DoctorPaul's Guitar Emporium

2011 GMW 'SS'

"Allan"

#G0198

 

Lee Garver. There’s a name to strike fear into the Charvel Custom Shop. Lee is a former employee of Charvel, and worked at the San Dimas factory in Glendora, California under Grover Jackson.  After leaving Charvel, he spent a while producing Charvel clones (and extremely good ones at that, like 'John Doe', my other GMW), then ... just ... stopped.  I hear rumours of a ‘cease and desist’ order from Fender, which politely requested that he stopped using the Strat headstock, or they’d kick his ass.  I think that this was a crying shame, as his strathead bulds were astounding guitars.  It si also evident that many of the early strathead GMW necks were made by none other than Mike Shannon; they're SUBLIMELY good. 

 

As a result of the 'polite' request from Fender, he introduced two new headstock designs.  On paper, and in photographs, they both look (to me at least) pretty dreadful.  One is a variant of the Tele headstock, but more bulbous and phallic.  I don't like that headstock one bit.  The other (called the ‘millennium’headstock) is an extreme pointy version of the established Ibanez headstock shape.  Ibanez got it right, but Lee’s variation on the theme … hmm … I'm not entirely sure ... but I'm pretty confident that I like it. 

 

Despite the headstock concerns, I have read nothing but praise about Lee’s stuff. SO, when this came up for sale in the UK I jumped at the chance. This was originally specified and bought by Rich Atkin (the founder of Stormshadow Guitars in Sheffield - I've got lots of those), then sold to the guy who bought my old Gunslinger (see ‘Past Guitars’).  I understand that Rich swapped all of the original gold hardware (shown in the link …) for black, and I’m very glad indeed that he did … that gold hardware looked a little to blingy for my tastes.  Black is altogether better, at least to my palate. 

 

This has a very, very nice chunky birseye maple neck and fretboard, an original German Floyd and EMG pickups. The build quality is outstanding and the fret work is absolutely flawless … THIS is how it should be done.  The fingerboard edges aren’t rolled (like modern Charvels), so this feels a little less comfortable than it might do, but I'll live with that.  In person, the headstock is actually quite nice!  Seriously.  For something that looks like such a turd in photographs to look so good in the flesh is weird, but the figuring of the thing … its fluted, full, sculpted, and the tuners are recessed into a beautiful trough on the rear side. Lovely. Whatever you think of the headstock, this plays really well and sounds killer.  Although this is an awesome player, it is categorically AS HEAVY AS SHIT.  As I've said before, I'm not exactly a little guy, so I'm fine with lugging around a decent chunk of guitar, but I can understand why lots of folks are deterred from snagging a GMW, on grounds of their weight if nothing else.

 

Would I have another?  Well ... of COURSE I would.  In fact, I snagged "John Doe" soon after getting this.  Another fantastic playing guitar.  In fact, probably one of the best I have.  I can't recommend these highly enough.  I have an eBay alert set, waiting for more to come on the market, although there are very few of them in England.  As and when I FIND another, I'll absolutely be bidding.