Michael Kelly Patriot Standard QH Reviews 5

I live a few miles from Mailbox Music, so picking up a guitar from them is a piece of cake. I was looking for a decent Les Paul copy without the Les Paul cost and I found this one. It set me back $325.00 If you're interested, you can find this place at www.mailboxmusic.com.

Let's see... There's the Grover's, TonePros locking bridge and tailpiece, the 2 wax potted hum pups are phenomenal (for the price especially), the perfectly set neck with a stuuningly easy heel and gret cutaways and the sweet medium to dark wine red finish over perfectly bookmatched AAA quilted maple which was laminated to an arched mahogany body. All of the hardware is gold finished, so it really compliments that red (they call it lavaburst). The sustain lasts forever with no feedback whatsoever... unless I want it to feedback... quick... face the amp and walk towards it! =^) Trust me on this... its so beautiful... its a work of art. Simply beats anything Gibson has got... for looks... and is fairly close to that true LP sound.

The pickups, when playing clean are slightly muddy, but not so bad that you can't dial it out. You can't say that about a Gibby... you really have to push it to get a clean tone out of almost any true LP. That's all I can complain about... and it isn't anything at all to clean it up.

Simply put, this guitar was built to last. Pure unadulterated superiority over most any medium sized manufacturer out there and a real close second to the big boys. The degree to which this guitar can be compared to any other manufacturer out there would only be the pinnacle of excellence.

This has to be one of the sweetest guitars I've ever owned and I've been playing guitar for 31 years. I've had my fill of over priced and over hyped guitars. Now I want the best at a damned good price and I've found 3 of them... so far. I'm going to have to get their ES335 copy before everyone realizes what a deal these are and the prices go up. If your considering buying a Mail Order guitar and have worried about it... stop now. I've bought 3 different guitars from this shop and they're just a fantastic buy... from the salespeople to the guitars... you can't beat them.

Bill C. rated this unit 5 on 2003-06-09.

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