Has anyone played / used / recorded any guitars built by these guys?
I have just ordered a TB500 style guitar from them and have since been suffering from the paranoia that it will play / sound like shit.

Any info would be treated with the strictest confidentiality.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/53727840@N00/78066238/

i don't know how confidential it can be, considering the creator has visited and posted on this forum a few times that i can remember.

a friend of mine saw a band who's guitarist used an electrical guitar and she said it sounded really good.

that's about all i can tell you... use the search function, i recall at least two very in depth threads about these guitars.

Both tmidgett and scott have and play these guitars. I briefly played Tim's baritone (custom extra-thick neck, a bit thicker than my personal taste, but again it was custom), and it was quite nice.

Isn't it a little cheesy that they are using the name of a prominent Bean player's studio name as their company name?
Am I missing something?

They do look nice though. It's hard to find 500s these days.

-A

here's the thread.

jimmyjames (who posts here on occasion) builds these beauties. Tim and scott's glowinng reviews lie therein. I think Redline has one too, but i could be totally wrong.



Faiz

evolu wrote:Has anyone played / used / recorded any guitars built by these guys?
I have just ordered a TB500 style guitar from them and have since been suffering from the paranoia that it will play / sound like shit.

I've only ever played the baritone Kevin made for me, so I can't speak directly to the TB500, but I would be very much astounded if it played or sounded like shit. I would be surprised if it played or sounded anything other than excellent.

My baritone does not play or sound like shit. The neck is not as thick as Tim's, and it's quite wide, in accordance with the design Kevin and I came to. I can play barre chords on it with no trouble. The action is actually frighteningly low. The sustain is impressive. When you wail, she barks.

FWIW, my dad is a machinist and has been so since before I was born, to the best of my knowledge. He currently builds prototype microphones for Shure, and in the past he worked on some aspect or another of the B-2 (Stealth Bomber) which I do not precisely know. When I showed my baritone to him, he was very impressed, and commented on the excellence of the machining of this instrument. And mine is very much custom! I can only imagine the production models to be better, however that would be possible.

I didn't play it, but I looked at and held one of his all-aluminum SG's that came across as quite badass. My experience with the production models only includes seeing and holding, but not playing through an amp.

I haven't recorded my baritone yet, but I enjoy playing it, and very much look forward to recording it.

I have heard Tim's baritone played live on multiple occasions, as recently as last week, and it has never sounded bad at all. Nothing even close to bad. Quite the contrary.

I can't say with any certainty, but I would be surprised if there are many people alive who are more familiar with the construction of both Travis Bean guitars and basses and Veleno guitars than Kevin. Maybe a couple-few, but probably not many.

So stop with the paranoia!

I've only ever played the baritone Kevin made for me, so I can't speak directly to the TB500, but I would be very much astounded if it played or sounded like shit. I would be surprised if it played or sounded anything other than excellent.

My baritone does not play or sound like shit. The neck is not as thick as Tim's, and it's quite wide, in accordance with the design Kevin and I came to. I can play barre chords on it with no trouble. The action is actually frighteningly low. The sustain is impressive. When you wail, she barks.

FWIW, my dad is a machinist and has been so since before I was born, to the best of my knowledge. He currently builds prototype microphones for Shure, and in the past he worked on some aspect or another of the B-2 (Stealth Bomber) which I do not precisely know. When I showed my baritone to him, he was very impressed, and commented on the excellence of the machining of this instrument. And mine is very much custom! I can only imagine the production models to be better, however that would be possible.

I didn't play it, but I looked at and held one of his all-aluminum SG's that came across as quite badass. My experience with the production models only includes seeing and holding, but not playing through an amp.

I haven't recorded my baritone yet, but I enjoy playing it, and very much look forward to recording it.

I have heard Tim's baritone played live on multiple occasions, as recently as last week, and it has never sounded bad at all. Nothing even close to bad. Quite the contrary.

I can't say with any certainty, but I would be surprised if there are many people alive who are more familiar with the construction of both Travis Bean guitars and basses and Veleno guitars than Kevin. Maybe a couple-few, but probably not many.

So stop with the paranoia!

Yeah....I probably am being paranoid, it's just that I haven't ever bought a guitar without playing it for a couple of hours first, and even then I end up selling 9 out of 10 guitars because I cannot set them up how I like.
So far I have heard nothing but great things about Kevin's work (he seems like a decent bloke too through the emails I have had from him) and nothing but positive reviews from guys on this board (i'd like to think they knew what they were talking about....fingers crossed).

When the guitar arrives I will let you know how it palys / sounds / weighs.

Peace out y'all

That goes on the Most Badass Ever list.

excuse me i most be off in cloud fucking coo coo land but his site does not mention anything about these being finished yet - how much are they exactly?
frankly it looks fucking awesome.

I received one of his Standards a month back and it sounds excellent. I absolutely love it. Kevin's a decent, straightforward guy to deal with and if you're interested, just send him an email. He answers queries promptly.