Overall Rating: I have been playing for 30 years and have gone through more guitars than I care to admit! My current line-up is this Metro, a National Resolectric, a Gibson ES-135 with PAFs, a Fender Toronado, and one of the first Ovation Adamas's ma...
Overall Rating: I have been playing for 30 years and have gone through more guitars than I care to admit! My current line-up is this Metro, a National Resolectric, a Gibson ES-135 with PAFs, a Fender Toronado, and one of the first Ovation Adamas's made. I play through a stereo rig with two Blues Jrs modified with J&J tubes and Weber and Celestion speakers. I love this guitar! I bought it based on looks and playability, and was rewarded with serious tone after I changed to heavier strings. This guitar has a wider range of tonality and sounds than any of the other electric guitars in my quiver. I plan on playing this guitar in both std and open tunings (Open A, D), with the ES-135 in std tuning, the Toronado and Reso in Open G. The case is bombproof and big - heavier than the guitar.
Features: Color: Cool Pearl Aqua Blue (should be renamed to "Pearl Gumby Green"
Body: MAP-shaped (Airline, Valpro, National Westwood) Basswood body with "setneck" construction (light - chambered)
Neck: One piece Mahogany neck with Rosewood fingerboard & Mother of Pearl dots with Gumby headstock. Painted to match body, beautiful finish, relief feels like a 58' Les Paul neck but a hair wider with a lower radius on the fretboard. Scale is such that 11's still feel slinky.
Front of body "scooped" at edges creating a "raised" top - playable sitting down and standing up.
Nickel plated & Stainless Steel hardware with body edge molding.
Custom Art Deco hardware including Tailpiece, Truss Cover & Pickguard. Pickguard is way cool - clear with laminate behind it. The Tailpiece is a bit of an issue when restringing - Metropolitan should ship a chopstick with it to hold the string in place while winding the string to tension!
One Rio Grande Barbeque Bucker at Bridge & one Genuine Texas Humbucker at Neck, One Volume & Tone Control each for the two pickups (four knobs). Three-way selector switch for the Rio Grande Humbuckings. These pickups are great~ see Sound description below.
Sound Quality: I play blues, psychobilly and classic rock. I play through a setup that includes two Fender Blues Jrs feed in stereo through a few effects - vintage MXR Dynacomp, A Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive or an Expandora I, through a VT-X tremelo or an H&K RotoSphere.
I have always wanted a MAP guitar after seeing David Lindley use it in ElRayo-X in the 80's. This is a reproduction that far exceeds the original guitars, which were mostly unplayable due to fiberglass bodies and poor neck sets, IMHO. When I picked up this guitar initially, it has old, whimpy 09's on it and it sounded thin. After changing the strings to 11's - wow! Tons of tone. Neck pickup has a full tonality with plenty of beef, bridge pickup borders between a punky strat sound and a 'Ric/Gretsch sound. Very clear tonality on both pickups, and the tone controls really do add new sounds, rather than mudding up the basic wide open treble settings. On the downside, the volume pots on this guitar had dropouts, and will be replaced.
Reliability/Durability: This guitar is very well constructed and looks like it will last me a lifetime! I wont be selling this one, its a keeper! Strap buttons are huge (Gibson: take note). Since this is a rather pricey rig that available on a custom order basis only, I dont think I can afford a spare!
Customer Support: N/A, although Bill Nash indicated these guys are friendly folks.
Purchased From: Bill Nash Guitars
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