Finish is flawless. Haven't played in well over 6 months due to "Da Bizniz" and also my wife'
mother passing away so my fingertips are sensitive as heck. SO....I opted to slap a set of
"8's" strings on it. Controls are nice and smooth as are the machine heads. Rosewood
fingerboard needed to be oiled up TWICE as expected. Neck feels EXACTLY like my Gibson LP.
I didn't pull the pickups nor open the back cavity. Pickups sound darn good all in all and the
guitar really RESONATES UNPLUGGED which surprised me. "Clean" they don't overwhelm you
but kind of have their own presence. I added some Chorus, Reverb and Delay and THOSE made
a real difference. Switching over to "Dirt" and a little EQ I was able to dial in a really sweet Mid
Range I prefer especially for Rhythm. I suspect they have 250K Tone Pots which sucks because
they don't roll off smoothly. I got the Action down where I want it and have a bit of a buzz. The
Bridge is OK but I'm going to swap it out for a Roller Bridge. The stock tuners are decent. I can
see me going to a set of Locking Tuners in the future. I'm not that savvy with Truss Rod, Bridge
and Intonation Adjustments and to be honest don't want to hose any of that up as I prefer
REALLY LOW ACTION. No sense fighting the instrument I always say. So I'll take it to a local
luthier to get that, the nut looked at/filed and put in 500K Tone Pots.
I figure when all is said and done I'll be out $425-$450 tops, all in, which is ridiculous quite honestly.
I have to say that right out of the box these guitars are OK. They need some work/mods but that
should be expected as we all have our own preferences. BUT for the PRICE you're probably NOT
going to find a better value or platform to build off of should you so desire.
As a nice touch they include a pickguard (NO WAY!), Truss Rod Adjustment Tool AND a Right Angled
Cable in the box!
On a 10 Scale I give the Firefly Explorers an 8 but with some work/mods you can get it to a 9 and
maybe more.
Also, the guitar arrived 5 days after I ordered it. Darn good for Calif to FL by UPS!
I also added a brand new TP-6 Fine Tuning Tailpiece to it that I had laying around...love those
things and besides they work and look great.
Here's a close up pic of the TP-6 mounted.
I like "Firefly" guitars enough that I just went an ordered one of their SGs for $217, shipped...in
Transparent Blue of course. I'm going to slap a Fishman Triple Play on it.
