Picked up another eBay steal! This time it is the Odyssey Boundary series from FGN. Specs are as follows:
Basically it is FGN's version of a budget HSS, hardtailed S-type guitar.
This will serve as a little informational, mini-review of the guitar....but the disclaimer is that I am still getting to know it.
Neck:
The satin finished U shaped neck has a decent feel but it does not take over as the favourite out of all the guitars in my arsenal (that would still belong to the Greco).
The radius is a comfortable 10", it definitely does feel different to vintage radius but it does not feel as flat to me as some of the shred-centric Ibanez necks.
Frets:
Needs work. No high spots, no fretting out, but cosmetically it is not great. My assessment is that it just needs to be hit with some fine sandpaper and compound.
There are no sharp edges but the frets could do with a little bit more rounding.
Bridge:
I didn't know how I'd feel about a hardtail Strat...but I'm not bothered by it too much. It's sort of like a Tele, and that is easy to get used to. Tone-wise I can't really quantify the difference, because I need to compare it with a similarly built guitar with a tremolo style bridge. I don't have any other basswood body, 22 fret HSS guitars, wired with a master volume and tone to compare it to.
As far as the actual bridge hardware goes, it is an in-house part, but as far as I can tell it is a design that is used by Gotoh as well. So if I really wanted to I could change it out with the Gotoh part. However, I am not really inclined to do so at this point.
Tuners:
Can't complain with Gotohs. My favourite style of tuners are the vintage tuners and they are what are fitted on these guitars as standard.
Electronics and Pickups:
Well this is where things get a little interesting.
This is my first HSS guitar....and as people who set up these guitars regularly know, there is a sort of compromise that has to be reached when setting up this particular pickup scheme. The single coils and humbucker share a master volume AND tone in this case. The pot value that is conducive to singles will be too dark for humbuckers, and vice versa.
FGN have chosen to use 500k pots for both volume and tone. This results in a very bright sounding guitar...even slightly so on the humbucker. Strangely the volume pot is linear, while the tone pot is log. This is something I definitely noticed even before opening up the guitar and inspecting the pots (but I had just assumed was due to the pot brand rather than the type of pot).
The tone cap that they used has a value of 0.022uF. This is a not a very high value but with the tone completely rolled off, I still feel it is way too dark.
There's also a mini switch that is used to split the humbucker. I really dislike mini switches so this will have to be swapped out at some point.
The pickups are in-house pickups. I would assume that these are very cheaply made (they had to have cut costs somewhere for the budget base model) BUT I actually like the sound of the single coils. Albeit they do sound bright and the transients are VERY spiky. They don't sound as smooth as my other pickups but the base tone is actually decent (to me). I will likely change the electronics and see how the pickups react to that, and if I'm still not happy I'll end up changing the pickups too.
The volume difference between the humbucker and singles is manageable, in my opinion. There is a difference but not a great one.
Another area where they have cut costs is in the body cavity shielding. I have seen higher end FGN guitars with conductive paint in the body cavities to shield from noise. This model does not have that, but it does have shielding in the form of foil on the pickguard. This can be easily rectified, I'll probably install some copper shielding when I get a chance to do so.
Aesthetics:
I'll be honest - the Transparent Blue Sunburst not my favourite colour. BUT it has grown on me. I also wasn't too fond of the pickguard when I first saw it, but that is growing on me too now.
I changed the chrome knobs out for more traditional Strat ones. It not only looks better but also feels more familiar to me.
I also think the neck is a little too pale for my tastes. But there is not much I am willing to do to change that, besides playing and waiting.
The body is 2 piece, with a centre join. I have seen other FGN models in this range with 3 piece bodies so I am thankful that I got one with a centre seam rather than offset.
General tone/feel
Good neck feel, which sits in the middle ground between vintage and modern, in my opinion. For a player that is used to more vintage necks it doesn't fully satisfy, but it doesn't disappoint either. I imagine it would be the same for a player on the other end of the spectrum.
The strings feel more slinky on this guitar compared to my other Strats even though the scale length is the same. I'm not sure why that is, maybe because of the hardtail, although that doesn't make sense to me. Maybe it's the radius. Bends are easier, and it actually takes a moment to get used to it if I pick this guitar up right after playing on one of my other Strats. Whether or not that is a good thing is up to personal taste. To me, it is neither good nor bad, but something noticeable and needing to be accounted for when playing.
Being made out of basswood, the guitar is LIGHT. Very very light in fact, but I didn't think that the balance was off. There is definitely a different balance to a "normal" Strat though, especially given there is no steel tremolo block to weigh down the already super light basswood body. I might be discouraged to put locking tuners on it for that reason, but in truth I am pretty happy with the current tuners.
The tone is bright and lively. You can get good strat tones out of it and very decent "notched" tones (pos 2 and 4). The humbucker on a Strat is a revelation for me...I love it. I do appreciate the ability to split the humbucker (critical for that notched position tone). It CAN get a little ice picky, especially the transients. I feel it is an extremely dynamic set of pickups, but not in a very pleasing way. It can probably be dialled out with EQ and compression, I'm not sure.
The tone knob as it stands is only useful between 5 and 8. Anything below that is too dark and muffled, anything above that is typically too ice picky.
Mods and Summary:
This is a very good guitar and I'm happy to have it as my first HSS strat. I do feel the need to tweak it to better suit my needs though - it could become a great guitar after that. As far as cost cutting goes, I did not feel like there was a lot of it going on, and certainly not in areas where you can't rectify it later. Shielding, pickups and electronics can be swapped out or installed later if they do not meet your personal requirements. However things like centre seamed 2 piece bodies, finish quality, quality of the fit, etc are all fundamental to the guitar build and cannot be changed down the line.
For me, the mods I will be targeting are (chronologically ordered):
Change pots to 300k pots - middle ground between 250k and 500k...in an attempt to tame the brightness of the guitar
Have one of the pots be push/push, to replace the mini switch
Change the volume pot to be logarithmic
Change the value of the pot to be 0.015uF, to make the tone pot range more usable.
Add shielding to body cavities, shielded wire to input jack
IF the tone and transients is still too bright for my liking, change the steel saddles to brass saddles
IF still not completely happy, change pickups
In truth I will almost certainly get to the end of that list whether or not I'm happy with it, because I would love to hear this guitar with different pickups.