Review

Wolfgang USA HT Review

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Review of Wolfgang USA HT Guitar -

Now let's look at the USA Wolfgang, which is Eddie's personal choice. To my mind this is what the Wolfgang guitar is all about. It's sleek, sexy and functional, and although the finishes are impressive and exquisite, you won't mind a few battle scars over time, and loving wear marks.

Essentially, the guitar looks pretty much the same as the Japanese version, although the basswood body features a carved top this time. Our review guitar came in an attractive vintage white, with a five-ply body binding. The neck is once again AA bird's eye maple, with an oiled finish and a compound radius. There are 22 stainless steel frets and at the body end of the guitar we have the truss rod wheel for easy and quick adjustment. This guitar was also supplied with a fixed bridge and featured a Floyd Rose locking nut plus a string retainer. The machine heads are branded EVH tuners, so as you can see the spec is pretty close to the Japanese version.

The body shape is the Wolfgang body design, although as I said this model has a carved top, with the middle of the body where the pickups are situated being quite a thick piece of wood. The trem cavity is unfinished inside, to allow the wood to breath and mature, according to Eddie. The controls are the same as the Japanese model; we have low friction pots, a 500k volume pot and a 250k tone pot with MXR style knobs. The pickup switching is the same as before. The bridge is a Gotoh bridge with fine tuners.

Once again this guitar sits very well, and is very well balanced. The additional thickness to the body makes you really feel like you are holding something substantial. The tone of this guitar is noticeably fuller, better sustain, and a much thicker crunchy tone, and warm leads when the neck pickup is selected. This guitar cleans up great with the 500k volume pot. When using a clean tone I was able to go from bright, spanky Country inspired cleans to warm rich Jazz like tones. To my mind you can really see, feel and hear why this is Eddie's main squeeze, and to me this really is a great workhorse and the flagship of the brand.

Check out the full review inc. video of the Wolfgang USA HT by Jamie Humprhires in Issue 10 of Guitar Interactive Magazine ( pg 133)