Phil Pro MSW202 Reviews 4

I snapped this guitar up at AXE Music (Canadian chain) - Phil was until recently the AXE generic guitar brand. I bought it for aesthetic appeal alone; being a total newbie at the time, and untrained in the fine art of guitar buying, I knew only that it looked nice. It cost about $400, which was quite reasonable for the instrument in question.

The MSW202 is from what I've seen the most stylish guitar Phil Pro manufactures. It's got a laminate burl top finished in a lovely semi-trans blue, dark fret-board pearloid bar fret markers (inlaid with small mother-of-pearl triangles), and a jackson-style "spiky" headstock. Gold hardware fits nicely with the blue, and the pair of humbuckers give serious crunch when called upon. Probably my favorite feature on this guitar is the neck: thin thin thin, much like many Ibanez electrics, and fast as all get-out. This is my main stage guitar at the moment.

The only gripes I have: the tone and volume pots are quite inaccurate - basically, either it's all the way up, or almost all the way down. Other than that, it performs admirably.

I've had some trouble with the pickup selector switch getting loose, and on occasion I have to tighten the 1/4" jack plate, but overall, despite numerous modifications and hardware replacements, the overall construction has held up quite well.

For a mid to low-priced guitar, I've found none better than this.

Jeff rated this unit 4 on 2001-12-13.

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