narad
Progressive metal and politics
Wow, this was a crazy past week. First, I found a long sought for guitar -- an original 80s Nightswan Lightning. I previously had an MIJ black nightswan, and an ESP custom shop that was basically nightswan spec, but never a "USA" model. The funny thing is they all come from the same place -- ESP. What makes a USA model is that the ESP-made parts went to the US for assembly and later stage work. But the prices on the USA ones have gone crazy, and coupling that with a weak yen and import scaling with the cost of the guitar, the thought of ever buying and importing one was pretty low, and basically just figured it would never happen. Funny what winds up in Japan though! So I bought it.
Then, before I had even taken delivery, I find out the same guy is selling a vintage polka dot nightswan, my second favorite! So after some debate, figured I buy that one too, and if push comes to shove, sell it or whichever. But at the moment, 2 USA nightswans, great condition, are both in the house. Rare double nightswan photo op:
So coupling that with buying a Sig-X this week and my accounts are super drained at the moment. I sat down today to see how they differ and if there's a clear winner, and how they compare to the other nighswans.
Overview, they're both quite light guitars. Construction is simple, apart from the finishes, but everything is built well, and they feel pretty solid. In contrast to my MIJ nightswan, which was weirdly quite heavy in comparison. The interesting thing about the nightswan is probably the weird pickup layout, the scale (24.75"), and the R1 nut. None of these are killer features to me, but I do like the short scale shred guitars. The R1 nut that I was hesitant about back in the day (and was looking forward to the R2 on the reissues) is a difference I hardly notice. Though it does give a bit of the Lynch model feel (which is like R3 on an R2 neck IIRC), where you have a bit more margin than average on the sides of the neck.
Off the bat, both sounded kind of bad actually! I played the lightning one for about five minutes and then went and did something else
It was only when the polka dot one arrived that I noticed the huge difference in the two. The lightning is to my knowledge all original, which means a full shred in the bridge. It played nice, but sound was thin and lacking... well, pretty much everything, and somehow still flubby. The polka dot on the other hand had a not so great setup, but sounded fuller. It had the full shred replaced with a PAF Pro, but I also noticed the action placed the strings much further from the pickup than the lightning one. After adjusting the pickup heights (on both guitars actually) much lower, and then turning on my boost, they both started sounding amazing. The lightning in particular, although the full shred is definitely not my favorite pickup, was undeniably "that sound". Kind of interesting to imagine the previous owner was apparently really happy with them up so high the pick basically drags across the top of the bobbin between the strings.
So maybe no surprises, but after being setup similarly, there's very little difference between them -- the polka dot one feels more balanced and richer in the bass, the lightning has more cut and high-end presence -- but this could easily just be the pickups. Compared to my previous MIJ nightswan though, both the playability and the tone is much improved. I had originally thought it had a full shred, but the old MIJ ones had a custom wound pickup, that comparatively wasn't very good IMO. Compared to the ESP CS, these both sound different -- that basically sounded like an ESP, though the woods were different (ash on the ESP). Lee here bought that one and sounded very happy with it, definitely good, but different vibe. And compared to the reissues, I'm not sure, I've never played, but they have an R2 nut, and a JB bridge, it's quite a departure stock. But I like that the old ones have a lacquer that has aged, and in the case of the polka dot, made the color much more green than it would have been originally.
But now I'm in a tough spot. Keep both and try to balance the budget elsewhere, despite being basically the same experience, or sell one? I was leaning towards selling the lightning one, but ah, the photos look good ::sigh:: I strangely would have been happier if just one had popped up! Or maybe at least popped up a few years apart.
Then, before I had even taken delivery, I find out the same guy is selling a vintage polka dot nightswan, my second favorite! So after some debate, figured I buy that one too, and if push comes to shove, sell it or whichever. But at the moment, 2 USA nightswans, great condition, are both in the house. Rare double nightswan photo op:
So coupling that with buying a Sig-X this week and my accounts are super drained at the moment. I sat down today to see how they differ and if there's a clear winner, and how they compare to the other nighswans.
Overview, they're both quite light guitars. Construction is simple, apart from the finishes, but everything is built well, and they feel pretty solid. In contrast to my MIJ nightswan, which was weirdly quite heavy in comparison. The interesting thing about the nightswan is probably the weird pickup layout, the scale (24.75"), and the R1 nut. None of these are killer features to me, but I do like the short scale shred guitars. The R1 nut that I was hesitant about back in the day (and was looking forward to the R2 on the reissues) is a difference I hardly notice. Though it does give a bit of the Lynch model feel (which is like R3 on an R2 neck IIRC), where you have a bit more margin than average on the sides of the neck.
Off the bat, both sounded kind of bad actually! I played the lightning one for about five minutes and then went and did something else
It was only when the polka dot one arrived that I noticed the huge difference in the two. The lightning is to my knowledge all original, which means a full shred in the bridge. It played nice, but sound was thin and lacking... well, pretty much everything, and somehow still flubby. The polka dot on the other hand had a not so great setup, but sounded fuller. It had the full shred replaced with a PAF Pro, but I also noticed the action placed the strings much further from the pickup than the lightning one. After adjusting the pickup heights (on both guitars actually) much lower, and then turning on my boost, they both started sounding amazing. The lightning in particular, although the full shred is definitely not my favorite pickup, was undeniably "that sound". Kind of interesting to imagine the previous owner was apparently really happy with them up so high the pick basically drags across the top of the bobbin between the strings. So maybe no surprises, but after being setup similarly, there's very little difference between them -- the polka dot one feels more balanced and richer in the bass, the lightning has more cut and high-end presence -- but this could easily just be the pickups. Compared to my previous MIJ nightswan though, both the playability and the tone is much improved. I had originally thought it had a full shred, but the old MIJ ones had a custom wound pickup, that comparatively wasn't very good IMO. Compared to the ESP CS, these both sound different -- that basically sounded like an ESP, though the woods were different (ash on the ESP). Lee here bought that one and sounded very happy with it, definitely good, but different vibe. And compared to the reissues, I'm not sure, I've never played, but they have an R2 nut, and a JB bridge, it's quite a departure stock. But I like that the old ones have a lacquer that has aged, and in the case of the polka dot, made the color much more green than it would have been originally.
But now I'm in a tough spot. Keep both and try to balance the budget elsewhere, despite being basically the same experience, or sell one? I was leaning towards selling the lightning one, but ah, the photos look good ::sigh:: I strangely would have been happier if just one had popped up!
Or maybe at least popped up a few years apart.
Those are both killer!
