what it costs retail, and the person who sold it to me wasn’t lying when he said it was barely used - the guitar was flawless when I got it.
Stock hardware seems pretty good to me - the grover tuners are really nice and smooth, and the guitar holds tune fantastically. The stock "Duncan designed” humbuckers seem fine to me, as do the stock volume and tone pots. The tone pots have a really wide usable range, and feel nice and smooth. The pickup switch is sturdy enough, and has never given me any trouble or noise.
I string it with 11-49’s, and the guitar projects really nicely even unplugged. Tone wise, its quite dark and pretty bassy, in my opinion. I haven’t played a real Gibson LP, but I would imagine its got to be similar.
The one thing that does jump out at me with the AV6 is that having picked up and played around with Gibson Les Pauls in the shop that are selling for twice what you could get an AV6 for, is that the fit and finish, particularly the fret work and neck binding, is as good, or BETTER, than what I’ve seen on a number of the Gibsons. I really notice this where the frets meet the binding - if I were to get a Gibson, I’d almost certainly need to clean up the frets where they meet the binding to get it as smooth as the AV6.
I’m sure the Gibson’s have intangibles that I don’t know about, having never owned one, but in my very limited experience, I think the AV6 is a quality guitar in its own right, and I wouldn’t feel embarrassed to haul it out in front of a bunch of Gibson guys. Unless he’s just a marketing shill, and I don’t think he is, from watching a number of interviews, I think Greg Bennett put a lot of thought and work into this line of guitars, and I think its a product that stands on its own merits.
Oh, about the AV6 vs the AV7, as far as I can tell, the only difference is the finish - it appears to be the same hardware overall. I thought I might have read at one time that it had more plys in its binding too, but I don’t remember exactly.
I’ve never run into another Greg Bennett player, so I don’t know how other people like their GB’s - from what I’ve seen online, the people that have the higher end stuff like the AV6/AV7 are pretty happy. I am for sure - it’s plenty of guitar for me.
If you have any specific questions, let me know and I’ll try and answer them! |
Edited by - sclitheroe on 04/10/2010 18:17:21 |
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LET'S SEE YOUR GUITARS!
