This model looks eerily like a past model that was endorsed by a very prominent guitarist who once played a homemade stripped Strat. If you don’t know who this is please go back to watching re-runs of Three Stooges episodes. The Axis has been long associated with this very influential guitarist, but the only similarity is the aesthetics and the Gotoh made Floyd. The neck has changed to a slightly sleeker shred friendly contour that still keeps one foot in vintage Tele land. The other update was the electronics. The predecessor had DiMarzio PAF style pickups with the pickup select switch in a totally goofy location. I can tell you from having owned one that I spent many a night onstage reaching to correct my over-shooting hand. The switch is now ergonomically located closer to the single volume control clearing the decks for throwing the playing to the wolves. The other major update and improvement is the pickups themselves. There always has been voodoo and black magic attached to the way guitarist look at pickups. The pickups in the newer model are still custom DiMarzio, but they stray from the lower output PAF sound and go for the jugular with a higher output tone while still keeping with the PAF sounds. The new custom Dimarzios are loosely based off of a Tone Zone for the bridge and an Air Classic for the neck. The result is astounding. Having had issues with the original EVH pickups being too “soft”, I found the additions to be spot on. They have just the right amount of heat and just the right amount of “air”. Playability wise this guitar just about plays itself. The Gotoh Floyd trem system begs one to reenact excerpts from Marquis DeSade’s “120 of Sodom” and pour on the torture tactics really heavy. The new sleeker profile allows the average player to reveal herculean guitar hero muscles and leap skyscrapers with a single bound. The beautifully quilted maple top adds pizzazz to the whole package and leaves one wondering how do these guys make a guitar so pretty at this reasonable price? One word pretty much sums it up for me….magic.
Mike McAvan
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