Sorry to start a negative thread, but I have to get this off my chest and warn other to the quality control issues with the new AXIS guitars.
I have a limited edition purple axis with the brown backing. I have owned the guitar for 1-2 years and what a nightmare it has been. I owned an Axis years ago (earlier version) that I should have never of sold for a newer Wolfgang. I traded the Wolfgang in for this new Axis and compared to the earlier version the build quality really went downhill.
Let me go through my issues.
1) The neck is different that the older version, it is thinner, but that is not the problem. This neck flexes (or warps) on a weekly basis. I know guitar necks can be effected by weather and temperature, but this is crazy. I can set up my trem and neck for the action I prefer and in a week or a few days, it completely changes. Sometimes the strings become too low and buzz and other times the action raises. Since I make no change to the trem or nut, I can only assume this is the neck responding to weather changes. It has been almost 2 years and I can not get a set up to last more than 2 weeks before it changes. I have owned many guitars new and used and never seen anything like this. It seems to bend like a 2x4 left out in the rain. I can only assume a poor quality of wood and was never dried out properly. It is so frustrating to spend so much time to get the right set up to have it change every 2-3 weeks.
2) The Music Man Trem (Gotoh copy) is such a piece of sh*t. This thing couldn't hold a tune to save its life. I already stripped the nut twice and have broken dozens of lock blocks. They fall apart and disentigrate almost immediately. I called the factory and they denied the issue for months until just recently. I have entire saddle blocks that are useless because the lock blocks are seized inside. Even a drill won't get them out. Since then I have replaced the trem with a genuine Floyd...problem solved.
3) Paint fade. Again guitar is 1-2 years old and the paint is VERY faded. It is sitting on the wall right next to my 1989 Ibanez Saber which the paint is still deep and rich. What a POS. I can't believe the paint faded in a couple years
4) The nut has become loose and moves. The screws that hold the nut in place I wouldn't put to hold up a picture on the wall, let alone the high tension of a set of strings on a guitar neck.
5) Back to the trem. When I took apart the trem to install the Floyd I found they had not pressed in the appropriate mounting posts sleves, but had simply screw the mounting posts directly into the wood. What a cheesy cheap @ss way of building a guitar. So to all you Axis owners, as you use your whammy bar over the months and years, it will slowly start to wear out the threads in the body of the guitar to the point where the trem will become loose and worthless, let alone the how bad it will eventually sound. This just amazed me that a $2000 guitar would be built like this. I would have to press in new sleves and hope that I do it right or the $2000 guitar will be junk.
I have never been so displeased and would bet I can buy a better guitar for $500.
SHAME SHAME ON YOU ERNIE BALL
I have a limited edition purple axis with the brown backing. I have owned the guitar for 1-2 years and what a nightmare it has been. I owned an Axis years ago (earlier version) that I should have never of sold for a newer Wolfgang. I traded the Wolfgang in for this new Axis and compared to the earlier version the build quality really went downhill.
Let me go through my issues.
1) The neck is different that the older version, it is thinner, but that is not the problem. This neck flexes (or warps) on a weekly basis. I know guitar necks can be effected by weather and temperature, but this is crazy. I can set up my trem and neck for the action I prefer and in a week or a few days, it completely changes. Sometimes the strings become too low and buzz and other times the action raises. Since I make no change to the trem or nut, I can only assume this is the neck responding to weather changes. It has been almost 2 years and I can not get a set up to last more than 2 weeks before it changes. I have owned many guitars new and used and never seen anything like this. It seems to bend like a 2x4 left out in the rain. I can only assume a poor quality of wood and was never dried out properly. It is so frustrating to spend so much time to get the right set up to have it change every 2-3 weeks.
2) The Music Man Trem (Gotoh copy) is such a piece of sh*t. This thing couldn't hold a tune to save its life. I already stripped the nut twice and have broken dozens of lock blocks. They fall apart and disentigrate almost immediately. I called the factory and they denied the issue for months until just recently. I have entire saddle blocks that are useless because the lock blocks are seized inside. Even a drill won't get them out. Since then I have replaced the trem with a genuine Floyd...problem solved.
3) Paint fade. Again guitar is 1-2 years old and the paint is VERY faded. It is sitting on the wall right next to my 1989 Ibanez Saber which the paint is still deep and rich. What a POS. I can't believe the paint faded in a couple years
4) The nut has become loose and moves. The screws that hold the nut in place I wouldn't put to hold up a picture on the wall, let alone the high tension of a set of strings on a guitar neck.
5) Back to the trem. When I took apart the trem to install the Floyd I found they had not pressed in the appropriate mounting posts sleves, but had simply screw the mounting posts directly into the wood. What a cheesy cheap @ss way of building a guitar. So to all you Axis owners, as you use your whammy bar over the months and years, it will slowly start to wear out the threads in the body of the guitar to the point where the trem will become loose and worthless, let alone the how bad it will eventually sound. This just amazed me that a $2000 guitar would be built like this. I would have to press in new sleves and hope that I do it right or the $2000 guitar will be junk.
I have never been so displeased and would bet I can buy a better guitar for $500.
SHAME SHAME ON YOU ERNIE BALL
