Members GAS Man Posted September 23, 2012 Members Share Posted September 23, 2012 I received it back on August 21st The guitar has a nanomag acoustic pickup, usb out, stereo/or mix- out and a built in (to the bridge p'up ring) tuner. But the tuner worked once on it's first day out of the box and then quit. There were also 3 very minor blems. But after hemming and hah'ing over it a bit, I decided to try to keep it and get it fixed locally under warranty. Well, here I am another 4 weeks later waiting for it to come out of the shop. It was supposed to be yesterday. But I was offered (at my request) a little discount if I kept the guitar instead of going through the return process. Plus they did not have another one of this color in stock. And when I bought this one, it was clearly the better looking of the two. So since I'm digging the flame maple pattern on this one, I'm digging myself deeper into it. I also decided that while it's waiting in the shop it would also get a p'up upgrade, so I ordered a DiMarzio DP103 & DP223(b) and delivered them to the tech. But that was also a pain in the arse because MF accidentally sent me a DP223N instead of the DP103. Someone in their warehouse had slapped a DP103 label on top of the DiMarzio factory DP223N labels. I don't know why they'd do that, but I had to open the p'up box to see what they sent me, and sure enough on the bottom of the p'up it was marked DP223N - just as the factory box said it was. So two weeks later, my replacement from MF finally arrives (the DP103). I'll spare you the details of all the phone calls that took. I decided a bit quickly on the Epiphone ProBuckers - wish I'd spent more time with them. I thought they were an improvement over the earlier Epiphone Alnico Classics, but they still weren't as vibey and chimey as I like. In other words, I like a bit more complex of a choral voice. But indeed the stock ProBucker p'ups (Epi's version of Burstbucker 2 & 3) are brighter and not as dark/muddy as a lot of the Epi p'ups have been characterized. I think a lot of folks could be happy with them. But I've long been wanting to hear the DiMarzio PAF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zappa74 Posted September 23, 2012 Members Share Posted September 23, 2012 Boy, that's a whole lot of stuff packed into a les paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted September 23, 2012 Author Members Share Posted September 23, 2012 Boy, that's a whole lot of stuff packed into a les paul Yeah, the idea of a heavily chambered nanomag'd LP was the draw for me. In some respects it's redundant to the Parker Fly Classic I have, but since the nanomag vibration samples at the base of the fretboard instead of from the bridge, there's a bit of a deeper tone from this design. Plus I've never been a big fan of the magnet p'up sound on my Fly Classic, so I figured with this Epi (and now a p'up mod) that I'll have another chance to get an electric with an acoustic style transducer that I'll like. There's also a free download of Guitar Rig software. I haven't gotten around to any of that yet I sure hope the download and the USB still work when I get it back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cobalt Blue Posted September 26, 2012 Members Share Posted September 26, 2012 The Ultra III is an excellent guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members axegrinder Posted September 27, 2012 Members Share Posted September 27, 2012 Good luck with the repair & upgrade. Hopefully you'll be enjoying it by the weekend. On a side note it's odd that Epiphone and Schecter would both have a model called Ultra III. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted September 27, 2012 Author Members Share Posted September 27, 2012 Good luck with the repair & upgrade. Hopefully you'll be enjoying it by the weekend. On a side note it's odd that Epiphone and Schecter would both have a model called Ultra III. Thanks. That's what I'm hoping for. I've had a tough last week. A close co-worker/friend of mine of 27 years just dropped dead one week ago today; then I went through the worst crunch time of my work year. So I can sure use the simple joy of plunking on a new guitar with new p'ups this weekend. I'll go to his memorial on Friday afternoon then head back to town to see if my Epi is really ready to go. At least he said he received the warranty part from Gibson last Saturday so there's cause for optimism Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members deanmass Posted September 27, 2012 Members Share Posted September 27, 2012 Read nothing but good about the LP Ultra iii's, but I played a 339 and hated it. They did cram a lot of tech into that guitar for the money though, all of it useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted September 27, 2012 Author Members Share Posted September 27, 2012 Read nothing but good about the LP Ultra iii's, but I played a 339 and hated it. They did cram a lot of tech into that guitar for the money though, all of it useful. That's also good to hear regarding my little GAS splurge here. Thanks - but the one problem (I mentioned above) is that they do seem to have this "nanomag pull which cause fret buzz" issue. If they could fix that issue, then I'd think the Ultra might really have something going for it. Right now it comes off a bit like a "good attempt". But as I mentioned above, I think I can be cool with that. I don't usually run too scared of a little fret buzz as long as it's not "tone killing" fret buzz. But that was just one "not so good" thing I did read about them before I got mine, but I was still a little surprised that a couple years later that design flaw hadn't been tweaked out of the production by now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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