After 10mins of checking my first one of these, I was so impressed, I immediately ordered a second one! I've left one completely standard and the other I have converted to HSS (with a new mint green pickguard). A few interesting points that for some reason Artist don't mention in the specs: 1 - Body is full thickness (44mm). 2 - Body is routed for HSS (Humbucker, Single, Single). 3 - pickups are Alnico pole-piece magnets NOT Ceramic bar. 4 - Tremolo block is full-size solid steel NOT cheap pot cast metal. The last two points, are usually unheard of at this price! I've owned many real Stratocasters over the last 50 or so years of pro and semi-pro playing and IMO, the ST62 would be up there with the best of them.
I received my ST62 yesterday and couldn’t agree with you more! I’ve got a couple of 80s MIJ Strats and this is right up there in terms of features and playability. Waaaaay better on price, too. 😉 neck is a very comfy , medium modern c. I can leave this in a locked car without worrying. Well, maybe not entirely true as I waited a while for stock and I just bloody love it! I think I’d cry if it grew legs!🤔
Me again Rick, when you installed your HSS setup and green pick guard, do you think you could drop a loaded pick guard for a fender or squier SE in to the Artist ST62?
Thanks for the review Brett and while you're in the middle of a tour!! Great gig at the Enmore by the way - loved it and as always your playing was impeccable! Here at Artists we are getting a lot of interest in the ST 62 and no doubt now that your review is up the enquiries will increase. I get so many people wandering into the showroom asking about the gear that you have reviewed and with good reason - always great playing from one of the natures gentlemen. Thanks again mate.
Got this one in the cart with the tanned case. Just waiting for pay day Thursday to put it through. Mate, when are you guys getting a restock on the Thinline telecasters? Jan? Feb? March? Will definitely be getting one of those.
When will your guitars be back in stock? I feel stupid for not discovering this brand sooner. I am specifically interested in the STMVG, hope I got it right, the roasted maple strat with contoured heel joint.
Recently bought the Artist STMVG Seafoam green strat. Haven't quite put it through it's paces, just been a bit busy. But the fretting on this guitar is exceptionally comfortable, all the way up to the higher frets. The easy access heel joint is the game change, makes it comfortable if you have shortish/fat fingers, to reach the higher frets.
Bit of an update. This is an awesome guitar, really comfortable to play. Cons? String action is high. Not really into "shred low action" but I'll be taking this one in to my luthier to get lowered, on the weekend. Secondly, I would prefer if the lead plug socket was at the front (like for all or most strats) rather than the bottom. Not a functional problem, it just looks nicer on the front.
I've just saw the "The '54" video and I've found it really well done and very interesting. Brett, I think you're a nice guy indeed and I'd really like to come to Australia to meet you (and do a little jam, off course!) BUT... I live in Italy, such a long way to Australia... Let me just say that I like a lot your videos, they're always very interesting and I like the way you play guitar, keep on rocking, Brett!
I realise I have posted a previous comment re: Artist guitars BUT ... the bride bought me this model for xmas last year ( 2020 ) .. used it last night ( Dec 2021 )for the first time for a live gig ... .. I'm blown away ... it was freekin' awesome ... had just put on a new set of strings , detuned a half step to accommodated the band and the thing just rocked ... stayed in tune better than my mates 335 , sounded unbelievable, felt great underfoot and didn't give me back pain ,,.. I'm am now a total devotee ... just waiting now for the new stock of Apricus 6 and hopefully sometime in the near future , Artist will bring out a thinline tele with singles ( not bullbuckers ) ... don't know how they do it but what ever they are doing .. DON'T STOP ... 👍👍🙏🙏
Nice work, Brett. I’ve got a couple of Japanese 80s Strats and my Artist ST62 is the one I go for most of the time. Mine doesn’t sound as good as yours though. I think I need to spend thousands on amps/effects/modellers. Alternatively-I could learn to play better. Nah.
Bought this guitar based on your review absolutely love it does everything you mentioned 2 years on all credit to Artist Guitars and a your honest review thanks Mr K!.. needed a cheap workhorse and this fits the bill nicely!🎸👍☺
Awesome playing and Great Demo Brett Artistguitars Rock !! Great customer service and great Guitars and product's awesome ❤👌👍👍 can't wait to get mine 😁
I bought a Artist tc59 with the Bullbucker pickups the sustain is unbelievable all it needed straight out the box was a frett polish and some decent locking tuners the ones it came with kept on cutting the strings for some reason I swapped them out for proper fender locking tuners it stays in tune incredibly well, and plays so well it's one of my favorite guitars I've ever owned ,it has a split coil option giving it a wide range of musical playability, great instrument,this guitar the artist st62 is definitely my next guitar ,great price at only 290 bucks Australian is a bargain plus great value for money I believe ,I will be swapping the machine heads again though.
This sounds great. I wish we had a similar outlet in Canada. Yes, we can buy cheap guitars but most of them should be cheap... because they aren't very good.
Mine is awesome....however the sound was just too thin and bright (I know it's supposed to be) but it was a bit too much for me. Combination of alnico 5 magnets and 500k small pots was the culprit. The locking tuners were nice but struggled with tension on 10s so I first put 250k big pots in with a huge difference....but not enough. So went with alnico 2 custom pickups and orange drop caps. Still not happy lol so installed the anti treble bleed mod and slapped a set of grover tuners on.....I'm happy now. Actually it gives my actual strat a run for its money now.
Why does your guitar look whiter than the other vintage white st-62 guitars , all the other reviews I've watched the guitar is like a yellow colour this is a nice light cream ?
hey Brett awesome playing man. what monitor speakers would you recommend that are affordable for the axe fx 3 I'm purchasing one soon and just starting out with setting my little studio at what would you recommend
Thanks, Michael. I've only ever owned or used one type of desktop monitors - Blue Sky Media Desk 2.1. For live stuff I like the Atomic CLR's. Cheers, B.
I've noticed Artist guitars has nailed down the good value for money lately the " grungemaster " and now this really good sound for the money I own a buitenhuis guitar ( fantastic sound and rob really did a great job ) but this artist guitar when upgraded might come close
Headstock shape looks identical. I've got a couple of Artist STH "strats" and they are brilliant. Fit and finish is excellent and I like the necks better than my 2xMIJ 1980s Strats. When these ST62s come back in stock I'll be getting at least one and probably selling one of my Strats. That's how good these guitars are-I'm replacing a 1985 Fender Strat with one of these! If you told me I'd be doing this 2 years ago I'd accuse you of smoking too much pot.
Chances that they are from the same factory are extremely high. They’re both from Chinese factories, and it takes a lot of streamlining and experience in one factory to create good massed produced guitars like this. Plus not a lot of guitar factories either in China.
Kyle-Bang on mate! Every time I look at a Harley Benton Fusion I can’t help think about the Artist ST-style guitars. I’d love to speak to someone at the China factory and get hold of a few HSS pickguards with only 2 control knob holes (or no holes so I can put them where I want them). I hate the Strat-style volume knob sitting just below the bridge pickup. I tend to bump the volume down when I’m really digging in. I’m sure I could change my style to avoid this, but I’ve been noodling around for 30 years with guitars that don’t require this picking style, and this would be a new trick for this old, and very set in his ways, dog. Have you seen the soon-to-be-released “Artist ST62IIBK modern” in black with roasted maple neck/fretboard, 2-post modern tremolo and chrome humbucker bridge pickup? I was hoping Artist Guitars would offer this guitar, but with the ST62 vintage white’s aged Olympic white body finish or even the relic-treated ST62BKR’s aged black body finish. At any rate, I’ve pre-ordered the Artist ST62IIBK so I can get one ASAP. I’ll probably pull it to bits and modify everything but it’s such a cool and excellent value guitar. I know the Artist guitars have great build quality, I love their ST neck profile and the pickups are great (Wilkinson single-coils and humbuckers in the HSS Strats I’ve already got and Artist-spec “Wrangler” Alnico 5 humbuckers and single coils in the various ST62s that have arrived or are soon to arrive). I’m looking forward to receiving some very nice, budget-conscious Artist guitars soon.
Hello Mate. Thanks for your review. I saw on an other review they come with a big block trem, but then I read a review on the website of the same guitar that says the trem block is made of plastic. Can you confirm or deny this?
That guitar made its way to a local school shortly after the video was made, Lorcan. I can't confirm either way, I'm sorry. You'd have to get the word from Artist Guitars themselves.
yeah, I was curious bout that too, after investigating further, if you were to draw a circle around the neck using the face of the fingerboard as a portion of the outer circle IE, having the same outside profile as the circle, that circle would have a radius of 13 3/4", hope that makes sense, so a small measured fingerboard radius would produce a more pronounced curve conversely, a larger radius would result in a flatter fingerboard. Hope that helps.
@@robertinaust Thanks Robert, I appreciate your explanation but I do understand fret board radius, I just meant that I lost interest in this guitar because a 13 3/4" radius is too flat for my liking. I've got an early Fender with 7.25" radius but most of my Strat necks are 9.5". I bought a PRS at 10" because I preferred it to a Gibson at 12" so you can see why he lost my interest in a neck with 13 3/4" radius. Flatter (larger radius) fretboards are popular with shredders (16" to 20" radius) but to me they feel concave and getting good clean chords, especially barre chords, is hard work.
Does anybody remember when Profile created their version of the Strat and Tele ... my understanding was they were told to cease ??? why .. because they were toooo fkn good ... here is the new wave !!! watch out you overpriced / overrated guitar builders 👍🤘🤘
Still own a profile strat and won't part with purchased it about 1980 great sound, my wife bought me an artist tc59 artist tele for Xmas last year love it too a little heavy but sounds great cheers Terry.
This is better. It is a high quality strat for an affordable price. It is probably the best value strat anywhere in the world at present and that's no exaggeration.
The pickup covers are white. The pick guard is cream. Not a good look. I love artist guitars, but thats an obvious issue here. The other issue is that Artist guitar necks on their base model Strats are too fat for Strat necks. Looking at this vid I think this is case with this one too.
Plenty of Squire necks and pickup covers on eBay for peanuts if you found you couldn’t really live with either! Would STILL work out cheaper and better than the alternatives!
After 10mins of checking my first one of these, I was so impressed, I immediately ordered a second one! I've left one completely standard and the other I have converted to HSS (with a new mint green pickguard). A few interesting points that for some reason Artist don't mention in the specs: 1 - Body is full thickness (44mm). 2 - Body is routed for HSS (Humbucker, Single, Single). 3 - pickups are Alnico pole-piece magnets NOT Ceramic bar. 4 - Tremolo block is full-size solid steel NOT cheap pot cast metal. The last two points, are usually unheard of at this price! I've owned many real Stratocasters over the last 50 or so years of pro and semi-pro playing and IMO, the ST62 would be up there with the best of them.
Can I play acoustic with this?
I received my ST62 yesterday and couldn’t agree with you more! I’ve got a couple of 80s MIJ Strats and this is right up there in terms of features and playability. Waaaaay better on price, too. 😉 neck is a very comfy , medium modern c. I can leave this in a locked car without worrying. Well, maybe not entirely true as I waited a while for stock and I just bloody love it! I think I’d cry if it grew legs!🤔
Rick thanks so much for the specs info. From watching the videos I thought it looked like the body was a full thickness body but wasn't sure.
Me again Rick, when you installed your HSS setup and green pick guard, do you think you could drop a loaded pick guard for a fender or squier SE in to the Artist ST62?
@@kanyinak Yes you can but some of the screw holes won't line up. You will have to fill and re-drill a few probably.
Thanks for the review Brett and while you're in the middle of a tour!! Great gig at the Enmore by the way - loved it and as always your playing was impeccable! Here at Artists we are getting a lot of interest in the ST 62 and no doubt now that your review is up the enquiries will increase. I get so many people wandering into the showroom asking about the gear that you have reviewed and with good reason - always great playing from one of the natures gentlemen. Thanks again mate.
No worries, John. It's all cool because you guys are offering very affordable good stuff to the aspiring (and established) player. Good fun. Cheers.
Got this one in the cart with the tanned case. Just waiting for pay day Thursday to put it through. Mate, when are you guys getting a restock on the Thinline telecasters? Jan? Feb? March? Will definitely be getting one of those.
@@BrettKingman are they better than squire affinities'???
When will your guitars be back in stock? I feel stupid for not discovering this brand sooner. I am specifically interested in the STMVG, hope I got it right, the roasted maple strat with contoured heel joint.
@@bluwng Our rough estimate for Australia will be approximately by the end of May.
An excellent comprehensive but concise overview. It’s is exactly how we need our info delivered! Thanks.
Recently bought the Artist STMVG Seafoam green strat. Haven't quite put it through it's paces, just been a bit busy. But the fretting on this guitar is exceptionally comfortable, all the way up to the higher frets. The easy access heel joint is the game change, makes it comfortable if you have shortish/fat fingers, to reach the higher frets.
Bit of an update. This is an awesome guitar, really comfortable to play. Cons? String action is high. Not really into "shred low action" but I'll be taking this one in to my luthier to get lowered, on the weekend. Secondly, I would prefer if the lead plug socket was at the front (like for all or most strats) rather than the bottom. Not a functional problem, it just looks nicer on the front.
I've just saw the "The '54" video and I've found it really well done and very interesting. Brett, I think you're a nice guy indeed and I'd really like to come to Australia to meet you (and do a little jam, off course!) BUT... I live in Italy, such a long way to Australia... Let me just say that I like a lot your videos, they're always very interesting and I like the way you play guitar, keep on rocking, Brett!
$368 WITH HARD CASE AND FREE SHIPPING!!!! pretty damn good value.
I realise I have posted a previous comment re: Artist guitars BUT ... the bride bought me this model for xmas last year ( 2020 ) .. used it last night ( Dec 2021 )for the first time for a live gig ... .. I'm blown away ... it was freekin' awesome ... had just put on a new set of strings , detuned a half step to accommodated the band and the thing just rocked ... stayed in tune better than my mates 335 , sounded unbelievable, felt great underfoot and didn't give me back pain ,,.. I'm am now a total devotee ... just waiting now for the new stock of Apricus 6 and hopefully sometime in the near future , Artist will bring out a thinline tele with singles ( not bullbuckers ) ... don't know how they do it but what ever they are doing .. DON'T STOP ... 👍👍🙏🙏
Nice work, Brett. I’ve got a couple of Japanese 80s Strats and my Artist ST62 is the one I go for most of the time. Mine doesn’t sound as good as yours though. I think I need to spend thousands on amps/effects/modellers. Alternatively-I could learn to play better. Nah.
Bought this guitar based on your review absolutely love it does everything you mentioned 2 years on all credit to Artist Guitars and a your honest review thanks Mr K!.. needed a cheap workhorse and this fits the bill nicely!🎸👍☺
Awesome playing and Great Demo Brett Artistguitars Rock !! Great customer service and great Guitars and product's awesome ❤👌👍👍 can't wait to get mine 😁
I bought a Artist tc59 with the Bullbucker pickups the sustain is unbelievable all it needed straight out the box was a frett polish and some decent locking tuners the ones it came with kept on cutting the strings for some reason I swapped them out for proper fender locking tuners it stays in tune incredibly well, and plays so well it's one of my favorite guitars I've ever owned ,it has a split coil option giving it a wide range of musical playability, great instrument,this guitar the artist st62 is definitely my next guitar ,great price at only 290 bucks Australian is a bargain plus great value for money I believe ,I will be swapping the machine heads again though.
Top player. Top reviewer
Nicely played too, Brett!
This sounds great. I wish we had a similar outlet in Canada. Yes, we can buy cheap guitars but most of them should be cheap... because they aren't very good.
Love your guitar playing Brett
Hi, I'm from Malaysia.
Are there any dealers in Malaysia that sell original "Artist" brand guitars made in Australia?
Just played one of these bad boys next to a Corona US Strat, 3x 70's Bullets and this just absolutely slayed them!
'Take my deposit!'
Great Value and Tone Brett
sounds like good value..bone nutt ,locking tuners
i wonder it the pickups are ceramic or ??,sounds great in your hands bro
Alan Shillington this one has the Alnico V pickups in it.
Mine is awesome....however the sound was just too thin and bright (I know it's supposed to be) but it was a bit too much for me.
Combination of alnico 5 magnets and 500k small pots was the culprit.
The locking tuners were nice but struggled with tension on 10s so I first put 250k big pots in with a huge difference....but not enough.
So went with alnico 2 custom pickups and orange drop caps.
Still not happy lol so installed the anti treble bleed mod and slapped a set of grover tuners on.....I'm happy now.
Actually it gives my actual strat a run for its money now.
Why does your guitar look whiter than the other vintage white st-62 guitars , all the other reviews I've watched the guitar is like a yellow colour this is a nice light cream ?
Had one of these but the middle pickup had issues with the volume cutting in and out so I sent it back
Great reviews on their stuff.
their 20w tweed amp is very handy too. better than a BJ3 in my mind.
hey Brett awesome playing man. what monitor speakers would you recommend that are affordable for the axe fx 3 I'm purchasing one soon and just starting out with setting my little studio at what would you recommend
Thanks, Michael. I've only ever owned or used one type of desktop monitors - Blue Sky Media Desk 2.1. For live stuff I like the Atomic CLR's. Cheers, B.
I've noticed Artist guitars has nailed down the good value for money lately
the " grungemaster " and now this
really good sound for the money
I own a buitenhuis guitar ( fantastic sound and rob really did a great job ) but this artist guitar when upgraded might come close
I upgraded mine, a decent loaded pick guard and new tuners is about all you need to do I reckon.
If not just change out the pots
Dang that sounds like a top of the line Elite. Site shows Sold Out for USA on the good stuff.
How big are the frets, if they are Jumbo , I am sold.
Their site quotes ‘medium jumbo’
These Artist guitars look like Harley Bentons so much, I won't be surprised if they are from the same factory
Headstock shape looks identical. I've got a couple of Artist STH "strats" and they are brilliant. Fit and finish is excellent and I like the necks better than my 2xMIJ 1980s Strats. When these ST62s come back in stock I'll be getting at least one and probably selling one of my Strats. That's how good these guitars are-I'm replacing a 1985 Fender Strat with one of these! If you told me I'd be doing this 2 years ago I'd accuse you of smoking too much pot.
Chances that they are from the same factory are extremely high. They’re both from Chinese factories, and it takes a lot of streamlining and experience in one factory to create good massed produced guitars like this. Plus not a lot of guitar factories either in China.
Kyle-Bang on mate! Every time I look at a Harley Benton Fusion I can’t help think about the Artist ST-style guitars. I’d love to speak to someone at the China factory and get hold of a few HSS pickguards with only 2 control knob holes (or no holes so I can put them where I want them). I hate the Strat-style volume knob sitting just below the bridge pickup. I tend to bump the volume down when I’m really digging in. I’m sure I could change my style to avoid this, but I’ve been noodling around for 30 years with guitars that don’t require this picking style, and this would be a new trick for this old, and very set in his ways, dog. Have you seen the soon-to-be-released “Artist ST62IIBK modern” in black with roasted maple neck/fretboard, 2-post modern tremolo and chrome humbucker bridge pickup? I was hoping Artist Guitars would offer this guitar, but with the ST62 vintage white’s aged Olympic white body finish or even the relic-treated ST62BKR’s aged black body finish. At any rate, I’ve pre-ordered the Artist ST62IIBK so I can get one ASAP. I’ll probably pull it to bits and modify everything but it’s such a cool and excellent value guitar. I know the Artist guitars have great build quality, I love their ST neck profile and the pickups are great (Wilkinson single-coils and humbuckers in the HSS Strats I’ve already got and Artist-spec “Wrangler” Alnico 5 humbuckers and single coils in the various ST62s that have arrived or are soon to arrive). I’m looking forward to receiving some very nice, budget-conscious Artist guitars soon.
@@bengibson3955 any update on your experience with the HSS St62?
Are the pickups ceramic or alinco??
Can you please demo every guitar ever made? Perfect amount of knowledge, playing and tones 👌🏼
This or the TC59?
Id say both I have the TC59 its awesome but I want this to
It sounds great but it's the player not the guitar maybe both on this case!
Hello Mate. Thanks for your review. I saw on an other review they come with a big block trem, but then I read a review on the website of the same guitar that says the trem block is made of plastic. Can you confirm or deny this?
That guitar made its way to a local school shortly after the video was made, Lorcan. I can't confirm either way, I'm sorry. You'd have to get the word from Artist Guitars themselves.
@@BrettKingman Thank you for your reply nonetheless
The trem block is definitely not made of plastic and it is big block.
Hi, do you like their valve amps please? Sounds better than a Squier?
Did you set this up or is this how you got it out of the box?
1st. Sounds SWEET!!!
Damn! Nice guitar but you lost me at 13 3/4" radius.
yeah, I was curious bout that too, after investigating further, if you were to draw a circle around the neck using the face of the fingerboard as a portion of the outer circle IE, having the same outside profile as the circle, that circle would have a radius of 13 3/4", hope that makes sense, so a small measured fingerboard radius would produce a more pronounced curve conversely, a larger radius would result in a flatter fingerboard. Hope that helps.
@@robertinaust Thanks Robert, I appreciate your explanation but I do understand fret board radius, I just meant that I lost interest in this guitar because a 13 3/4" radius is too flat for my liking. I've got an early Fender with 7.25" radius but most of my Strat necks are 9.5". I bought a PRS at 10" because I preferred it to a Gibson at 12" so you can see why he lost my interest in a neck with 13 3/4" radius.
Flatter (larger radius) fretboards are popular with shredders (16" to 20" radius) but to me they feel concave and getting good clean chords, especially barre chords, is hard work.
Slowpoke Horses for courses, I personally prefer a flatter radius, can’t get on with the early Fender necks!
Artist website now says 12” radius for these so looks like they’ve changed it now.
what's the weight of this guitar ? thanks
Does anybody remember when Profile created their version of the Strat and Tele ... my understanding was they were told to cease ??? why .. because they were toooo fkn good ... here is the new wave !!! watch out you overpriced / overrated guitar builders 👍🤘🤘
I remember. I had a couple of them. They were crazy heavy, though. That was the caveat. Otherwise pretty cool.
I have done many stupid things - right up there was selling my Profile Strat- but looking at this Artist I think I can make amends
Still own a profile strat and won't part with purchased it about 1980 great sound, my wife bought me an artist tc59 artist tele for Xmas last year love it too a little heavy but sounds great cheers Terry.
Too bad they don't have them in the us.
The Harley Benton ST-62 VW looks pretty similar, and you could get it shipped to the US.
This or affinity squire? Anyone tried both
This is better. It is a high quality strat for an affordable price. It is probably the best value strat anywhere in the world at present and that's no exaggeration.
the pickups
the rest is probs from Thailand or Mexico.. imho
seems a lot of musicians have prefered to team with bogus manufactures to schill products that are sub standard.
Guitar sounds tinny to me.
The pickup covers are white. The pick guard is cream. Not a good look. I love artist guitars, but thats an obvious issue here. The other issue is that Artist guitar necks on their base model Strats are too fat for Strat necks. Looking at this vid I think this is case with this one too.
Plenty of Squire necks and pickup covers on eBay for peanuts if you found you couldn’t really live with either!
Would STILL work out cheaper and better than the alternatives!