Once again I must thank Megi for introducing us all to the Shine SIL510. If it hadn't been for his aggressive marketing campaign (!), all those years ago, I would never have found such a delightful guitar. I have my SIL510TR (Translucent red) to hand all the time these days, playing it for around two hours a day.
It is an absolutely wonderful guitar to play, with a great fretboard and a great feel to it. It feels very compact, suits my playing style to a tee. I have to say, of all the guitars I own, including my American Standard Strat, it is the nicest guitar to play. I have seriously considered fitting better humbuckers to it, but it really sound quite good as it is, so I haven't bothered.
It is a very attractive guitar, with a high degree of finish. If it had a quality name on the headstock it would easily belie its £99 price tag.
I also have a TB (Translucent black) one, which I bought with some of the money my workmates presented me with when I retired. I wanted something to keep for posterity.
It is every bit as good as the red one (though at the moment it has old strings on it), but I prefer the look of the red. It was, after all, my first choice when I bought one.
I am thinking of putting some new strings on it and giving it a birl. I have some Dragon Skin strings I bought and have never gotten round to trying. They might be a good match.
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Comments
Megi, I can just hear those round wounds on those two. I bet they’re lovely and jazzy and smooth!
Are those pickups regular humbuckers with foil-like covers? I read somewhere they are AlNiCo V.
Set-in Basswood Body
Quilted Maple Neck, Grover Tuners
Alnico-V 2H Pickups
Tune-O-Matic Bridge
Nickel Hardware, 1V, 1T, 3-Way T/G
I do get more than a bit of hollow body archtop-esque sound quality from mine, despite the only very modest chambering plus f-hole on one side. Especially so when using a jazz-friendly amp, such as a Polytone. I speculate that this may be partly due to the light weight basswood body, but who knows.
If I strum a chord, then cover and uncover the f-hole with one hand, I can hear the acoustic sound changing, so the f-hole/chambering does do something in my view. Re the roundwounds, I just like the cut and zing from those - the guitar's natural tone is pretty warm, so no danger of it being too harsh or bright for jazz use.
Not sure about the quilted maple neck spec quoted - the finish on the necks is so dark, you can't see any wood figuring at all, so why would they use it?
8k and 13k sounds like a good balance. I imagine that’s a nice PAF like neck and a slightly overwound bridge? Yum!
Drat. Got me hankering for one now, so I’d better go play something to make me feel better!
And I think a lot of us have too many guitars these days - an embarrassment of riches really, compared to the days when just getting the cash together for one decent guitar was a struggle. Did a gig last night where I did the posey thing of breaking a string on one of my strats (the gold one), and just switching to another one (the ash one).
You’re right about the too many guitars thing. I really do have more than I can play. Silly really. Sad thing is that most have no resale value, so I can’t even sell them.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/43891/withdrawn-shine-sil-510-80-delivered
I love how you convinced this guy not to sell!
Mind you, it does make me want to keep an eye out for one. Another guitar that I can dedicate to flatwounds would be nice hehe
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/163287215003