Hi guys,
I scored an awesome new fiddle in a trade yesterday, check it out (apologies for the poor pictures, I'll take some in daylight tomorrow):
Rash are an (unfortunately named) Italian company that make handbuilt guitars; I guess Marco Sfogli is their highest profile endorser.
The specs are:
Very light poplar body, with figured poplar top
Birdseye maple neck (chunky C-shape), oil finished
Ebony fingerboard without front inlays, 16" radius, 24 frets
Rash humbuckers (ceramic bridge, alnico neck), with Ibanez-style 5-way switching
Hipshot fixed bridge with Graphtech saddles, Sperzel locking tuners
Satin "Poison" finish
D'addario 10-46s tuned E standard
First impressions are good - it's extremely lightweight (3kgs/6.6lbs) and very comfortable. I am so happy with the knob placement, I have issues with volume knobs being close to my picking hand, and this works out perfectly. The Hipshot bridge is very comfy, and ebony is always a joy to play on. Upper fret access is great. The neck joint is absolutely airtight, but the finish has some small imperfections here and there. For what I "paid" for it I'm not bothered at all, but if I was the original recipient I would have been less lenient I'm sure.
Visually, the body is surprisingly large, and the headstock is an acquired taste, though it looks much more natural than it does in the pictures I've seen. The figured poplar top is very cool looking, and the finish is striking to say the least. I'm not totally sold on the satin finish (a custom request by the original owner) so I'm considering having it buffed to a gloss, which can apparently done very easily. I do dig the lack of inlays (another custom request).
The neck profile is thick and rounded, but very shreddable, aided no doubt by the large radius 'board. The neck carve reminds me alot of a Carvin Holdsworth Fatboy.
At the moment the action is unspeakably low (well under 1mm at the 12th fret on the high E) - while it feels amazing for shredding, it's buzzing quite audibly, especially on the lower strings.
Unplugged, it's very very loud and resonant with a long sustain. Plugged in it's punchy and aggressive in the bridge pickup position, though there is some clanginess in the attack caused no doubt by the overly low action. The neck pickup is very smooth - it gives an instant Petrucci lead sound, and sounds nicely rich and warm on clean and mid-gain tones. Positions 2 and 4 on the selector yield some very snappy and glassy sounds that work great with compressed cleans for funky chordal work. Output wise, the pickups aren't massively hot, but certainly aren't vintagey, looking at the input level on my Axe-FX they register about the same as the Nailbomb/Cold Sweat combo in my RG7321 (though I haven't matched the pickup heights to make it a fairer test).
I'll be switching the pickups out for some Warpigs - I'd like to go with some hotter and darker units and use this guitar mainly for modern fusiony shred. The original owner wants to buy the pickups back, so it's win/win.
That's all for now, feel free to ask questions. I'll probably do a clip or video (or both), but not till it's been set up properly.
Cheers chaps
