January 22, 2009
I bought a Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow!
I couldn't resist any more. I bought the Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow, and I'm glad I did. It's an inexpensive guitar, but it rocks. I am still impressed, and as a Suhr owner, I know what a decent guitar looks and feels like.
The neck is so nice, smooth frets and fretboard, and it has just the right neck shape for me. It's fast but not superthin - just right. The scale length is the shorter, Gibson-style scale length of course, so bending is easier than on a strat. I guess you can play faster on a guitar like this.
The pickups are hot and fat sounding. I don't find them overly agressive though to the extent that they would only work for metal sounds. No, on the contrary. I can get very nice bluesy tones too, or I can easily add a distortion pedal to get heavy rock tones. Fun stuff.
I recorded a few quick test clips the same day I got it.
First clip is heavier rock style. Two guitars were recorded playing the same riff, then I panned them left/right. The "amp" used is TonePort Marshall Super Lead with Distortion stomp box model added.
Next clip is slow blues. Here I use the Super Lead model again, but without the distortion stomp box modeling. One rhythm guitar. The lead guitar plays on the humbucker at first, then halfway through, I switch to the neck pickup in split coil mode, in order to get that "hollow" sound.
You can also listen to a Michael Kelly Patriot Video here.
As a Strat lover, I think this is the perfect combination for me at this time. This guitar looks fantastic, and it sounds really good, and it's a humbucker guitar. This gives me great tonal variety for gigs and recording. I guess the only thing I'm missing at this point is a hollow-body guitar, like a 335 kind of guitar. Well, a Hagstrom might find its way into my home one day, who knows.
I have a gig this Saturday, with Jaron Rovensky. Come see us if you are in the vicinity of Camrose on January 24, 2009! It should be a fun night and I'll be using both my Suhr Classic and my new Michael Kelly Patriot Shadow. The gig is at the Boston Pizza lounge.
I'll be writing more details about his Michael Kelly guitar soon, along with videos of course. I must recommend this guitar. Simply because the quality is very good, and the price is low, at least I think so. Under $400 USD for a great Les Paul type guitar is nothing the complain about. If you need a LP style guitar, take a close look at the Patriots - they are definitely nice guitars.
In summary, a rocking axe worth having! You should definitely try one out, if you are interested in a rocking axe with fat sounding humbuckers.
By Robert Renman - www.dolphinstreet.com
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