# Halo 7 & 8 String guitars: who owns one??



## OminousMike (Feb 3, 2011)

Hey guys, so first off I'm new to 7 string.org. I've talked to some great people so far. Thanks for having me.
So I've been considering buying a Halo guitar; I've seen a lot of these being sold on ebay, but I haven't seen many people playing them. I'm curious if anyone on this forum happens to own one, and if they so happen to find this thread could they post a few comments about these guitars.
I'd really appreciate it, thanks guys!

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## Knossos (Feb 3, 2011)

WHOA STOP RIGHT THERE

Search them. Read the utter horror stories. Then decide if you still want one.


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## 7 Strings of Hate (Feb 3, 2011)

Dude, steer clear. They are some of the worst guitars around.


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## technomancer (Feb 3, 2011)

Oh god another one  The horror story of the Halo I owned has been posted before. The only good thing about that guitar was that they gave me my money back without a problem


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## Razzy (Feb 3, 2011)

On the bright side. If you DO get one, and it has a floating trem, they can't forget to drill the holes through the body for the string-thru bridge.


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## highlordmugfug (Feb 3, 2011)

Razzy said:


> On the bright side. If you DO get one, and it has a floating trem, they can't forget to drill the holes through the body for the string-thru bridge.


 I was searching for his thread about that. Well, am searching for it.


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## AcousticMinja (Feb 3, 2011)

It's a shame, really. At one point I was even looking at them. They definitely look nice, but I've heard next to nothing good about them.


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## aleXander (Feb 3, 2011)

halo 
Like the rest of these guys I highly recommend you read the horror stories.


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## Razzy (Feb 3, 2011)

This was the Halo string-thru guitar I was talking about.

To change strings, you had to take the bridge off.


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## aleXander (Feb 3, 2011)

Razzy said:


> This was the Halo string-thru guitar I was talking about.
> 
> To change strings, you had to take the bridge off.



How could they be so careless when it comes to their quality control like that?


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## hmmm_de_hum (Feb 3, 2011)

My original thread:

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/extended-range-guitars/49212-halo-octavia-questions.html

Not even worth getting back into the argument to be honest, i only still have it because of just how cheap i got it for and the time and effort which went into making it playable


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## Explorer (Feb 3, 2011)

To be fair, I think Halo tried to do a reboot in the past year... but the only New Guitar Day post arising from it, talking about how great the guitar was, turned out to be authored by a Halo employee. As to whether or not any guitar made for the general public turned out to be of the same quality, no one has yet posted who put down the money for one. 

It was my impression that a lot of people were willing to give the "new" Halo the benefit of the doubt once a few independent and reputable people came forward, and I would too, but that just hasn't happened yet. No one wants to be the first penguin off the ice....


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## Sponge (Feb 3, 2011)

Sometimes I wonder if the new members are Halo employees checking out how much we remember.

To the OP, I also had problems with Halo. They broke the first guitar before it was deliver, and then rushed a 2nd one. The bridge was off 1/4 of an inch and the guitar could never be intonated, the fret bars became very sharp, and upon delivery, the action was all over the place and I had to try and adjust/set it up the best I could, despite the issue with the faulty measurements in scale length. This was a custom and I had to post on here all of the things wrong with the guitar just to get my money back. After 3,000 views in less than 48 hrs and lots of support from the people here on the forums, full refund was made. 

Check out the Agile guitars. I have 2 customs built from them and they both turned out well, and have had no problems.

Who knows how their guitars are now?

If they want to regain their reputation, they should hand out a few testers.


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## highlordmugfug (Feb 3, 2011)

Sponge said:


> Sometimes I wonder if the new members are Halo employees checking out how much we remember.


I've though this a few times too, glad I'm not the only one.


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## stevo1 (Feb 3, 2011)

off topic some... but how do you get a custom build frrom agile? ive looked at their site, and on here, and havent found any answers. do you have to contact them about it?


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## Explorer (Feb 3, 2011)

Sponge said:


> Sometimes I wonder if the new members are Halo employees checking out how much we remember.
> 
> ...Who knows how their guitars are now?
> 
> If they want to regain their reputation, they should hand out a few testers.



I was just looking at that NGD from the Halo employee...

Halo employee raves about his new Halo guitar!

...and I noticed that he's in the same geographical area as the OP of this thread.

I'd say that OminousMike should take advantage of that amazingly lucky coincidence and drop a Private Message to Alvin/The Munk, to see about checking out some Halo guitars firsthand. By doing a little research, Mike can be up on current pricing for Agile, Ibanez and other brands, and might even be able to find a music shop or two where he can check out a few sevens or eights, so he would know how to judge the quality of the Halo instruments.

There might even be some SS.org members in that area. Who knows?

----

I'll agree that it would make it easier for Halo if they were to be more available for testing, but I can't even imagine how they would arrange that. Even if they put several instruments out for testing, I'd probably be a little leery of their having poured their best efforts into the demo models, and of getting something a little underwhelming comparatively once an actual order was placed....


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## rockerjeff (Feb 3, 2011)

Hello Everyone,

I've been working at Halo for five years now and want to share some information to clear any possible confusion. 

- The OP is not a Halo employee or affiliated with Halo. OminousMike: you are welcome to visit our shop in Cupertino (South Bay) and see the new instruments in our showroom. We have a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier with Celestion-equipped Marshall half stack for demoing purposes. We're pretty low on 7-string and 8-string guitars at the moment, but we'll definitely have an 8-string Octavia ready for testing by early March. We also have three guitar instructors teaching here six days a week, as well as full repair services, and pro audio equipment and accessories. Store hours are M-F 9am to 6pm. 

- The string ferrule situation was a rookie mistake on our part - no excuses there. hmmm de hum: I'm sorry you had to spend so much time to get the instrument to play correctly. PM me or shoot me an e-mail at [email protected] anytime if any issues ever arise with the instrument so I can take care of it for you.

- Sponge's story is accurate. However, we did gain a lot of valuable experience to improve our business. Now we glue our frets into the fingerboards to avoid any lifting frets over time, and we make sure the string saddles are in the center position of their range-of-motion before marking the bridge placement so each string saddle has sufficient travel toward or away from the nut to allow for proper intonation.

I understand the challenges of rebuilding Halo&#8217;s reputation. It is going to take a long time and a lot of instrument sales. But the important fact is I work with a great team of people and we&#8217;re dedicated to the success of this company. We work hard together every day to achieve this goal and we&#8217;re making real progress. Although we don&#8217;t have much support on sevenstring.org, I&#8217;m grateful that Halo is continually earning new customers from different areas of the web like EBay, Facebook, our main website, through referrals, and our storefront. There&#8217;s a fair amount of instrument sales and reviews from real customers on our EBay account, Musictrades, for those of you interested in how we&#8217;ve been doing lately. 

I&#8217;m a proud member of this forum&#8230; I&#8217;ve gained a lot of guitar knowledge over the years here. 
So feel free to contact me anytime here on ss.org, by phone, or e-mail. Thanks for reading

Jeff Lee
[email protected]
408-873-8606 extension 107


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## Stealthdjentstic (Feb 3, 2011)

If you really wanted to make things right you should be offering a full refund or at least to refund the amount he spent polishing that turd.


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## rockerjeff (Feb 4, 2011)

hmmm de hum: I just sent you a PM.


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## rockerjeff (Feb 4, 2011)

Explorer said:


> I'll agree that it would make it easier for Halo if they were to be more available for testing, but I can't even imagine how they would arrange that. Even if they put several instruments out for testing, I'd probably be a little leery of their having poured their best efforts into the demo models, and of getting something a little underwhelming comparatively once an actual order was placed....



You make a good point and it is a reasonable concern. But, in recent years and now, we really do put our best efforts into every single instrument we sell, not just demo or review models. It is the only way.


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## DevinShidaker (Feb 4, 2011)

Proper fret/bridge installation shouldn't be "improvements" if you're trying to run a reputable guitar business. Jeff, I know you have been with the company for a while, and I know you were around while Waylon pretty much drove the Halo into the ground. It's damn near impossible to rebuild your reputation after something like that. Larger companies can bounce back from embarrassing blunders because they usually have a history of good reputation before something bad has happened, Halo guitars doesn't share that same luxury. You very well may have overhauled the quality control on your guitars, but it doesn't matter if the only thing people remember are the horror stories of the guitars you used to put out. 

And about the guitars themselves, I know everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but a lot of your guitars are just in no ways aesthetically pleasing (the Reaper especially). Focus your attention on a small line of guitars, I would focus on refining the Morbus, Octavia, Goliath, and maybe one other before trying to offer a huge line of guitars. Focus on LESS EXPENSIVE American made products, I've seen a lot of your custom shop guitars on ebay, and the prices are downright ridiculous. I understand they're probably built by a reputable luthier, but they still say "Halo" on them, which will turn people off. All you are doing is wasting company money on ghost builds than nobody will buy. Invest it instead in better designs and build quality on your lower model imports, then focus on impressing as many people as you can at NAMM, that's the first place to go to rebuild your reputation. 

Sorry for the rambling, I just woke up and saw this thread.


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## OminousMike (Feb 4, 2011)

Wow, I'm glad this thread has turned out to be so successful 
These guitars seem to have most of the specs that I would want (i.e. 27" scale length, preferable tone woods, etc.) at a fairly reasonable price. I'm finding myself becoming more of a 7 string guy since I got an Agile guitar, so my interest in Halo guitars was initiated by my wanting to expand my collection.


*Razzy*: That's just unacceptable, sorry to hear that happened to you.

*Sponge*: As a matter of fact, I recently got an Agile 727 Septor Elite; I couldn't be happier with it, it's truly a finely crafted piece  I'll be posting a thread about that in the future.

*Stevo1*: At the beginning of every year, they post a link at the top of their Electric Guitars page that allows people to order custom Agile guitars. It only stays up there for about a month or so because they don't have the resources or man power to crank out custom orders year round (or so I would assume). Also, if you subscribe to their newsletter, they allow sometimes to have their pre-existing models to be customized as well via email.

*Explorer*: I have actually done a considerable amount of research in the past few months into other brands before I decided to buy my Agile. I'm very up to date, thanks for the input.

*rockerjeff*: I do not doubt that your company has made strides in improving it's quality standards after some of the problems that people have had; however, with this many people telling me about their problems and their bad experiences, I can't just ignore it.


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## Explorer (Feb 4, 2011)

Sorry for assuming that you might not be up on things. I hope you can forgive me, but I was just worried that you might not have exercised enough due diligence, given your initial question.

Cheers!


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## AVH (Feb 5, 2011)

Sponge said:


> Sometimes I wonder if the new members are Halo employees checking out how much we remember.
> 
> To the OP, I also had problems with Halo. They broke the first guitar before it was deliver, and then rushed a 2nd one. The bridge was off 1/4 of an inch and the guitar could never be intonated, the fret bars became very sharp, and upon delivery, the action was all over the place and I had to try and adjust/set it up the best I could, despite the issue with the faulty measurements in scale length. This was a custom and I had to post on here all of the things wrong with the guitar just to get my money back. After 3,000 views in less than 48 hrs and lots of support from the people here on the forums, full refund was made.
> 
> ...



I remember this guitar being brought to my old Toronto shop...major issues. I dressed his fret ends and set it up as much as it could be, but the bridge mislocation made intonating impossible, and to remedy the situation would be major work (i.e. expensive). Cardinal fundamental workshop rule : measure twice, cut once. And I've seen two Halos since with a similar problems. Perhaps they need to hire luthiers/techs with more ERG experience, and hopefully they will be able to salvage something of their reputation.


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## Demiurge (Feb 5, 2011)

rockerjeff said:


> and we make sure the string saddles are in the center position of their range-of-motion before marking the bridge placement so each string saddle has sufficient travel toward or away from the nut to allow for proper intonation.



Shouldn't your templates (you're using templates, right?) be able to tell you exactly where to put the bridge? I couldn't imagine this _not_ being figured out ahead of time, and it's a bit scary to hear that the builders are still "winging it" over there.


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## Deadnightshade (Feb 5, 2011)

Guys guys what's done is done.They fucked up.But that's not the point.

What troubles me is that halo doesn't give us any motive to trust the company again.3 neat looking instruments since the major fuckups don't mean a thing.I think the perfection in measurements is OBLIGED in their case so i don't even count it.IMHO halo should start listening to the forum more just like agile does (well they work differently but you get what i mean) , give discounts or generally keep the prices low ,release mid priced ERGs, and give the ability for INSTANT cash back with no shit.


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## BlackStar7 (Feb 6, 2011)

Did anyone notice Halo is currently offering $500 off it's base price for a custom build? I imagine this could be mighty tempting for people who haven't done the research...


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## OminousMike (Feb 7, 2011)

BlackStar7 said:


> Did anyone notice Halo is currently offering $500 off it's base price for a custom build? I imagine this could be mighty tempting for people who haven't done the research...


 
I must not be seeing what you're seeing; the starting price for a custom build is like $720. Was it like $1,200 before or something?


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## BlackStar7 (Feb 8, 2011)

According to their website it's normally $1250 but is now $750 with the discount. Eek. Any custom that starts that low is usually too good to be true, much less with all kinds of horror stories...


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## OminousMike (Feb 8, 2011)

^ Oh lol got it


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## CONTEMPT (Feb 8, 2011)

Sponge said:


> *Sometimes I wonder if the new members are Halo employees checking out how much we remember.*


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## Korngod (Feb 8, 2011)

the only halo ive ever encountered was a Randy Rhoads 7 string, and the horrible fret markers cut my fingers.. 

i really think they should have tried to change their name when they tried to revamp themselves. they now have to try harder than ever to make a sale, just because of all the past horror stories. hopefully everything works out and their quality vastly improves so that the extended range community still has yet another option for purchasing guitars.


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## Explorer (Feb 8, 2011)

Actually, there has been a point raised more than once, and since Halo has raised its head on this thread, I have to ask them directly:

Why are you holding on to the old name? 

I guess I could understand if one was worried about someone saying, Oh, that's Halo, they just changed their name... but the stuff still looks the same!

But, if the quality has come up, and if there is great confidence internally that the new products won't remind anyone of what had come before, why stick with the only part of the product which would be a constant reminder of past issues: the name? 

Just wondering!


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## rockerjeff (Feb 17, 2011)

Explorer said:


> Why are you holding on to the old name?
> Just wondering!



This is a good question, and one I've thought seriously about on more than one occasion. Being with Halo since 2005, I have a comprehensive understanding of Halo's past, present and future strengths/weaknesses/challenges/etc. I do have the ability to change the business name, but have chosen not to. 

Ultimately, it is in Halo's best interest to keep the name. There are strong incentives outweighing the disincentives and bad reputation Halo has earned here on ss.org. There are two sides to every situation, and this is true with Halo as well. I won't go into all the fine details, but wanted to address your question.


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## remington (Feb 17, 2011)

Well, I personally do not own a halo, but the guitarist/singer/drummer in the band does. He has a seven string halo something or another, it's the one with the ibby type body with lots of edges, it has a flamed type red burst look, and a Floyd in it. It plays very very very nice!!! And sounds great through his Mesa nomad. Also I am in no way affliated with halo, just saying I can vouch for just one of their products to come outin the past 5-6 months. If it weren't for the 8 string Octavia to have been outof stock I would have bought one instead of my interceptor 828. This thing really is a great, great guitar. But just that one


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## chaostarter (Mar 22, 2011)

I own a string-thru 7 string B-stock Satyr. The cosmetic flaw ( a slight ripple in the paint near the neck joint ) was the reason the guitar was so affordable and why I bought it ( I like to customize ). When I received it, I was astounded... I've never seen a nut with slots so uneven, a real joke ( I've kept it to show to friends for a good laugh ). The pickup was a kinda muddy ( But let's be clear about one thing, I'm a Duncan guy, so... ) but, nonetheless, and , to my amazement, I was pretty comfortable playing with it. More so, once the nut replaced, and the pup changed, I was very pleased with my purchase. The ripple in the paint was seamless, compared to the nut IMO. I'm now planing to put locking tuners on it , but there's no rush, cause it keep it's tuning perfectly. On the overall, I'm very pleased with it. In fact, I'm so comfortable playing live with it that I'm planning on buying another one that I will tuned in Low E... I don't like 8 string neck, too wide.


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## chaostarter (Mar 22, 2011)

[ you can actually still see the guitar here : Halo Custom Guitars Satyr 7 String Electric Black B | 7 String Guitar ]


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## hmmm_de_hum (Mar 22, 2011)

Kinda forgot about this thread, as a result of this being specifically brought to Jeff's attention he has proposed a free rebuild in light of the condition that "Fabled" Octavia left the factory in. 

I have been conducting this personally, but i thought it might be time to bring it to this thread, the specs are finalised and i've had to pay a tiny upcharge for a slightly different spec on this one. In about 6 months or so i will see if this one at least arrives in a playable state.


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