Jumbo Sunshade, Music Gear Review - Peavey Generation EX Electric Guitar

Jumbo Sunshade - Ezine

Music Gear Review -
Peavey Generation Custom EX Electric Guitar

        
          
            I 
        took my son to a pool party and one of the older kids who lived there 
        was out on the back porch playing his Peavey guitar through his Peavey 
        practice amp.The kids' father paid $200 for the guitar and amp.  
        The guitar was a new Custom Generation EX.  The amp was a used 
        Transtube; probably early '00s (i have an amp just like it).
The EX sells for $200, but i checked and you can get 'em for around 
        $175 on eBay.  Either way i have to say that this is a great deal 
        based on how well the EX sounds and plays (for a lower-priced instrument).
In addition to the (bearably) noisy pickups, the guitar also sports a 
        transducer and on-board acoustic modeling (analog) circuit.  I'm 
        not a big fan of the piezo sound, but for $200 nobody could 
        complain!
 

            
            
          

        

        The Peavey Generation Custom EX is made to look like a Telecaster.  This one was 
        black with a black pickguard, maple neck w/rosewood fretboard (22 frets; no 
        inlays) & Grover tuning gears.  Add in those two cheap-looking chrome-plated humbuckers 
        this is just a GREAT combination in my opinion.  Strings come up 
        through the back of the guitar; nice.

 

        
            The 
            five-bolt neck heel is curved and the cutaway is huge.  My hand 
            hit the heel around the 16th fret.  It was weird (but cool) 
            playing high up on this Tele-style guitar without having to bring

        my whole hand around, which is what i have to do with 
        my Tele.  This guitar was actually easier to play up there than 
        my Strat; at least while sitting down. 

        

        The intonation was off and i know this is an easy fix but i didn't 
        say anything because i didn't want to get into setting up this kid's 
        guitar.  And his guitar had a hard time staying in tune, but he had 
        just put new strings on, and each stringpost had this little ball of 
        twisted metal (this should be everybody's first lesson, i 
        swear)!

 

        
            The Custom EX is heavier than you might expect it to be with its 
        oversized electronics cavity.The body is alder.

        I've come across plenty of low-priced guitars that played really 
        well, so this wasn't a huge surprise to me.  As with most of these 
        types of guitars, sometimes they come from the Asian factory playing 
        perfectly fine; other times... not so much.

        This guitar had .10's on it and the action wasn't too low  for my 
        taste; there was room to get it alot lower.  It felt great and i didn't have to fight it anywhere on 
        the neck (even full barr chords).Obviously it's hard to do any critical listening through a practice 
        amp and an 8" speaker.  Most amps like this impart so much of their 
        own processed sound; the Peavey amps definitely do.

        I use my own Transtube amp alot so i was completely familiar with that 
        tone.

        
The clean sounds from both pickups were great.  I'm not saying 
        this based on the price tag; they just sounded really good through that 
        amp.  The bridge humbucker was twangy enough and the neck bucker 
        sounded really punchy and smooth.
The distorted sounds were classic Peavey practice amp, which people 
        will either love or hate!  I didn't like the balance between 
        the two when distorted though.  Whatever you dialed in on the amp 
        to make the bridge pickup sound best was not the ideal 
        setting for the neck pickup.  With distortion the neck 
        pickup was alot less punchy compared to how it sounded when playing 
        clean.
The Custom EX's pickups aren't the quietest pickups in the world, 
        but... what was that price tag again?  :)
I would've loved to hear this guitar through a 2x12 and a real 
        amplifier.


 

        
            Acoustic Modeling

            Ok so here is the big deal.  The Peavey Generation 
            Custom EX has a piezo pickup and this guitar does

acoustic 
        modeling by way of an analog circuit and blend control.  Since 
        there is only one volume and tone control for the electric pickups, 
        adding another knob and switch isn't a problem - they're not in the way 
        at all.  Of course you can choose either the electric or the 
        acoustic sounds, but you can also blend them out of the mono jack.  
        Awesome.
I would never expect to get a "great" acoustic sound out of a piezo 
        in a solid-body electric, let alone through the 8" speaker of a practice 
        amp.  Having said that; to my ears this Peavey guitar's acoustic modeling 
        sound was as "good" as any piezo could sound through that setup.  
        I can't say this enough:

        Getting a piezo (and acoustic modeling) in a $200 
        guitar is just a really really great deal.