Xaviere Guitars (Zemaitis vibe)

That lemon drop one is lovely. Ridiculous price, too

 

Hey, un français!
Well, I already bought some parts from guitarfetish and they are nice people. I'm very fond of the Silver Sparkle finish but it's difficult to choose between the "heavy" one and the "light "one, I'm just afraid the later woud be a little headstock heavy if so light.
Any experience with those?

 

An ex-pat Brit, in fact

I don't think they've arrived in France yet. In fact, no super wonderful value for money killer deal guitars EVER arrive in France...

The last 3 guitars I've bought, I imported...

 

And a Xaviere among them?

 

Nope - I only started hearing about them a few days ago...

Plus, you'd spend as much in shipping and customs as the price of the guitar

 

This is soooo cool. But it's a $250 guitar with a $900 top.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/xaxvgoshtop.html

 

exactly!

The cheaper ones do look terrific value for money. I don't suppose the tops are really massive slabs of flame maple, but still...

 

I just spoke with Jay at Guitarfetish.com and ordered a XV 900 semi hollow in Lemon Drop Flame finish! This one has a flaw in the finish on the binding/purfling on the fingerboard (which Jay says is repairable, if I want to spent the money!). Got it for $250, plus $25 shipping.

XV 900 Lemon Drop Flame

Hope to have it by Friday. Will let you know what I think of it then!

Joe

 

My Silver Sparkle XV500 should be there tomorrow!

 

Got it!
Really like the picture: http://store.guitarfetish.com/xaxvsisp.html
Light sparkling. Must find a good reason to stay at work and not go back home! Arrrrrghhh!

 

Yes, post a reply please. I'm really interested in what you think of the GFS Fat PAFs. I'm thinking of a pair for an Epi SG I have.

Thx!

 

As soon as I can plug it into an amp

 

I'd be interested to know about how you got it to France, customs charges, etc... Cheers

 

First tests yesterday night with my Korg Pandora and early this morning with my little tranny Prince WASP(think Pignose). Difficult to talk about sound but first impression is really good: precise and clear, no muddy tones there. Til now I got mostly bright sounding guitars (Firebird, Tele, even my Duesenberg equipped Aria 335-like is more woody than mellow), this one is far more creamy but still has plenty of dynamics. The coil tap on push-pulls (that sound more as a split than a coil tap, need to check with them) is a good option, level doesn't go away and sounds gets far brighter and cleearer, single coil like, useful. It reminds me the good time I had playing a Jimmy Page Signature with all the push-pulls that already drove me to put a push-pull split on my Aria bridge's Grand Vintage. Might not fill all the needs, but in my clean to crunch continuum it's definitely a good option. Only thing I didn't find here is the bell-like, BBKing-ish sound on middle position I particularly like on my Firebird and Aria,
The neck is really good and well finished, it's a bit wide but comfy. Jay told me it was modelled after his 1960 LP Special, feels a little wider than any LP I tried but for the Specials I only tried reissues. I asked to have it in 10-46, feels perfect on this guitar (I'm used to 11-48 on Gibson-sized diapason and 10-46 on Fenders, but wanted something lighter on this one). The setup is good, tuning is stable, the light Klusons copies seem to do their job.
I always loved the LP look but never really found a good position with them, until I tried a LP Classic few weeks ago and found out the good way to deal with it. This one is even better, feels like the body is a bit smaller and little lighter, for those who would prefer something even lighter and thinner they do the XV700.
For the look this one is a killer, the sparkle finish goes from Gretschy looking silver-chrome to light champagne depending on the lighting. The metal badges on the head in close looking feel a bit "dinky toy", as the machine heads buttons but it's OK if not focusing on them. The binding on body and neck is well applied, looks classy.
I chose this one because I loved the look that make it far enough from a simple Les Paul copy. The pointy lower horn, the finish, the downsized body, the head and its metal badges make it much more like a crossover btw Gretsch/LP/Zeimatis, all references I like, with a personnality of its own.
There is still some tests to do with amps and compare with other guitars but this one will have a good place among the others, and for a little less than 400 Euros all included to here in France it's definitely a bargain. It has this Lenny Kravitz vibe in it, say it's not real vintage but can get as close as it wants. Would be my Kravitz geetar.

 

Sounds promising, red firebird! This does have the GFS Fat PAFs, correct? I like the fact that you say they're precise and clear, no muddy tones. Sounds perfect for my Epi SG. Actually I want to put a Vintage '59 in the neck and Fat PAF in the bridge.

Looking forward to any other reports you give

 

Just tested at low volume on my LC15 (Master Volume has sometimes sthing good to it ;-)). This guitar is very inspirating. I played with the tone knobs and found them a bit weird, almost nothing from 10 to 4 and then efficient but not the way I'm used too, freq seems to be higher than usual and filter don't cut much. You can play with all rolled off and don't have any kind of wooly stuff, can get this Neil Young plays behind CSN with rolled off tone sound. There are interesting nuances in the pup mix but still not my bell sound. I don't know why they call them Fat PAF, I don't find that much fatness to them. The preamp gain setting is much more important than with other guitars, that maybe that, I can get quite fast into Cream tones.
We'll see when I could roll the volume up

 

I'm reading every word you post, red firebird

 

I installed a set of GFS pups in my Tele, a staggered HB (think Fender style) in the neck and a "HOT" rails for the bridge and 2 P/P pots for single coil tap, great set for R&R and Blues, the neck pup gets the jazz tones I like very well, but not quite the twang I wanted in single coil mode but close. Thinking of installing 2 HB size P-90's in my Epi SG 400. Also thinking of getting a LP from them, want to try one out first or hear some more good reports.