I had seen some folks post here about the IYV (Inyen Vina) guitars that come up for sale from time to time on Amazon. Decided to take a peek and lo and behold IYV makes a guitar that is EXACTLY what I wanted spec wise - double bound mahogany body, quilted maple veneer, P90 pickups, and a maple neck with amaranth fretboard (which apparently is purpleheart?)...all for $175 with free Prime shipping.
Knowing how easy it would be to just return it to Amazon if there's an issue, I went ahead and bit the bullet Sunday and it arrived today.
I'm going to do a rather in-depth review of this thing here and note every positive and negative:
The pros:
-fretwork is great, nicely leveled and no sharp edges
-hardware is solid - no issues cosmetically or functionally, tuners are responsive and solid too
-weight is just right - fairly light but not so much as to feel like a toy
-very nice quality maple neck, and a great satin finish - no sticky gloss or cheap lookin' tint.
-nice tight neck pocket on both sides, no cracks or issues
-P90 pickups sound WAY better than I would expect stock pups at this price to sound
-guitar needed absolutely no tweaking of the truss rod, saddles, or anything else...changed strings, oiled the board, and it's playing great with nice low action.
The cons:
-board was very dry (expected on a cheapie, and a few cents worth of lemon oil later it was as you see it in the pics below)
-the high E nut slot was cut a bit too deep, doesn't affect anything but just from a QC standpoint worth mentioning
-the inner edges of the F-holes are not perfectly finished (you can't see it straight on, but if you look into 'em from the side you can tell they're a bit rough) and there are one or two tiny spots in the binding where there's a bit of overspray
-they masked off the front binding when applying the finish but not the back binding, so the back binding is red and not cream. Again, no biggie but it is a little odd. The stock pics of the guitar have things this way too, so I don't think it's an error but a "feature" lol.
In conclusion (and before we get to the pics), I absolutely think that minor cosmetic squabbles aside that are to be expected on a cheapie this guitar punches several times above its price tag. At less than $200 shipped to my door in 2 days, I am extremely pleased with it. I expected to have to change a bunch of stuff on it and I still may down the line, but it really doesn't "need" anything and for this price that's incredible.
Here come the pics!
