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You did give them some good feedback here, with the allen key screws either being used everywhere, or not at all. The controls do look like they need a bit more spacing, absolutely no doubt! The nitro finish....some of their guys may need to show the Gibson crew how to properly apply it. That guitar case fit...wait, WHAT fit??? That's horrible. I'd ditch that for a Gibson soft case. There are a lot of things about this guitar that I like, and these guys could become major players in the industry. However, I did send them my own feedback, and although I could afford to purchase one of their guitars for sale, I want to wait and see which direction they go with the critiques.
@@YourWifesBoyfriend as a Brit, I'd never heard of Kobe , have now - and the fact that these clowns think naming a model after a man who settled a rape suit out of court is astounding - I hope they sell none of their guitars and go bust ASAP
@@1happboy I agree - I would have expected "novelty" artwork on a cheap guitar (sub $1,000) to make it more "interesting", not on something that aspires to be "high end".
@@pulaski1 I think that's exactly what these are: mass produced instruments with some tacky artwork added later, passed off as unique. The thing is, there are luthiers out there genuinely building one off guitars, exactly to their clients unique specification. I'd love it if these builders got some air time as well, but for the most part these one person businesses can't afford to advertise.
@@Mikey__R Well, they're trying to be different, which I can appreciate. Some of that artwork is pretty decent, and some of it's...ugh. LOL. Like someone else suggested, maybe orient it so that when the guitar is being played it can be properly seen, not when it's sitting on a stand. Guitars themselves, especially the LP designs, are works of art already. I might throw the Ibanez PS10 body in that category as well. These guys are just trying to find a niche, so let's hope they do.
I think it only looks somewhat like Kobe because they didn't want to get sued, so it's more of an omage to Kobe. Though it could have been better done.
Totally agree... I think I'd like it more if it held true to more of a trad LP shape, scale and pickup selection. They look well made, just a bit too much "snaz" for me and the tones aren't quite where I like em.
I agree with everyone that the artwork just doesn’t work, it looks like someone slapped a sticker on it, not to mention you’ve killed the resale market, how many Kobe Bryant fans play guitar and can fork out $4k, and how many of them want Kobe on their guitar? My suggestion only add artwork by request or personally submitted
Your also an individual with your own likes and interest, just like everyone else, bud. Believe it or not, some people like things you don't. I know, right? It's crazy.
TAOT stands for The art of tone. They're cts pots but they're either custom spec'd or a specific tighter ohm tolerance across the batch or something specifically for TAOT. I can't remember exactly but I have them in a few guitars.
No disrespect to Kobe but the art of him kills the front of the guitar for me, such a turn off having something mess up the nice clean look of this guitar
Personally, I'm not big on gold hardware, but if they're going with it, they should also use it on stuff like the toggle switch ring and the pickup height adjustment screws. Otherwise I'm really diggin' the aesthetics.
I think it’s a pretty sweet Guitar. I’m pretty sure the artwork of Kobe Bryant’s body has him wrapped in a snake. His nickname or one of his nicknames is the “Black Mamba”
@@BlackDogOriginal Dude, Kobe wasn't a rapist. He was only *accused* of sexual assault and misconduct by more than 25 women, including his own wife...Oh wait, that's Donald trump.
Thank you for the review! We're honored to have been featured. 100% of the sale profits will be donated 50/50 to the Mamba & Mambacita Foundation and Save our Stages.
The perfect timing of me putting down the controller for a bit to eat and Trogly uploading. Gotta love the little things 😅 Greetings and well wishes from Utah man!
I'll give Oakland guitars credit for a decent looking axe. The faux binding and ergonomic sculpting on the neck, heel and cutaway was superb. The super belly cut. Nice mahogany. Not a fan of maple necks, especially ones without figuring at a 3K+ price point, but they have solid looking work. The long neck tenon is a nice touch, and the lack of binding is refreshing. The inlays are legit.
Looks pretty cool. That "artwork" just clashes hard on all of them. A guitar is art on it's own. It's like a painting hanging from a statue and they have no connection. Bottom line.....it's ugly.
I love the design, the qc does need a little help at the price point. In due time I think they could get a pretty nice following with some improvements. Cool guitar, and it's nice to see something a bit different on the channel 😎👍 Final note I really like the inlays. Very nice looking imo
Using Machine Screws for the control covers is a fantastic idea. Oaklyn, if you read this maybe consider an insert and machine screw for the truss rod cover. The Volume/Tone controls, are they wired '50s style? Great build, congrats. Speaking for myself the few QC issues Austin pointed out are non-issues.
They're in a very tough market. The product looks well designed ( except the tight control layout) , and well appointed. Those Seymours are sweet. The artwork ... meh. I think , if I was going to spend 3.5K for a guitar , I'd grab a Gibby and maybe load the Duncans in it. I'd be more confident in the resale value. I hope these guys can make a success out of this venture. Good review Trog.
TAOT = The Art Of Tone. They generally get CTS pots and bin them for tolerances and specs and sell them with different capacitors wiring ect. They have a nice amazon store for the most part.
Kobe “the Black Mamba” Bryant. This brand shot itself in the foot from the get go with those “art pieces”. If it didn’t have that aberration, I would definitely consider the Strat looking one with the white pick guard.
I like that you used PRS as a comparison point. Being a new PRS fan in the process of purchasing my first one, it made me more attentive to the review. Good job.
Really beautiful guitar and of course SD pickups improve anything they're installed in. But it seems built for an artificially limited market of sports fans who happen to also play guitar. Even if you count Kobe's rap productions, he's not really associated with guitar.
Anybody else notice that the truss rod access rout was also in the shape of their logo? That was pretty cool. I agree with most of the other comments that the artwork is not good. Their target buyer for this guitar is someone who 1) loves purple, 2) loves Kobe Bryant, and 3) enjoys "boutique" instruments; that's a pretty specific audience, and I can see these "one-offs" sitting around for a long time waiting for just the right buyer.
The 818 and 626? Do they use any other L,A, area codes? 213 for a Hollywood inspired guitar? 805 for a Ventura County Surfing theme? Kinda cheesy for a $3,500 guitar.
for hand crafted 3k guitar. i expect perfection. it miss the mark a bit there. the case is way too big. I dig the color and the cut. the artwork is a bit much.
Gibson produces 6K custom shop guitars that have finish flaws. Even PRS with their private stock guitars at 10K have stain bleeding into their faux binding with fret tooling marks. It just goes to show, that building a guitar isn't easy and is almost impossible to get perfect when working with wood.
@@asterisk606 Machined or by hand, there's mistakes. Doesn't bother me how a guitar is brought to existence. Throughout most the process of building any of the name brand guitars, there's a shit ton of machines involved in the build process. Almost the entirety of the bodies and necks are produced on CNC these days. Routes and all. Gibson has a machine that does a majority of the fret work for them. Other companies have machines that do the majority of their finish work. I only mentioned what I did because I build guitars as a hobby and know how easy it is for something to go wrong and mess up the guitar in some way.
You have two ways to select a guitar, one is with your eyes and the another is with your ears. I pick guitars with my ears and I would pick this one. It sounds really good to me.
Luckily for just 150 you can get a set of the hot rodded humbuckers from SD, brand new, and slap em in any guitar. Like, you can't go wrong with those pickups, the guitar sounding good is just about guaranteed.
Jazz in the neck, can’t go wrong. Imagine the Grover Jackson pickups would of sounded great! My personal favorite pickups are my Groover made Habaneros in my GJ2. Hope you will do a boutique company guitar from time to time. Don’t change, just another cool topic.
Also, in case you didn't catch it, the same "shield" logo that is seen on the back and elsewhere like the case is also done under the truss rod cover too! Nice touch. Speaking of nice touches, I'm looking closer at the "Kobe Shield" and if you look close, it looks like they did an actual Oak Inlay down there where Kobe is trapped for all eternity, lol So, a lot of nice hand done craftsmanship and little extras. I'm going to be using Art of Tone parts on my new Tele clone. It had those little dime sized pots that were so bad that I had to remove the chrome plate and LUBE them brand new out of the box! They're fine now but they already offended me so I'm going to put in some good ones. Thanks for showing us this brand Trog!
It's a beautiful looking guitar in general, the artwork is major turning point for a ton of potential buyers though. They did do a great job of mashing together familiarity to make something that doesn't look like a ripoff though.
Beautiful color, beautiful guitar. Interesting design: It's like a very cool Gibson with a few cool added elements ( PRS style). I admire Kobe. I don't know if everyone else likes that mix, though. I think if you're gonna put him there, do something like put around him a ring of fire or something like that. That design also lends itself to a double cut. I'd buy It.
Lots of things to like about this guitar! The back contouring, the pickup sounds (w/ volume changes too), the fretwork. I am not a fan of the artwork on this or most of their other guitars. I understand the uniqueness concept but it seems very limiting to the potential market.
@@markbaum9615 From what I know, Prince was a pretty good basketball player. I believe there should be a Prince signature basketball dedicated to him. The time has come, now that Kobe Bryant now has somewhat of a signature guitar called Purple Reign. It would only be fair.
I am wondering the thought process of a designer choosing what to put on an instrument. What's the connection between Kobe Bryant and guitars? This don't make any sense to me.
Gibson has that at higher price points sometimes, just saying. Difference is they have brand power. Should be ironed out as much as possible from any high end company
@@Madchris8828 I was looking at gibsons in my local dealers last week - all the talk of then resolving QC issues is BS, the Nashville guitars are covered in dye bleeds, mismatched binding, crap fretwork, tool marks, bits of buffing compound, misaligned screws etc - either they don't do QC or their QC inspectors are told to overlook substandard manufacturing and pass the shoddy as compliant. The acoustics are massively overpriced, but the QC is extremely good and I still want the J200 I will never own
@@frankcarter6427 what you just described along with their "play authentic" crap is why I have no intention of buying one of their guitars. Maybe used, but definitely not at new prices. Far more bang for my buck out there.
Wow, that purple is Be-Utiful! I would definitely want one of those, too bad it's not an homage to Prince instead. Love their designs, colors and hardware!
Looks sick and sounds good too. I would be kinda bummed about the pickup thing especially at that price point. I do think the JB/jazz combo is nearly unbeatable.
TAOT is The Art of Tone. They sell custom CTS pots, NOS caps, and other guitar components. I’d guess those are the custom spec, 5% tolerance pots. Very nice!!
Trogly's playing has come a long way from when he first started demoing guitars. I have enjoyed seeing your playing evolve along with the quality of the videos.
I thought you gave some good honest feedback at the end to match the price point. I'm confused whether this is some sort of weird Kobe tribute, though, that's out of place.
First thought is that pointy body is a bit impractical if you want to lean it up against your couch or amp without it falling over. Not a criticism as such, but they did ask for feedback. And yeah, that lack of snugness in the case is borderline criminal 😩
Trogly Sir , it's nice to see a new player get in the game . Like that prototype, very refreshing, , sounded nice too. Hope to see this new brand on your website in the future ? Hope the company send you the other body style too ? I agree on the case no $3,500 guitar should be sliding around in the case , but hey it's a prototype. Overall I like it 😎👍🏽 . Great video love the content and opening up a new avenue in guitars . 😁 👏🏾👏🏻👏🏼👏🏿👏👏🏽 you rock sir.
The art is Kobe doing a reverse dunk, with a black mamba snake around him. Black Mamba was his nickname (for some reason). Cool guitar, the a purple and gold works for a Kobe guitar, but I'm not a huge fan of putting the artwork on the guitar lake that, but that's just me. I also don't like the sharp points at the headstock and base of the body, but really to each their own. It sounds nice and looks very well made.
Seymour Duncan pickups get a big thumbs up from me. No surprise the bridge overwhelms the neck pickup in the middle position with that output, though that's easily remedied by rolling off some of the bridge volume...
A guitar is an artwork already, it doesn’t need the additional painting which cheapens the product. Make it an optional or removable with an interchangeable panel.
If they could do a full body artwork, like Kirk Hammett's signatures, and fully customisable, then I'd go for one. Just really not a fan of the little shield artwork.
A pretty neat touch was the truss rod channel (not the cover, the channel itself) is shaped like the logo. BTW Trogly, Kobe Bryant's nickname was "Black Mamba" hence the snake.
No artwork. Stainless steel jumbo or ex jumbo frets. Mahogany neck. Single bridge humbucker. Just a volume knob. Better fitting case. Better quality control. Way lower price than $3,400.
Nice design but like most of the comments on here I don't like or want weird artwork on my guitar.... I'd probably buy one if it didn't have that...finally got to listen to your demo...it looks & sounds awesome, despite that artwork thing😏😏
I think it’s a nice looking guitar. The craftsmanship is fair for the asking prices. Plus that guitars sounds very diverse. You can get a lot of sounds out of it. I looked at a few others ones to make sure it wasn’t just this one I didn’t care for the artwork. I’m not sure if the artworks compliment the guitars overall. I really liked the mushroom guitar a lot but felt the artwork and the red headstock took away from it.
TAOT is The Art of Tone, whose website uses multiple brands to make some sort of boutique brand. The guitar seems cool. I'm not big on any of the artwork, but I'd be interested in a guitar without it. The build quality appears good enough for the premium pricing, but it's not really what interests me. The unique carve and control layout are different enough to separate it from Just Another Les Paul Clone for me. The tones Austin got are pretty great. I love the JB/Jazz combo, and have it in one of my Les Pauls.
It looks like someone grabbed a Les Paul and drug it kicking and screaming into the modernization of the 2020's. I really like the aesthetics of this guitar. DEFINITELY space those knobs, and offer the push/pull pots with the grippier speed knobs to make it even more versatile. The Duncan pickup combo has been very popular since the 80's. It's what Randy Rhoads used in his two Jacksons. Get rid of the football style or LP style jack plates and go with what the newer Charvels have going on, which is a plug in down at an angle located on the outer edge of the guitar, almost right below the strap button. Much easier to find, less probability that the cord could accidentally be yanked out, and less angle being put on the guitar cord, lessening the need for buying cords on a regular basis. That design on the truss rod cover: either ditch it for something else, such as the model name or number, or leave it blank. Perhaps the guitar name there? The artwork....eh, hit or miss. On some of their guitars it looks pretty good, but on this one? No. Love the maple neck, but hopefully in the future we do get other finishes/flames/woods to choose from. Anyhow, that's my worthless .02.
Nice guitar! Never heard of Oaklyn guitars before this. Im not personally a fan of the Kobe Bryant artwork but love everything else about these - thanks for the review, will check them out!
