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i searched ILF and couldn't find anything more comprehensive than a brief mention in a projects thread. anyone have any experience with these? i'm leaning towards doing some builds using their bodies and set-neck Strat-style guitars, and am curious as to what the actual guitars are like. my impression is that the Xavieres are cheapazoid, while the Slick guitars seem more interesting. it would be especially nice to compare them to, say, the Revelation and Tagima lineups. anybody?

I've been using an Xaviere semi hollow for 5+ years now. I think it the 's the 910 model? No complaints. Stays in tune and sounds/feels good.

mixed experience
you talkin' the put-together guitars, or the parts?
I've got a thinline that I slapped Mosrite pickups in - quite decent, even though the neck doesn't match my increasingly idiosyncratic personal preferences (erm thick and wide).
it's normal. extra normal.
The guitar is light and resonant but not so light that there's troublesome neck dive.

Built a couple of partscasters with their parts. Not so much. Not insoluble problems, but be prepared for a project (eg., trem routing that makes it impossible for the trem to float without further routing; neck pocket on the too-shallow side. I had heard horror stories about tele bridge drilling that was out position, making intonation difficult or impossible with out fill and re-drill. Haven't experienced that myself.

I've looked at the Slick stuff - not sure if it's so much a quality bump as some spec'ing for Slick that seems a little...slicker.

60 Cycle Hum just posted a video of a gfs partscaster he built. Might have some useful info.

watching this now. if that's generally true, it's unfortunate. i saw someone on the Gretsch Pages who has done multiple builds with their bodies and was happy, but he was doing Teles which are much easier to manufacture and don't require a tremolo rout. the good news is that they let you return stuff you aren't satisfied with; back in the 00s i ordered a loaded Strat pickguard which i didn't like, and they took it back for a refund. i figure i'd get one of their Wilkinson trems and see if it fits. probably use one of their pickguards as well.

my problem wasn't too tough to fix, but it's weird that it even occurred - the front edge of the cavity (adjacent to the tray where the springs are attached) was "bellied" out a little so that the block came to rest on it before the back of the bridge plate could reach parallel (kinda hard to describe in words). So taking off a fraction of an inch there solved it for me. Still, you don't really want to have to deal with such, even at the price those bodies go for....

well, if i fucked it up it could always go in the Hack Jobs thread.

swing that ax

for $89 for a Strat with a set neck, if i get frustrated i'll just make it into a Less Strat.

i had one of their telemaster bodies for a while. It was disconcertingly light and you could put a dent into it with your fingernail. It built up into the lightest electric guitar I've ever felt in my life, but it felt incredibly cheap and every single screw stripped out so the input jack would pull out when you unplugged the guitar.

pawlonia wood, i presume?

I have one of their XGP tele bodies and the fit and finish is great for a $79 body. I probably wouldn't buy anything other than a hardtail body from them. Its easy to work around any issues.

agreed

mcatano wrote:i had one of their telemaster bodies for a while. It was disconcertingly light and you could put a dent into it with your fingernail. It built up into the lightest electric guitar I've ever felt in my life, but it felt incredibly cheap and every single screw stripped out so the input jack would pull out when you unplugged the guitar.

dubkitty wrote:pawlonia wood, i presume?

probs paulownia, which they seem to have moved off of in favor of Poplar - Guitar Mill sells paulownia bodies but inserts hardwood dowels at certain high strees screw-down points, like bridge screws, and strap buttons, but I'm not sure about input jacks....

I picked up the body in a trade so I'm not sure of the wood, but paulownia would make sense. Or balsa wood. Either one.
It had a tele-style jack on the lower edge so that was definitely a high stress area. All of the screws on the control plate and the pickguard stripped out as well, and I'm not a particularly heavy hand with that stuff.
Glad to hear they've stopped using it, but still just a head's up if you happen to come across an older GFS body—I would 100% steer clear.