Shine SI - 10 Reviews 5

I had some spare cash and was, browsing through cash converters, when I spotted this white stratocaster look alike. The finish looked great. It still had plastic shrink wrap on the scratch plate, looked (and was), brand new. It shouted out play me, as I was looking at it, so I bought it for £90.00. I had never heard of shine before, so did a bit of investigating, they are chineese/ korean. There isn't much information on the net, which I have found, that's one reason i'm doing this review.

Its a white stratocaster look alike, with three single coil pickups, five way selector switch, etc. The sound from this guitar is fairly bright, and clear, with a really nice strat sound (I love the sound off mine). It seems to have a broad frequency response from the stagered pole pickups, with no hum, or feedback etc. It also stays in tune well. The finish is good, and up to now mine is holding up well, although i've only had it five to six months.

There is a slight crackle when changing selector position and the input jack has a slight blister in the chrome. These are only nit picks, there's nothing I can't live with.

the neck is maple?, and rosewood, the body is solid wood (apparently paulownia), I have a second guitar a chineese squire affinity, the shine is quite a bit heavier, by about three pounds. Also the neck is slightly thicker than the squier. It has a quilt top shape, as opposed to a normal strat look. Mine had a three layer scratch plate on white/black/white, which I liked although I now have a black pearlescent one on, which looks well against the white body, and dark fretboard. The finish is generally good, the sound from the pickups, is great, with no hum, feedback etc I'm made up with mine.

As I said earlier my guitar keeps shouting at me to pick it up and play it, I like the look of it and the sound, it makes. You can pick these up for just under £100.00 from www.rainbowmusic.co.uk, for this price, they're virtually giving them to you, I suspect it'll last for years, it doesn't go out of tune, looks and sounds good. (I haven't used the whammy bar, so don't know if it knocks it out of tune) What more can I say, it's a great buy.

Phil Darby rated this unit 5 on 2004-07-25.

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