Free TTM Devastator review

[Bowen]

First I'll link to shredtilurded's review: http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?t=2274023

 

Packaging:

The guitar was well packaged. It was single boxed with doubled layers of cardboard everywhere and foam where needed. A bag with 3 hex wrenches, a tremolo bar, and a cable was in the box as well.

 

Setup:

The guitar came strung with Ernie Ball 9's. I received the guitar detuned and the nut unlocked. Once the guitar was tuned to pitch the trem sat level. The action, intonation, and relief are spot on.

 

Fretwork:

The fretwork on this guitar is great. The frets are crowned and polished, the fret ends are very well dressed.

 

Fit and finish:

The paintwork is pretty good. The white color is a very pure white, there is no yellow or blue in it at all. The polish is excellent, with no swirl marks or hazing anywhere.

There are 2 flaws in the finish:

On the edge of the pickup selector switch cutout there is a small rough spot. On the treble side of neck where it joins the body the binding has paint on it so what should be a razor sharp line has a wobble.

 

Electronics:

From TTM:

Neck pickup: 8k, Ceramic magnet

Bridge pickup: 10k, Ceramic magnet

 

Note: Pickup reviews are subjective, but you knew that.

 

I played this guitar through a Toneport w/ Pod Farm and using quality headphones. Later I'll be getting some sound clips recorded and posted.

The guitar came with the pickups adjusted a little closer to the strings than I am used to seeing. I did not adjust them.

 

The bridge pickup sounds tight and hifi. My closest comparison is with a Dimarzio Fred. I like the bridge pickup.

 

The neck pickup is passable. It sounds like a neck pickup, it is warm without being boomy or too hot. It lacks the character of the bridge pickup though.

 

The pickup balance is great. There is no volume difference when switching from the bridge to the neck pickup.

 

The potentiometers do the job. I don't care what size or what brand the pots are as long as they work and are quiet.

 

Hardware:

The bridge stays in tune very well. The tuners are smooth, the pickup selector switch feels good. On some licensed Floyd Rose bridges there are 2 problem areas. One is soft knife edges (you need a rockwell tester or months of playing time to test that), the other is soft or weak fasteners. I deliberately overtightened every screw on the nut and the bridge to see if it would fail. None did so I'm going to call it good.

 

Playing:

The neck has a slightly different contour feels a lot like the original Jackson Soloist necks. It is a slightly oval-ed C shape.

I love the neck. This is a fun guitar to play.

The pearl fret markers in the maple fingerboard are cleanly cut. The neck heel feels chunky when going for the higher notes.

 

Overall:

For the price that these guitars sell for on Ebay I would be very happy with it. I would overlook the finish flaws. Just so you know, I've always preferred a good playing guitar to a good looking guitar.

 

This is not the type of guitar that I normally would play or shop for though I've found it to be quiet addictive. It really is a guitar that is hard to stop playing.

 

There are guitars with better finish work in this price range.

The electronics and hardware are suitable for the price point or a bit higher.

I've never seen a guitar that had a better setup or playability for the price.

 

Later on I'll be having a couple other people play this and I'll post their impressions.

 

 

 

[Ryan Trevisol]

certainly a better example than Shred was given. That heel still goes the wrong direction, though, it seems. Very strange. What's interesting about this model is that, although the assembly is supposed to be done in the USA, this is a set-neck body, and the finishing would have to have been done at the time of assembly. So this one, according to what we know about Lance's operation, would have arrived with the neck attached to the body, and the finish done, and all that would have been done at the "supershop" would have been hardware installation and setup. Seems they did a good job.

 

And it would seem that the Chinese factory does a better job at the actual assembly than the usa shop.

[Frets99]

That's a sexy looking guitar.

 

The heel doesn't make sense though. I agree.

[jnapruitt]

I really like the look of that one. It's clean, simple and understated. Still waiting for mine. Thanks for the review and the pics. I'm glad you're happy with it.

[etawful]

certainly a better example than Shred was given. That heel still goes the wrong direction, though, it seems. Very strange. What's interesting about this model is that, although the assembly is supposed to be done in the USA, this is a set-neck body, and the finishing would have to have been done at the time of assembly. So this one, according to what we know about Lance's operation, would have arrived with the neck attached to the body, and the finish done, and all that would have been done at the "supershop" would have been hardware installation and setup. Seems they did a good job. And it would seem that the Chinese factory does a better job at the actual assembly than the usa shop.

 

Sounds about right to me.

[Raxus Prime]

Enjoy and congrats!

[harold heckuba]

With that heel the way it is it could be flipped and made into a left hand guitar.

[Alex W]

Enjoy.

[turtleheadblues]

Looks awesome.

 

I spoke with Lance yesterday and Im next on the ship list. Hes sending one identical to this one. Looking forward to it.

[FUBTAG]

I am interested in the following... Is this the kind of guitar that you would buy when compared to other guitars in it's price category? If you had a choice between 2 would you pick TTM?

[peavey_impact]

Looks great, that's for sure.