Vintage Lotus Electric Guitar For Sale (2024 Update)

First off, let me say that I wrote a review on this instrument when I first got it a couple of years ago, but I'm writing another review because now I what I'm talking talking about, unlike I did back then. That being said, this guitar is amazing! I own a Squier Stratocaster Standard and a Yamaha APX500II acoustic (I like cheaper guitars. They play better to me for some reason.) My Strat has a thinner and smoother neck, so I use it for the better feel. But for tone, this LP has got it in the bag! I told a friend I got a cheap Les Paul, and he asked "un-covered or covered pickups?" I said they were un-covered, and he was so happy. Granted, covered pickups look much better, but for tone, un-covered is the way to go. And humbuckers, no less! If I could choose between my Strat and this Les Paul, I would probably choose this Les Paul, as the tone and sound is unsurpassed by even the finest Gibsons. As for looks and feel, this not too bad. It has a thinner body than other Pauls, and a bolt-on neck makes it a little different, but it's fantastic. Also, the pictures on Musicians Friend hardly do it justice, as the guitar looks so much more beautiful in person (I have the heritage cherry sunburst.) I strung this bad boy up with a set of Ernie Ball Cobalt Series .10's, and it is unsurpassed by anything! A lot of people complain that the strap buttons are bad. Well… they are. But I had strap locks on this thing for a bit, and they were great, because they completley sovled the problem. I gave the locks to my church's bass player as a gift, and I bought a DiMarzio ClipLock strap earlier this year, and with the combination of this strap and the lighter weight of the guitar itself, this thing is very comfortable to play standing up. My only con; it has dot fret markers, not the block ones. But who really cares? It's the best Les Paul you can get for this price range, and it's even better than most in the $1,000's range. I would guarantee if you buy this, you will not be sorry!

Overall: The Good: took a chance to save some money on a "blemished" deal. Have had good luck with these in the past with zZounds, and as before, could not find any blemishes in regard to the finish. The setup, however, was abyssal. Once setup, the guitar is fantastic. Lighter weight than my other Epi, and.my.Gibson. The Probuckers are amazing. Great clarity and I see or hear no reason to replace them. Liking them better than my 57+ classics. Black guitars and me don't get along, as I have always sold them off. The graphite black and plain back on this guitar is gorgeous. Most likely a keeper. Neck feel is perfect. Coil split and tone controls really make a difference. Many sounds can be had. May soon become my #1 guitar. Plays effortlessly. The Bad: guitar setup was non existent. Tuners were crooked, nut slots too high, pickup height too low, pick guard installed incorrectly, uneven frets, action set for limbo, and scratchy pots. After cutting deeper nut slots, leveling and crowning the frets, lowering the action, adjusting truss rod, readjusting tuning pegs and pick guard, spraying the pots, and installing quality knobs, the guitar is now fantastic. I can understand why it was returned as it took a lot of work to get it playable. Luckily, I do that all myself so no extra $. Sadly, although great luck with zZounds in the past, this will be my last order until either:1) zZounds offers shipping options other than FedEx. Or2) Fedex gets their s**t together and figures out how to deliver packages to the correct address, with accurate tracking, and without damage.

Out of the box it is a very attractive piece but getting it to tune is impossible. The neck bends, the springs flex, the upper point shape digs into your arm, the machine heads don't fine-tune and wont hold. The volume knob is too close to the playing area causing sudden volume changes when it's bumped while playing, the frets are too high causing the strings to bend when making even the simplest of chords causing a de-tuned sound, the Floyd Rose mechanism is made of too light and flimsy springs and machine parts to be stable. Thirty seconds of hearing this thing play would make anybody switch the station. Otherwise it is very attractive and has a nice gloss finish. The intonation is a joke. I tried everything – relocating the neck, locking the Floyd solid, hours of work . It did improve slightly but the neck bends while tuning making it impossible to get anything other than a noise maker and something you could hang on your wall for show. Since I made so many modifications in an attempt to make the thing even usable I now am unable to return it. I might be able to use the pots for another project but the rest of it is junk. I would try and get the seller to buy it back but even I wouldn't want it back so I'm sure they wont accept it. After I re-work a guitar it usually worth several thousand dollars. I spent the equivalent of $5,000.00 worth of labor on this thing and it is still worthless.

Sound: Today's guitars are all made on cnc's unless you get something like a US made G&L, those are cut out with bandsaws and routers, like fenders in the 50s up to the 70s. The neck pocket in mine is very clean and neat, the body routing is very clean, the frets were nice out of the box, no misaligned screws or parts, no blemishes in the finish or anything. Features: The least useful feature for a majority of people will be the rhythm circuit, it has its own volume and tone pots and is neck pickup only, with a much darker tone than the neck pickup on the lead circuit, leave the switch in the down position, and you never have to worry about it unless you want an old school jazz guitar tone. Then push that switch up. (It does old jazz guitar really well) Ease of Use: The jazzmaster has quite a bright bridge pickup, makes it well suited for surf, or spaghetti western guitar, but it also means distortion on the bridge pickup will cut through rather well. the neck pickup is strat like, but bigger and thicker. Like a strat neck pickup on steroids. Both pickups together results in a sweet soft sort of quack tone, due to the pickups being so far apart, it's not the same as a strat quack tone, but its very nice sounding. Then of course there's the neck only rhythm circuit which is very much like an old jazz tone (hence the name Jazzmaster)The pickups are generally higher output than most other fender pickups, and work well with distortion. A lot of people still think jazzmaster pickups are p90s. Nope, real jazzmaster pickups are roughly the same size, but thats where the similarities end. They don't even sound similar. This confusion is furthered by the old mexican player jazzmasters, the j mascius, and others that have P90's. Quality: Fender mexico didn't skimp on the electronic parts, the pickups are very much like a mid 60s jazzmaster in sound, even down to the gray bobbins and enamel coated coil wire. Pots are CTS, both switches and the jack are switchcraft, just like they are supposed to be. They should last forever. The trem is built well, but not exactly the same as the old ones, the trem arm is screw in, it really should be a push in arm, like all the old ones. Also, I think the hole of the trem arm in the top plate is way way too big, it only needs to be slightly bigger than the trem arm collet.The tuners are kluson like split shaft, loke fender used from the very earliest days until 68, they're not made by kluson but it doesn't matter the design is too simple to screw up. The frets are vintage, they're always described as tall and thin. They're not tall, but they are thin, it is a 60s styled guitar after all. But I think a lot of people used to 9.5 and flatter radiuses will have problems, it's a 7.25" radius fretboard, requires a bit higher action but a half hour or so of playing, you get used to it. It also has a truss rod nut at the heel of the neck, its a correct feature for all fender's prior to 1971, but man was that a bad design choice on leo fender's part. You either have to loosen the neck a lot or take it completely off to adjust neck relief, and hope you got it right.Now when I got my guitar I took it completely apart (I always do). What I found on the inside could be improved. First was an excessive amount of wire. There is a lot of wire in a jazzmaster, but they didn't even bother cutting the pickup leads to length. Both pickups had about a foot of unnecessary lead wire, so I fixed that.The other issue was a bad conductive paint job in the cavities. The jazzmaster is an electrically noisy guitar, they need all the shielding they can get. The conductive paint was one thin coat, and didn't even go up the sides of the cavities, it wasn't doing anything. From 1958 to the end of the original run around 1980 each jazzmaster had brass tubs in all the cavities, all soldered together and grounded. I don't expect that in a new jazzmaster, but they knew then that it needed shielding. The pickguard in 58 was also gold anodized aluminum, which was excellent for shielding. But the anodizing wasn't good, and the gold wore off after a few months so and looked awful. In 59 fender switched to plastic tort pickguards, with a thin pickguard sized aluminum shield underneath. Anyway I properly shielded the cavities. Also the pickguard only had aluminum tape for the toggle switch to the jack, and another piece for piece for rhythm circuit switch and pots. That ain't going to do it. I added more shielding, put it all back together and it was a major improvement. Recently I decided to see what a proper gold anodized aluminum pickguard would look like on ice blue metallic, and its VERY cool, looks like a 1960s california speed shop modded my guitar, might put some tele knobs on it sometime.I also made another modification, I had a 65 reissue trem and bridge laying around, so I put them on it. In the old days, the lock button, trem

Overall: I've always thought these looked cool with their single tiled bridge humbucker, so I picked one up. I am surprised this thing was only $180 before tax. It is made in Indonesia and it must have been made by one of the good workshops over there, because as simple as this guitar is, the fit and finish is amazing. The tuning machines are good quality, move very freely but also hold tune very well. The mahogany body is very solid, the black gloss finish on the body is free of blemishes and is very even and consistent. The finish on the back of the neck is very sleek feeling under my thumb. The fretwork is flawless. All the frets on mine are level and crowned properly. The ends are filed to prefection, absolutely zero sharp fret ends. The nut is a black plastic nut, so nothing fancy there, but it is filed to a perfect depth and the slots hug the strings nicely. I can't exactly speak to the quality of the tremolo bridge as I don't really make use of them, but it seems good and stays in tune (though I don't use it so I can't speak to how well it holds tune if you use it a lot). I'm not sure of the output of the alnico 5 humbucker but it sounds great and the tilted angle does indeeed seem to lend it a bit more bass than a normal bridge pickup, but without making it sound muddy. This guitar has me wondering why people buy something like a Rogue as a "beginner" guitar for a kid when you could get something like this for the same price or cheaper that is of much higher build quality and looks much cooler in my opinion. Best sub-$200 new guitar I've ever gotten hands down.

Overall: Just got my Baretta Special guitar in black and all I can say is "Your kidding Me". I have played guitar for 50 years and have gone through so many brands, models of top name and bargain types of guitars. I have overpaid for some and gotten good deals on others. I mod guitars all the time to my taste. This guitar out of the box was intonated, perfect action, fit and finish top notch. Tuners are fine, neck is thin and fast. Best deal I have had in years, can't stop playing it! Hard to believe this is my 1st Kramer after so many years.

Overall: Better than most up to Classic Vibe. The Humbucker is good. The alnico magnets are bar magnets so they are pulling threw pole pieces similar to ceramic set up. They are warm a sing with a sustain. The tuners are not bad, not top quality either but stay in tune no need to change in my opinion. The most work I did was with the frets. Now here is where the money was saved first. The radius is 12" so the flatness creates a sharp corner. The fret ends are not quite finished and the crowning is a little rough. After dressing the frets and setting the actionation ruby is a great guitar and the humbucker is a true thing of beauty. I've bought pups twice the price of the guitar and this thing still sounds better to my ear.