IYV IVSV-300 CHERRY RED Solid-Body Electric Guitar, cherry Red

Let me start out by saying I am a pretty new guitar player, so if you're more experienced you may find issues with this guitar that I may not have. The guitar arrived very quickly. The box was not super thick or padded, but it protected the guitar, so no complaints. It arrived within a few days of ordering. The guitar looks great. The finish is a nice cherry red, and for the most part was flawless. There is a tiny impression in the finish by the back strap button, but that's about it. The wood looks good. It may or may not have veneers. If it does they look convincing. The sound is good. The pickups seem a bit more low output than my other guitars, but they get the job done and don't sound bad to me. All of the electronics work, and I had no issues there. The neck is nice. Feels like a fatter wider neck to me. I like it. The frets don't stick out or feel sharp. I do not get any fret buzz on any of the frets so they did a good job there. The fret board was THIRSTY when I got it. I did a string change the day I got it, so I used lemon oil on the fret board. It brought it right back to life. The guitar feels good to play, it is not super heavy or awkward. I tried to whale on the vibrato a bit, and found the guitar had gone a bit out of tune. This could be because of my setup, or the new strings not being broken in, so I won't blame it on the vinbrtao. I have many guitars with vibrato systems though, so even if it's not great that's no big deal. I mainly got the model with the vibrato because I thought it looked better. For the money I don't know how you can beat this. I wanted an SG type guitar and this fits the bill. I would say give it a shot, it seems like a great value.

The build quality is very good for the price point. It is a very good looking guitar. Of course, on a budget guitar there will be things that are not aesthetically pleasing if one looks hard enough, for example, the neck to body joint area; they added a cover there between the fretboard and neck pickup ring to conceal an area that does not get enough attention at the factory for a pleasant aesthetic look. The frets, fretboard and binding are nicely done and finished. The action was decent out of the box, and the truss rod was adjusted properly with a perfectly straight neck. The tuners are not the best, but decent and they do the job. New quality strings are a must. The Maestro style vibrola works nice. I do not have any issues with the factory pickups and electronics. The pickups actually sound great. I would maybe upgrade to high quality pots, three position switch and add a quality drop capacitor to clean the sound a bit more in the far future, but I do not see myself upgrading pickups unless one becomes faulty. I gave it a 4 star rating for the following reasons: first, the nut was not filed properly to fit the strings, binding them and not allowing free movement, resulting in tuning stability issues right out the box. Also, the roller saddle was not properly set, the allen screws that fix the position to the posts were loose. So, I had to take the guitar to a local luthier to have the nut issue fixed, have it properly set up for intonation and maybe a bit lower action, which is a 35 to 40 dollar job, in my area, plus a new set of quality strings. Other reviews point to similar issues with tuning stability and poor setup while some get a guitar that has been flawlessly setup at the factory and only needs a new set of quality strings. At $189, this guitar is a bargain, well built and attractive, if you do not mind taking the risk of having to have a professional do a setup job if you happen to get one that arrived with some minor setup quality oversights, like mine. I cannot comment on playability yet, but the neck was comfortable on the few chords and riffs I played before realizing the guitar needed a setup job. Overall, a very solid, well built, affordable instrument. A hidden gem in the budget instrument realm. At this point in life, I cannot affford the luxury of a high end, high dollar guitar. This one will hopefully do nicely for me. Edit: Got the guitar back from the luthier. He was very impressed with the guitar for the price paid, assured me it would do jicely for my purposes, especially with the price of the other options in the market. That being said, he pointed out, along with the things I pointed out when I took it in to get set up, that when he removed the strings to check all the hardware on the bridge, tuners, etc, the nut fell off; did not have a single spec of glue. Also, the screws that attach the vibrola bridge to the body were loose. IF you have some sort of mechanical ability, I would suggest checking everything that has a screw or mechanical part. I am not going to take a star off my original review because to be honest, fixing those things did not add any cost to the setup job, which was nice of my luthier to do. I did practice some lessons and played some riffs I still remember on the guitar yesterday and after setup, oiling the fretboard and new strings, it plays great, no complaints there. Played it through a Fender Champion 110 with full gain, sounded great. Added a Boss Metal Zone distortion pedal that I have from my past learning attempts and it sounded better, adding more gain and distortion without choking the brightness of the sound.

Considered a Gibson SG vs an Epi. On the basic of feel alone the Gibson couldn't convince me to spend the extra$$$$-seriously, it's a lot. Settled on an Epi SG maestro, but then this jewel! Immaculately prep'd and shipped. Epi finishes run from awful to wow...my IYV ranks w/ the best. Flawless finishing, considering price. Guitar is a beauty. Solid, pickups sound very keepable. And, this was a huge plus for me, this model adopts (essentially) the Gibson headstock style, not Epi's hideously bad headstock profile. Lucky find, will have this guitar for years to come, no looking back. Update: Professional luthier completed a full setup. $100 & STILL purchase holds immense value.

A stunning looking guitar! I've been playing guitar 50++ years and have owned a number of SG's('61 and '67 being my favorites). I have 4 IYV's that I've been very happy with so when I saw that this model was available again I ordered it. Very glad that I did. It has exceeded my expectations. I love the neck and the feel of this instrument. It is very reminiscent of my 1960's SG. The only thing I needed to do was change strings and do a slight polish of the frets. For this kind of price I don't think you can find a better instrument. ** Additional comments after playing and living with this guitar for a few weeks: One of the best guitars I've ever owned- I am amazed at the feel of this instrument! If I didn't know better I would swear I was playing a high-end Gibson. Even happier than I was initially- plays great, sounds great, IS great in my book