Mayones Regius 6 NGD/review/issue?

Hey guys,


long time reader / first time poster here. I've been browsing this forum daily for infos about Mayones guitars while I was waiting for my custom shop order to arrive.
Here I will tell about the ordering process and what I've got in the end. First of all I am incredibly pleased with the end result. Yet there are still some issues with it...



Pics and specs:

Swamp ash body, maple dominant neck, 3A buckeye burl top, 4A ebony fretboard
Hipshot bridge and tuners, Seymour Duncan black winter set












Ordering from Germany was fairly easy, but finding the right distributor was not. Most of the people that I reached out to were either clueless or not invested enough. I finally ordered through ProMusicTools in Munich just because the guy I was talking to seemed the most knowledgeable.
We went through the specs on the phone and after I payed the deposit things went on their way around April 2019.


Having some experience with the Ran custom shop (RIP btw; a Crusher 7 that I sold and a Gibson style V copy) I was let down with the experience that I had with Mayones. There was no direct contact to anyone of Mayones, only with the German distributor. I felt detached from the whole process. But I guess that is the deal with "semi custom builds". The ETA was set for around early June and so the long wait began.
Eventually June came and went and I did not recieve any update. After some inquiries with a Dutch (!) distributor, a new ETA was given to me. It was set for mid to late September. What really disappointed me was the clear lack of communication. Nobody informed me about the delay and nobody I could reach knew anything.
I don't have a problem with waiting longer for something if that particular something then turns out to be the way that I want it.


Early September I recieved a mail from ProMusicTools with excellent news and some attached pictures. The guitar arrived! I started to drool when I saw the pictures for the first time (and many more times after as well!). The buckeye burl top in combination with the black burst is friggen amazing. The finish turned out exactly how I wanted it.
But the first issue appeared here. The guitar was sent in a gig bag... Why did Mayones send me a almost 4k guitar in a gigbag?! After a call with the distributor I found out that Mayones had problems with several headstock breaks regarding the Duvell model and wanted to play it safe with their own gigbags. Let that sink in for a moment. I am looking forward to the discussion in the comments!
ProMusicTools handled the problem and sent me a Hiscox case with my guitar. After about 3-4 days later the guitar was finally in my hands.


The guitar looks even better in person than in the pictures. The feel and quality are top notch. Every praise you read about them is true. I can't really add anything of substance to that. Incredibly tight attack, sharp and defined sound, and maybe my favorite aspect is that the guitar gets warm. The back is finished in antique black with what it seems to be open pores. The warmth and vibrations that are being trasported throughout the body give me a feeling of being directly connected to the instrument.
The neck shape is super comfortable for my hands and suits modern playstyles (my left thumb starts hurting when I play the bass notes a la Hendrix).
The black winter pickups are by far my favorite pickups of all time and suit the guitar perfectly well. The distorted sounds are clear heavy as f*ck with a nice midrange but the clean split sound just blows my mind (Strat sounds come effortlessly). I could go on and on about all the good aspects of my Regius but now after the honeymoon phase is over I want to be as blunt and as honest about it as I can be. Nonetheless the guitar is inspiring and a absolute joy to play. To be frank, it is the best guitar I have ever played.


With that said, let me tell you about a few minor issues and a bigger one.
On the back of the guitar you can find a little blotch (2mm diameter) of ink/laquer (?) where it seems like it was not perfectly finished and just forgotten to be apllied correctly. This is no problem at all, just a minor cosmetical error.
The next point is that the guitar arrived in the wrong tuning and with the wrong strings. I ordered it specifically in D-Standard with Daddario XL strings (I dislike the feel and higher tension of the NYXLs). The guitar arrived in standard tuning and with NYXL strings. Mayones works with so much attention to detail but this detail got lost.
After a string change and a set up I got the guitar where I wanted it. The playability and overall action are just how I want it (I prefer to have a slightly higher action due to playing big chords and wanting the notes to ring out without choking). You could also go lower but that is unnecessary for me.



After I have played the guitar extensively for two months I have made quiet a shocking discovery. The F on the 12th fret on the F string does not ring out properly. Its sustain is remarkably shorter than any other fretted note. The note is fully there but after about 1-2 seconds the amplified or even dry note just dies off rapidly. I have tried several other notes but luckily I have only found this one dead spot.
Pickup or string height does not affect the sustain. Regarding my setup skills I would say that I know what I'm doing and I feel confident that I did everything I can but if you guys have some tips regarding this I'm glad to hear them!


Now I'm considering to do yet another string change and see if anything happens. If not I will contact the Dutch guys and see if they can help me get in contact with Mayones to sort it out.


The guitar itself is incredibly beautiful and a joy to play but I just can not unnotice that swiftly disappearing F on the 12th fret (I like to land on it pretty often as well...). It is not an issue that renders the guitar unplayable but it just a flaw that I can not unsee in a guitar in this price range!




Overall I am very pleased with the endproduct (except for that one flaw) but the journey on the other hand was not as satisfying. With prices for new Mayones guitars rising year after year I would propably not get another (new) one. Mainly because this one should be all that I need!



Let me know what you think!

 

Well after experimenting with different weight wrenches by taping them to the headstock I found that applying them had the effect of shifting the deadspot on the F/G string. It tends to move up the neck into the higher registers. This makes me doubt the theory of it having a high fret in that area.

I don't have Facebook so I can't reach out to Mayones this way, so the Dutch guys will be my first approach. Lets hope that the dead spot can be fixed somehow. The effect is so pronounced that it takes aways some of the joy of playing this otherwise fine *ss gutiar.

 

It was a Mayones gigbag. You can see one in Rabea Masaads video of his custom Duvell.
I have contacted my Dutch contact yesterday and now I'm waiting for a reply.
Fingers crossed!

 

Here are some (hopefully working) pics of the guitar while I'm waiting for a reply