player opinions

American Showster Metal Load S/S

  1. Name: Robin Ray

  2. Model Year: 1995

  3. Price Paid: $250

  4. Performance

  5. I like the sound of this guitar. “Blackie” has an American Showster humbucker at the bridge and two American Showster stacked single coils in the middle and neck. All three pickups are super quiet. I like soloing with the bridge humbucker because I can easily get sub-harmonics and otherworldly tones. I get no buzzing from the strings. This guitar is easy to play because of the smaller fast neck and well done fretwork.

  6. Performance Rating: 8

  7. Sound Quality

  8. Sounds really good because the pickups are loud and clean. I prefer playing with distortion than clean. Also, because I modified it a lot, I HAVE to play lead because open position chords don’t sound quite right due to the intonation not being perfect. The thickness and heaviness of its body gives this guitar a lot of sustain.

  9. Sound Quality Rating: 7

  10. Construction

  11. I bought this used at Alto’s Music in Poughkeepsie, NY in 2001. I liked it right off the bat, but saw where modifications were needed. I removed the top strap lock from its ridiculous position “behind” the body and screwed it in where it should’ve been in the first place — at the top of the body. Since I don’t care for the Floyd Rose tremolo systems (too many tools and contortions just to intonate/change strings!), I dropped in a Wilkinson tremolo, replaced the heads with locking Sperzels, and replaced the nut with a different one from Allparts. The only problem now is intonation (my old enemy rears its ugly head once again). The Wilkinson, in effect, has shortened the distance from the bridge to the nut. A pice of wood approx. 1/8" in thickness glued inside the bridge space should rectify this problem. I also wish I could change the input from its ridiculous position in the rear to the front or bottom of the body. I also wish the blade position switch wasn’t so close to the volume knobs. (Hard to see in performance when the switch is obscured by the knobs). Otherwise, a killer guitar for the price.

  12. Construction Rating: 10

  1. Name: Mike

  2. Model Year: 1995

  3. Price Paid: $250 used

  4. Performance

  5. The fretboard is kinda sticky and the fret buzz is hard to deal with. Other than that the locking tremolo works pretty cool. This axe is a sorta Strat style that looks like an Ibanez RG but with more wicked edges.

  6. Performance Rating: 8

  7. Sound Quality

  8. The sound is cool for hard rock. Single single double pickup config. It’s pretty noisy and sucks when you play clean.

  9. Sound Quality Rating: 8

  10. Construction

  11. This thing is made like a rock! You throw it against a wall and it won’t scuff. Kurt Cobain would have a hard time trying to break this one. This axe could be used as a lethal weapon, and could used to block bullets. It’s full of lead and weighs like 20-30 lbs. Heavy!

  12. Construction Rating: 10

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  1. Average Ratings
  2. Performance: 8
  3. Sound Quality: 7.5
  4. Construction: 10
  5. Ratings Key
  6. 10: Excellent
  7. 0: Useless
  8. Company
  9. American Showster

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