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HNGD (Wildkat)

Guest alanhindle

By Guest alanhindle
in Epiphone Electrics

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Guest alanhindle

Guest alanhindle

Posted
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My new Wildkat arrived this afternoon: a Korean made Antique Natural.

 

Well, initially I didn't know what I'd done.

 

Many things were so different compared to what I'm used to: F holes, larger body, wierd looking tremolo, three volume pots, semi acoustic sound which, unplugged, took me longer to tune up because of the difference in the sound. Also the neck is wide, more so than my 50s necked SG. The action is higher than I'm used to and the frets are narrower. I don't think I can lower the action without any buzz, as I'm getting a bit now. Doing a bit of fret pressing, the neck seems to have less relief than my Les Paul and my SG so I suppose I could adjust the truss rod to get more of an upward bow so I can drop the action, although I've never adjusted a truss rod before. Additionally the G and B strings are binding, despite the nut having little angled exit points which my epi les paul doesn't. I've got round the binding a bit by tuning up, bending, tuning up again and so on until bending no longer causes the pitch to drop. This seems to work but it's not ideal. Then, when I plugged it in, the bright P90 sounds exposed my weaknesses on rock'n'roll type playing and I got to thinking that this guitar is not for me. However......

 

.....then I cranked up my little Peavey Royal 8 valve king to about half way on the gain, switched to the treble pick up and played some open chords and power chords. My oh my it was sweet! It sounded a bit like a humbucker but had a brighter, throaty, growly break up to it. I had the Pete Townsend tone. Also, with the individual pick up volume controls I could still have an acoustic sound from the rhythm pickup and a cranked power chord sound from the treble. Then, with these both 'set', I could still control everything with the extra master volume. Then, I began to think about the action, the wider neck and the narrower frets. She was still quite fast to play although a bit more bouncy feeling with the higher action. I began to get my head round the fact that my Wildkat is not a shredding machine. Chords and riffs and mellow solos are what she's designed for. So, I don't necessarily need to have the guitar set up for a lower action. Why would I want to when I've got guitars that already do this? Also, if I turn down the gain a bit I can start to look at learning other styles away from the hard rock that I'm used to. Then my playing will undoubtedy improve.

 

To top all this off, like my Les Paul, I cannot stop looking at her. This is an incredibly beautiful guitar!

 

I think what I am trying to say is that this head banger/hard rocker is now a convert to that finger picking, rockabilly guitar known as the Wildkat!

 

PS. Pics will follow when I get round to taking them and work out how to post.

 

Alan

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RSDx

RSDx

Posted
Posted
........Pics will follow when I get round to taking them and work out how to post.

 

Alan

Alan - Congrats !!!!!! I've got my mind set on picking one up when the cashish-flow improves next year after retraining/new career. Pics, please.....ASAP !!!O:) Posting them is easy .... find an online hosting site (photobucket, etc...) upload your pics there, then come here, open a post and click on the little icon that looks like mountains/sun (sorta) ..... copy the link to your uploaded image, insert into the prompt, and you're good to go. Hopefully that made sense, if not, someone can likely explain it more simply than my simpleton self.

 

But, again, CONGRATS !!!!! Me thinkst a Wildkat is in my future as well ..... enjoy yer kat and HNGD to you :-

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TWANG

TWANG

Posted
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hey well written post alan!

 

A tiny bit of levelling down the road will bring you to faster action.. but I think a little higher action on a semi hollow is way good for better tone volume and sustain, so it wont be terribly dramatic, just sweet.

 

Way good that you hung in there and found the guitar... they sure aren't les pauls are they!

 

'Mellow solos', hmmm. Now, maybe. But give it time, and you'll find these baby scream blues and rock.. not to mention Mr. Setzer 'cause I don't have enough words for how hot that can get.

 

The control layout is also super cool on wildkats.. I'm glad you mentioned that. This guitar through a tube amp, cranked, ought to be able, better than quite a few, at letting you do it all from your guitar. That's one thing I'm jealous of wildkat owners for.

 

Get some pics when you get the chance.. Congrats on your guitar.. thanks for a good review, I think people have a better understanding

of the Wildkat thanks to your views.

 

Now go play!

 

TWANG

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Guest alanhindle

Guest alanhindle

Posted
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The rumours are that the Wildkat will follow the Alleykat and be discontinued.

 

According to the guitar dater project, my new Wildkat was made at Unsung, Korea in October 2006!! The box also says it was QA passed by the importer (Rosetti) in July 07. However, I've just bought it brand new, boxed in a case from a large UK supplier. They said it was the last one and that it is discontinued. Three other large suppliers had none in stock. I have no doubt mine has never been played before: I've had to wipe off bits of glue, the pickup stickers are on and the tremolo arm was factory wrapped. Plus there are no pick scratches.

 

Does this mean production of Wildkats really has ceased and, indeed, some time ago and what we are accessing are from a stockpile?

 

Alan

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