Is The AIO Wolf Guitar As Good As They Say? 

As a older hippie, I think the guitar market is still hitting all the good things for players. When I was playing, cheap guitars were unplayable. Now, with CNC machining, the world's your oyster

Willing to listen to a honest review is one big plus for the company. You need honest review to improve the product. Well done.

I bought a Wolf WLP750T Transparent Red from AIO in February 2021. It plays and sounds great, and the finish on mine is absolutely perfect. The setup also was great. I love this guitar and am so glad I bought it.

I received the AIO WLP2020 as a Christmas gift, and It’s been my go-to guitar ever since. It plays great but IMO I feel that the finish is much better and the headstock is more appealing on a visual level.

"More gain" tone is nice! Seems like any missed finishing details didn't affect the sound. 🤘

I got a Wolf LP this year, found a used one listed for $135 locally. I had been on the fence for one of these ever since they went big and I jumped on it. I got one of the early ones with abalone inlays and binding. Its a beautiful guitar and don’t plan on getting rid of it. Once cleaned and set up it plays amazing and no flaws what do ever. The guitar Phil featured my have been a Friday guitar.

Picked up a Wolf WLP from AIO in transparent red in 2021. My finish was flawless and the setup was great. So much better than the Epiphone that I bought in 1991-92 for around the same money. Guitarists have so many great options now that i could never have imagined back then.

I have an AIO and Wolf LP from them and they are awesome. Definitely recommend them 🤘🏻

I'm glad you do guitar review videos. Makers/Builders need honest reviews of their instrument to fully appreciate what they're doing well, and where they need to improve. Customers want Builders to succeed in making good guitars at a fair price. Thanks

I got a Epiphone gold top during a sale at a local shop. $499 plus tax. The fit and finish are way above what you see in this video. I picked up an SG at the same time. Both play well and had no issues. Did a set up on both and added Dylan DAFs to the SG. Both play great. Nice video as always.

Great review! There are a lot of misses for a guitar with limited trade-in or resale value, and it seems like we get a new import brand every month, almost as frequent as new pedals. I would be interested in seeing a review on their relic strat, at least its supposed to have finish problems.

I pulled the trigger on a purple Wolf Semihollow in PRS style because it looked so beautiful with the gold metal. Then I kind of regretted when I realized the shipping costs and taxes for Sweden. But when I got it I love that guitar. It’s light, 24 smooth frets and sounds good. The first day I got it I mounted a Seymour Duncan Triple Shot for the neck pup, a Göldo Tremolo and a Roller Bridge. The small minus should be some glue in the F-hole sides and that it wasn’t coil splitted from start. Other than that it was fine. And the Grover tuners feels great. I have two PRS Custom to compare with.

I purchased a few Wolf guitars from aio, they were and still are flawless, the Wolf guitars also do not have serial numbers but it does say made in Indonesia, really good guitars

This was a great review for me to check out. I just bought a AIO Wolf WLP 750T and it's being shipped as I type this. I am stoked to get it. I've heard great things about Wolf guitars so I'm looking forward to it. Thank you for the vid!

I like AIO, I have the SG model and it is great! I think they somewhat underrated.

I have both a blue SH-335 and a Tropical Sunset TC-3 and I absolutely love them. I have the Gibson and Fender equivalents and can honestly say that I think I prefer the Wolf/AIO guitars over the originals. And you can’t beat the price points for the quality of guitar that you get. I can see being a bit put off by the overspray on the gold top, but to be clear my two are perfect paint wise and a bit of overspray doesn’t really bother me as it does not impact sound or playability. Thank you for your review, as always!

Well that sure was interesting for $500! Seems very playable and hits on all the important stuff. Thanks Phil!

I appreciate when you give the weight! Thanks

It’s likely made by IYV in Vietnam. IYV in house pickups are the Destiny CNC wound. IYV builds a lot of the Wolf/AIO.

I have the red burst version of this guitar but not with the notched head. In other words, I have the Wolf branded version which has a nice head stock, in my opinion. I've had it for about 2 years now. The finish and everything about it is flawless. I have not found a single flaw. The frets are all level and I tested them with a fret rocker. The setup was exactly as I ordered. There was no debris in the switch chambers as seen in this video but I haven't removed the pickups so I don't know about that. I slightly damaged the slot in one of the bridge height screws and AIO sent me a new one free of charge. Bottom line: I couldn't be happier.

I am a adult new beginner reviewing videos to find the best lowest cost guitar to buy. I am glad I found this video. I think it is the best reveiw video I have ever seen. None of the other reviewers did the techincal testing like Phillip did. From now on Phillip's site is the one I will search first for honest techincal reviews of equipment. After watching Phillip uncover the overspray and sawdust issues I am thinking I need to increase my budget for my first guitar. Might as well just pay the couple grand for a new Fender and be done with trying to find a good low price guitar. As they say you get what you pay for. Thanks Phillip for the best techiical guitar review.

I received a honey burst AIO Wolf WLP 750T in May and it had pretty bad cosmetic issues in two places. I emailed AIO for an exchange three times and they didn't even respond. It's plays nice, but I wouldn't have bought it had I known of the cosmetic issues.

Hey people, I just caught the last few minutes of this. Sorry I missed it all! Thanks Phil your great! Love all the help and knowledge!! I purchased an AIO cherry burst LP in May and it came quickly and it looks beautiful. Frets are polished like they spent hours on them. I didn't open it up at all but it came really nice. Mine has a different headstock on it that is more ornate and the binding job is beautiful with cream and abalone in them. I think I paid 525 with a Gator case.

The guitar construction is good for this price with the long neck tenon, one-piece neck, Ebony fingerboard and two-piece body. The finish flaws make it a no-go for me though, as even less expensive guitars have way fewer flaws. I will say that I ordered a Gibson Deluxe Goldtop last year, and the first one that Sweetwater pulled for me had a tiny amount of gold over spray in the cutaway. The Sweetwater inspector noticed it and alerted my sales rep.. He sent me a pic, and gave me the opportunity to buy it at a discount. I declined and the one I eventually received is flawless. The point is, over spray can even happen on expensive guitars, but this one has a lot of it.

I thought this was made in S. Korea? Your videos are always a pleasure bro.

Was good to watch this review, Guitar Max has reviewed quite a few AIO GUITARS ON HIS CHANNEL. He always seems to rate them highly. Their store is only a few miles from me in L.A. may need to check some out in person. I think your honest review regarding the playability and sound being very good is still encouraging. Pretty competitive, I did think these were made in Korea instead of China but that’s probably why the price is still so affordable . Thanks!

Agreed Phil, egos checked. Can't see you missed much so big +1 to you, very helpful honest insight. May the brave keep allowing you to check gear out. 👍👍👍🥃Respect to you mate.

Phil! Great focused review on a $500 guitar. I appreciate your detail when reviewing a guitar.

Another great review from a real pro!

I couldn't believe how good it sounded ...great review Phil !!!

You had me with the bridge pickup. That's the tone I've been looking for.

Always great to get a look at new gear, from new manufacturers. Some of the issues would definitely bother me if I bought this guitar. Hopefully it’ll get better as the manufacturer settles in. Thanks for giving us a look, and for your views on it. Cheers Phil! 👊

I bought a headless Eart after watching your video review. Mine was really good considering the cost, and I’m still enjoying it weeks later.

I'm impressed by aesthetics when I'm looking at a guitar hanging in the store. I recently bought a guitar that blew me away on appearance when it was hanging in the store, and I also recently bought a guitar that I thought was butt-ugly, when I bought it. After five minutes playing them that doesn't matter. It's the sound, the feel, and the playability that's important.

Bridge pickup sounds nice 👍🙂. Playing some cool licks Big Phil 😎👍💯👋👋🎸🎸

Much more detailed and useful, than the reviews of another person (who is interesting to watch!) because you go into the nitty-gritty and actively find the good and the bad. The other reviewer seems to concentrate more on the overall initial impression and general appearance and how it sounds - which is fine - but not for a guitar at this price. Good work and thank you for the "heads up" - I nearly ordered one but will go for an Epiphone now.

I have a semi hollow tiger eye of theirs. I thought the fit and finish was excellent. It feels great and the sound is fantastic. I love their crunchy pickups!! Highly recommend.

Phil, The quality problems you found are not a deal-breaker as you indicate. But the fact that several OBVIOUS problems were not noticed and corrected really takes away from a customer's confidence that the important things have been looked after. If I got one of these, I'd be worried that some time later I'll find out what's really wrong with the guitar but was not obvious at first.

I enjoy detailed reviews like this, well done

I bought a through- neck jazz style bass from AIO (branded Wolf at that time) and have no complaints.

the key thing to note is that the price includes a set-up to your preferences by the guitar techs at the AIO shop in California, which is easily a $200 value or so, and it's free shipping to the US. I got this guitar in blue burst about a year ago and I don't fault anyone for going another route but I'm very impressed with the value. Looks, plays, and sounds better than $2000 guitars I've tried.

I'm really glad you did this. I've been thinking about buying a single cut, either a Wolf or an AIO, from this shop. This was very helpful.

Honestly, I would love to see another review on a 2nd one. I have seen so many great comments on them and folks seem to love them! But then, none of the others opened them up and didn't examine the paint so close. But then, even comments on this video say their finish was "perfect". So yea, I'd love to see you look at a 2nd one, to see if this one was a fluke, or sorta common. Maybe like one guy saix, it was "a Friday build". Maybe at 4 PM? 😅 I was gonna buy one today, but now I'm not so sure.

Thanks Phil, nice review. Ideally I'd want to compare all these competing models, but it would be luck to get just two of them in the same store together.

I bought a Wolf version in the blue maple top with flame and it came set up beautifully, It too had some cosmetic issues, a few scratches on the top and a small pin dent on the pickup covers, Neck had a dent they filled in with finish and you don't feel it just see it. My frets were polished top and ends, there was also on the headstock an area that looked like they repaired the small binding with clear epoxy or superglue. Overall, though it is a beautiful guitar, a bit heavy like and LP, and plays and sounds great. All In One Guitar was also helpful in they sent me replacement pickups for the scratched ones that came with the guitar. The Gator case I ordered with the guitar is also very good and for a total purchase of 499.00 I feel like with the set up being perfect and with all of the abalone inlays in the headstock and body binding/neck it is a very good value. I like the Wolf inlay in my headstock better than the inlay in the AIO version you reviewed. Bye the way loved your review and how you present the facts.

Perfect, thanks so much, sound and playability are utmost for me, cosmetics can be fixed when time allows! Liked, subscribed and commented

I’ve experienced overspray on $1500 -$2000 Gibsons… I know a seasoned luthier near me in Havre de Grace, Md. and heck for the money, a couple of extra bucks and you gotta pretty sweet inexpensive weapon of Rock!!! Just my opinion!!!Love the videos my friend , thanks for all your input and reviews!!!!

Thanks Phil!!

Impressive review and playing skill as well. Tks for doing it - informative and fun to watch.

I have many Gibson, Fenders, Paul Reed Smith, Gretsch guitars. I also have one of the AIO SH 335 (blue) guitars and I love it! I’ve had Gibson ES 335 guitars that didn’t play as well as my AIO model.

Nice review Phil. I always appreciate your honest thoughts on the products you review. As for the guitar, if I were new to guitar and had $500 to burn I might look for a used PRS SE or something similar.

Excellent video love your chopstick pointer😂. Love a review of the donner headless with the asymetrical neck. You do a phenomenal job of providing essential information to new players like myself. Thank you again .

Thanks, Phil-good job. I have the WOLF Les Paul and the AIO SG. Both are excellent. Recently purchased 2 IYV guitars from the same Korean factory in Viet Nam, where the AIO and Wolf’s are sent from. I wanted certain colors and models not available at the California AIO store. Very good quality at a great price. One from Amazon, and one Fed-X’d from Ho Chi Minh City. Both were very playable with no blemishes, decent fretwork and low action. The stock tuners were somewhat OK but I added affordable locking tuners. No need for the Grovers that the AIO shop preorders. Love the mention of the amp you chose-I’m looking at the Yamaha THR30II Wireless Desktop Guitar Amp. thanks to your video.

Thanks, Phil. A very fair review. This guitar certainly showed many traits of a "fast" built guitar, and more than some. Given the sort of consistently good finishing I've experience from Gretsch with their Electromatics, and Epiphone, it's a tough market at this price point.

Me, an SG lover. Wow! That Olive Drab SG in the background..! Nice!

Thanks for your review! As you suggested, I'm going to play my guitar now,

thanks for the honesty Phil. You are the man.

Great vid Phil, as always. I’ve been a fan for years, keep up the good work!!

I have an All in One Wolf LP. Bought it brand new from them. It's an amazing playing guitar it has became my #1 guitar over a couple of my over 1k guitars.

Thanks Phil. I think there are definitely other choices

Three years ago I bought a AIO WOLF WLP 750T. I have to say, it was flawless. The setup I requested was spot-on and there were no issues at all with the aesthetics. At the time they sold for $449 and you could add a hard shell case for an additional $50. I wasn't expecting a quality case for the additional $50, but to my surprise it arrived in a Gator hard shell case that sold at the time for $130. I didn't hear if you mentioned the case option in your review, but they still do offer a Gator hardshell case, but for 80-something dollars, still a great value. I have nothing but praise for my experience. I hope your issues with the aesthetics were not the norm now.

Great review, I like your criteria. Like Chris Pfeifer, I am an old hippie and remember how bad guys used to be. Today guitars like the All in One are playable and you can be happy with what you paid for them. After 3 years of buying and selling and trying out everything from Squier level to American made PRS, Fender, Gibson, I found you get what you pay for. I recently purchased a Suhr modern (super strat style) yes, I paid a boat load of money but it meets all my needs, so I don't need a strat for this and Les Paul for another song.

Not for $500. Too many other guitars at or below price point with much better fit and finish. This company needs to step up and clean up its production values. I think this guitar belongs in the $300 price range. Great review, Phil.

Mine was outstanding ❤😊 thanks Phil

I've owned a few Wolf/AIO and I found them to be really nice. No issues at all. I believe they are made in the same facility as IYV in Vietnam.

Hi Phil, with the exception of aesthetics & final finish, the guitar seems to play well. Perhaps a great beginner guitar at the price. Cheers ✌️🎸

I absolutely adore my little Yamaha THR.

Whoever shipped that one to Phil is definitely getting fired….

Does fit and finish matter? I say it depends. Minor blems on a guitar at that price point, I wouldn't be too bothered. On a $2,000+ guitar, ABSOLUTELY.

This is in the used prs se area and im 99% positive that prs would smoke this guitar in every category. Thanks for the review.

I purchased the Wolf WLP750 in Tobacco Sunburst. I took it out and have been playing it and sounds and feels fantastic. Stainless steel frets on mine were set up by them and are already polished, not gritty like yours - they are so good & I can't get mine to make noise and the ends are also rounded and polished smooth. Fret work is spot on and makes my D'Angelico look awful. So after looking at your review, I looked closely at the fit and finish. Bone nut length is properly cut, and I also had to bend a couple strings from day 1 or 2 and now it stays in perfect tune. The Grover tuners do their job well. Then the finish (that I thought was flawless) but upon closer inspection there are a couple bubbles under the clear coat about the size of a pen head (not bad) on the back close to the neck, but I did not find any overspray - that may just be my color not being gold metal flake like yours. I did find a little sloppy stain mark on the edge of the white neck binding by the 12th-13th fret on one side also under the clear coat, appears they could have wiped it off before last coat. So all in all I am still very pleased because its a player! I am afraid to open the cavities in the back to see if there is sawdust inside, but someday I will and have my vacuum in hand. Thanks for the honest review!!

I had considered one of their AIO Wof LPs when I was looking for an LP, but rnded up settling on an Epiphone Prophecy. Really glad I did. Fit and finish are flawless, shitty setup was solved by my local guitar tech, and it plays amazing. I'm done with these budget models, but if you can't afford better then yhese look really good, provided they fix the finish issues. That said, if you can save a bit mor you csn get an Epiphone and put a set of Gibson pups in it and you're there.

I own a AIO LP and it's wonderful! Highly recommend them. My one gripe is the guitar is very neck heavy.

Not Chinese...Vietnamese. I bought their Wolf400. Nice PRS-style guitar. Love it. Hard-shell case included for $469

Thanks. Im surprised they sent you that specific guitar knowing you would review it. I lost all confidence in the brand so thank you for saving me $500. Ill go with Sire

As far as budget Chinese guitars are concerned, I really like the Firefly’s. I have 5 of their FFSP guitars(their les Paul style guitar), and I love ‘em. Some after market mods can be made but aren’t totally necessary, especially if you’re a beginner.

Really great review, thank you.

All in One looks to me like blinged out IYV guitars, usually with abelone inlays and binding. $500 US should get you a bit better LP style.

I'm a fan of these. Sure it had a few flaws, but no deal breakers for $500. Besides, I'm a modder, so I don't mind a few high frets or sloppy soldering. I usually do a detailed fret job and yank out the electronics of my budget guitars anyway. Normally I like to mod high end epiphones, and pretty much any Ltd as far as single cuts go, but I think these may be a new contender. Thank you for the video sir. You are one of the folks that got me into modding more heavily. 🤘

Saw dust inside the pickup cavities just shows how much the workers were rushing out the guitars.

Phillip, you are such a more well rounded entertaining player from when I first started watching and listening to you. You were always good but i think on the first vid i ever saw you said something like "i'm actually not a guitar player, I am a bass player" and i didnt really like the style of the rock riffs that you used to play. Now it seems like you can play anything, and I love every single thing you play. The other day i heard you play one of my favourite King's X songs "Lookin' for love"(or something similar hehe). But in this vid you have the jazz funk chord thing happening. You have music in your soul bro!

It seems a lot of companies are realizing that how the guitar plays and how the neck and frets feel is one of the biggest factors. So many people swap out pickups and electronics even on instruments 2x the price. I think these companies know that and are investing in playability

Squier and Fender, I'm assuming they supplied the imputus, have done us all an incredble service by rasing the level of quialty found in lower priced guitars. They've forced everyone else to produce at a similar price point and more than that, they spawned a host of companies that want to compete at this price point! Look at EART, I was floored, I still am, that I could get SS frets, premium wood choices, impecable fit and finish all with playability right out of the box.

Good review. Nice and thorough.

I like the gold overspray, it looks cool

Great video Phil appreciate u man.

Great as always phil!

The volute is a nice upgrade! I don't understand why Gibson isn't putting volutes on all of their guitars at this point.

Some people have said they inlays are stickers. I guess we will find out during this review. Love it and thank you Phil.

Great vid Phil! Thanks!

Another detailed review, good stuff. How about reviewing a PRS S2 Mccarty 594 Thinline, I am waiting on one that is backordered in antique white.

I've seen lots of these that had a bound headstock, so that the run-on of the finding created the "cross". Never seen the "cross" without the binding, weird. Anyway, also wanted to point out that Max Carlisle loves these things.

I'm actually happy that it had the overspray, you know you got a "average" guitar and not a hand picked perfect example.

Phil, if the opportunity should arise that AIO offers to send another guitar for your evaluation, may I suggest you consider requesting the SH-335 (actually more like a copy of the ES-355)? As you have often mentioned, semi-hollow and hollow bodies are more difficult/involved to produce; such a proposed evaluation should be enlightening, to say the least. Since you own a Gibson ES-335, it could serve as a benchmark in a comparative analysis. Now that would be a very interesting video. Any thoughts?

Honestly I just can't purchase guitars unless I can see and feel them in person, there is just way to many stories of people not getting what they expected and customer support on these cheap guitars can be non existence. Most guitars 🎸 stores can have anything you want in a week or less I just wait till it arrives and check it out in person, but out of the box playability is really most important cause if the customer can atleast enjoy and play there instruments the just might overlook the minor cosmetic issues. Me I need a perfect neck and fretboard with a nice body ,ill change electronics and hardware if I have a good platform to build from ,I kinda like the guitars that have these traits then I can add the hardware and electronics that I enjoy most .for the money it seems like your better off getting 3 harley bentons than that aio just my thoughts. As always I enjoy your very detailed reviews 🙂 and you experienced input. Thanks 😊

I wouldn't be bothered necessarily by those issues at that price point, since the playability and tone were pretty damn good, but then, I don't buy guitars for their resale value, I buy them to play and enjoy. Except for the paint, those other issues are easily addressed. What does bother me, and the thing that would hold me back from buying one of these, is that I have a Harley Benton CST-24T that came with exactly none of these issues at literally half the price, although I did have to set the guitar up myself. That took me half an hour to adjust the truss rod, adjust the saddles, add a little nut lube, and dress the frets with some steel wool. I also did a string change, which probably added five minutes, but I would do the same here unless they happen to ship them with Elixir Nanoweb .009's so I'm not counting that. So, for $500 plus shipping, you get a guitar that's set up to your specs, but has quite a few fit and finish issues, or for about $250, you get a guitar with good fit and finish, but you have to take a few minutes to set up. To me, that's a no-brainer.

I've got one in Tobacco burst, no overspraying issue. The set-up is simply exceptional, lowest action ever without any string buzz nor dead note. I love that one-of-a-kind headstock, and I'd buy an AIO over any Epiphone every day of the week. The fretboard looks and feels 10 times better than your run of the mill rosewood one. It doesn't feel like a cheap copy of a Les Paul (like with an Epiphone), but a slightly different guitar, with its own take on the SC model. Sire guitars are quite good, but they look more mass-produced, while this one has some kind of a personality, if that makes sense...

I’d really like to see more rivolta models.

I would love to see a comparison between this AIO and Harley Benton's SC 500 classic.

I just got the EART Guitar you should and it is a great guitar!