Email communication: From me: Hello, I'm from PEI Canada and have been a GF customer for years, however shipping costs prevent me from going all out so to speak lol. Recently I had family traveling here from the US so I purchased an SL-55. I buy and mod budget guitars on my YT channel and then take them to live gigs to see how the perform. I just had a few questions about the SL-55 as the description didn't match what I received. Just wondering if the description is a little on the exaggerated side or if I just got a model that slipped through quality control. Description says frets are leveled crowned and polished. Well they are level, but very poorly crowned and definitely not polished. The description says 12" radius fret board. The one I received is between 16" and 20". My radius gauges go from 16" and then 20" so I know the fret board is flatter than 16" but not quite 20". My guess would be 17.5" ish... The description says hand cut graphite nut. This nut is plastic not graphite and if someone were hand cutting them they should be cut to the proper depth as per the 1st fret and the correct string gauge. This one is neither. 6 tiny slots that bind up the strings and they are no where close to the right depth. These are all non issues for me as I have worked on guitars for years, however I did base my purchase on your SL-55 description which in clearly inaccurate. Just wondering why that is? Why list polished frets, graphite nut and a 12" radius if that is not the case? Thanks, Jason From GF: Hi Jason - Thanks for your email, that is unusual, these are described as we spec them out from our factory. I haven’t heard of one of these being off like this. That model you purchased is from our original run of those, so while we order them leveled, crowned, and polished, it’s possible the frets don’t look as polished as the day it left the factory. All of the Slick necks are 12” radius, I’ve never seen one of those with a different radius, that would be very unusual if you received something different, as these guitars are all hand made in somewhat small batches. The nuts are graphite infused in plastic, which is how graphite nuts are made, if that was solid graphite, it’d be too brittle to act as a guitar nut. The slots are all hand cut. Could you send me some photos of these points, so we can see what you have there, please? I’d like to be able to show this info to my manager for you. I’m sorry for any inconvenience, and thanks very much for your assistance and support! - Steve GFS Customer Support Reply From Me: Hey Steve thanks for your reply. Here are 3 videos from my UA-cam Channel. Vid one is unboxing and demo. 2 is disassembly and analysis, and 3 is repair, reassembly and final demo. ua-cam.com/video/1b6p2M7o5vU/v-deo.htmlsi=zRuqEz3oayLzYewc ua-cam.com/video/_Gxk50kGjNY/v-deo.htmlsi=qIywaX-27NefESBU ua-cam.com/video/jbIllUcQRtg/v-deo.htmlsi=mMh0790OQ2TDkdRX After some time and TLC, fantastic guitar!! Frets and fretboard were somewhere between 16 and 20. I used a 12 and 14 radiused sanding block and compound radiused the frets. I ordered a graphtech nut. Not enough graphite in the original. Neck fits loosely in the pocket, but that is a CNC / QC tolerance adjustment thing. Neck pocket and neck plate are thicker than standard, so longer 2" screws were needed to properly secure the neck. She's a Rocker now, but honestly, out of the box, if a newbie had received this, you'd be processing return papers now haha! Let me know what you think! Cheers, Jason Reply GF: Hi Jason - Thanks for your reply, that’s great, I’m really glad to hear it! I checked out your vids, I thought those were very good, and some great playing, too! I’m glad you were thorough in your break down! We really appreciate constructive feedback, and will pass this info along to our product people, who deal with our factories. Thanks so much!! - Steve GFS Customer Support Another Reply From GF: Hi Jason - Just wanted to reach out to you, I was speaking to my manager about this for you, and we appreciate you putting up your videos and showing how you fixed that up, and we wanted to extend a special discount code for you for a future order with us. Thanks again, please feel free to email me if you have questions in the future, always happy to advise! - Steve GFS Customer Support Reply from Me: Hey Steve, Thanks so much! I appreciate that. I wasn't expecting anything really, just wanted to make you aware that some specs are not as described and that newbies to guitar would need to return what I received or take it to someone to fix / set up and that's never good for business hahaha... I work with a few different budget guitar companies and always send them honest feedback on what I find so they can tweak their QC! I Appreciate the discount and I will place another order for sure! Here is the slick guitar in action with one of the bands I play with... ua-cam.com/video/n1DZ5F-CPAU/v-deo.htmlsi=3CycgTbhd8tVZTAA Thanks, Jason And last reply from GF: Hi Jason - Thanks for your reply, our pleasure! Very cool, sounds great, and great playing! I had to stop myself from watching the whole vid 😃, I’ll try to watch some more later! I think that’s a great rendition of Ring of Fire! Thanks so much for sharing, I’ll send that to my manager also! - Steve GFS Customer Support
Hi J, awesome videos of the upgrades and honest info. ! Also, do the PUs in this guitar sound sort of like Filtertrons or just humbuckers made to look like Filtertrons ( like the 5220 Gretchen’s)? Thank you for all the time you put into these posts and sharing so much info. Appreciate you.
@@persiangatto hey thanks! Honestly, I have no idea haha! Never had a Gretch or a guitar with filtertrons in it so I can't compare. I have had many teles, and some with a 400$ set of pickups in them, and these GF-tron pickups can certainly hold their own. They are a very well balanced pickup. With cleans or with dirt, they sound great!
Jason, I really enjoyed this guitar journey with you. Like I wrote previously I WAS considering a Slick product even before your video. I’m lucky to have experienced this through you because I would not have weathered this well. I read through all the advertisements and specs, and never seen a product that misrepresented. It’s not any monetary issue it’s straight up business. Even if it arrived 50% better like advertised it would be esseptible You made that instrument great.
Good result Jason. I no longer buy guitars off GFS any more, the shipping to OZ is like 3X the worth of the guitar! Small items are still good to buy & ship down under! Cheers!
@@DMSProduktions hey I hear you! Same here. I bought this one on a Father's Day sale and had it shipped to a family member who was traveling to Canada... Otherwise I would not have gotten it!
@@DMSProduktions I can get guitars here from China with free shipping but from my neighbouring country, it's hundreds of dollars hahaha! Something is definitely not right!
@@DMSProduktions yeah but the total is still reasonable financially. Shipping from the US costs as much or more than the item ordered. Not worth the purchase.😵💫
Wow, those communications from Steve are wonderful! Good that you got a discount for your troubles. I might actually have to order one of these one day, if they are truly as spec’d. There is a CLEAR difference in the sound and bounce of those nuts though-I’d say if that stock nut is truly graphite-impregnated plastic, then it’s clearly NOT as well formulated as the Graphtech nut. The difference in tone and bounce shows very clearly that the Graphtech nut is harder! Anyway, I can’t wait to hear the results and see what kind of difference the new nut makes to the tuning stability and performance of that guitar!
Well, J, I think that was the least they could have done. I do hope they improve the QC as M musi and West Creek have done. Nice update and fun graphite nut bouncabiliy demo!😅
koool deal brother! "puddin" my blackguard blond tele is in the shop getting a better nut installed... i traded my guitar guy several pups removed from various guitars that i modded plus a hoffner bass hardshell case for the work and new nut... we are going with EB 9.5-44 strings on this one....
Bummer about the nut not being graphite as advertised - honesty goes a long way in my books. I believe you had bought the MusicNomad nut files - how are those working out for you?
I have a off topic question. What kind of wifi are you running to make these videos??? My options here are 150bps 500bps 1gig 2.5gig At&t and hughs net seem most common. Do you have any information on that?? 👍
@@Vern859 I just have 100mbps internet at home and I bought a wireless router off of Amazon years ago. I don't need wifi to make the videos, only to post them...😀
Email communication:
From me:
Hello,
I'm from PEI Canada and have been a GF customer for years, however shipping costs prevent me from going all out so to speak lol.
Recently I had family traveling here from the US so I purchased an SL-55.
I buy and mod budget guitars on my YT channel and then take them to live gigs to see how the perform.
I just had a few questions about the SL-55 as the description didn't match what I received. Just wondering if the description is a little on the exaggerated side or if I just got a model that slipped through quality control.
Description says frets are leveled crowned and polished. Well they are level, but very poorly crowned and definitely not polished.
The description says 12" radius fret board. The one I received is between 16" and 20". My radius gauges go from 16" and then 20" so I know the fret board is flatter than 16" but not quite 20". My guess would be 17.5" ish...
The description says hand cut graphite nut. This nut is plastic not graphite and if someone were hand cutting them they should be cut to the proper depth as per the 1st fret and the correct string gauge. This one is neither. 6 tiny slots that bind up the strings and they are no where close to the right depth.
These are all non issues for me as I have worked on guitars for years, however I did base my purchase on your SL-55 description which in clearly inaccurate.
Just wondering why that is? Why list polished frets, graphite nut and a 12" radius if that is not the case?
Thanks,
Jason
From GF:
Hi Jason -
Thanks for your email, that is unusual, these are described as we spec them out from our factory. I haven’t heard of one of these being off like this.
That model you purchased is from our original run of those, so while we order them leveled, crowned, and polished, it’s possible the frets don’t look as polished as the day it left the factory.
All of the Slick necks are 12” radius, I’ve never seen one of those with a different radius, that would be very unusual if you received something different, as these guitars are all hand made in somewhat small batches.
The nuts are graphite infused in plastic, which is how graphite nuts are made, if that was solid graphite, it’d be too brittle to act as a guitar nut. The slots are all hand cut.
Could you send me some photos of these points, so we can see what you have there, please? I’d like to be able to show this info to my manager for you.
I’m sorry for any inconvenience, and thanks very much for your assistance and support!
- Steve
GFS Customer Support
Reply From Me:
Hey Steve thanks for your reply. Here are 3 videos from my UA-cam Channel. Vid one is unboxing and demo. 2 is disassembly and analysis, and 3 is repair, reassembly and final demo.
ua-cam.com/video/1b6p2M7o5vU/v-deo.htmlsi=zRuqEz3oayLzYewc
ua-cam.com/video/_Gxk50kGjNY/v-deo.htmlsi=qIywaX-27NefESBU
ua-cam.com/video/jbIllUcQRtg/v-deo.htmlsi=mMh0790OQ2TDkdRX
After some time and TLC, fantastic guitar!! Frets and fretboard were somewhere between 16 and 20. I used a 12 and 14 radiused sanding block and compound radiused the frets. I ordered a graphtech nut. Not enough graphite in the original.
Neck fits loosely in the pocket, but that is a CNC / QC tolerance adjustment thing.
Neck pocket and neck plate are thicker than standard, so longer 2" screws were needed to properly secure the neck.
She's a Rocker now, but honestly, out of the box, if a newbie had received this, you'd be processing return papers now haha!
Let me know what you think!
Cheers,
Jason
Reply GF:
Hi Jason -
Thanks for your reply, that’s great, I’m really glad to hear it! I checked out your vids, I thought those were very good, and some great playing, too! I’m glad you were thorough in your break down! We really appreciate constructive feedback, and will pass this info along to our product people, who deal with our factories. Thanks so much!!
- Steve
GFS Customer Support
Another Reply From GF:
Hi Jason -
Just wanted to reach out to you, I was speaking to my manager about this for you, and we appreciate you putting up your videos and showing how you fixed that up, and we wanted to extend a special discount code for you for a future order with us.
Thanks again, please feel free to email me if you have questions in the future, always happy to advise!
- Steve
GFS Customer Support
Reply from Me:
Hey Steve,
Thanks so much! I appreciate that. I wasn't expecting anything really, just wanted to make you aware that some specs are not as described and that newbies to guitar would need to return what I received or take it to someone to fix / set up and that's never good for business hahaha...
I work with a few different budget guitar companies and always send them honest feedback on what I find so they can tweak their QC!
I Appreciate the discount and I will place another order for sure!
Here is the slick guitar in action with one of the bands I play with...
ua-cam.com/video/n1DZ5F-CPAU/v-deo.htmlsi=3CycgTbhd8tVZTAA
Thanks,
Jason
And last reply from GF:
Hi Jason -
Thanks for your reply, our pleasure!
Very cool, sounds great, and great playing! I had to stop myself from watching the whole vid 😃, I’ll try to watch some more later! I think that’s a great rendition of Ring of Fire! Thanks so much for sharing, I’ll send that to my manager also!
- Steve
GFS Customer Support
RESULT!
@@DMSProduktions yup!
Good luck on the gig. Tune her in!
@@barackmycat9448 thanks!
Hi J, awesome videos of the upgrades and honest info.
! Also, do the PUs in this guitar sound sort of like Filtertrons or just humbuckers made to look like Filtertrons ( like the 5220 Gretchen’s)? Thank you for all the time you put into these posts and sharing so much info. Appreciate you.
@@persiangatto hey thanks! Honestly, I have no idea haha! Never had a Gretch or a guitar with filtertrons in it so I can't compare. I have had many teles, and some with a 400$ set of pickups in them, and these GF-tron pickups can certainly hold their own. They are a very well balanced pickup. With cleans or with dirt, they sound great!
Jason, I really enjoyed this guitar journey with you. Like I wrote previously I WAS considering a Slick product even before your video. I’m lucky to have experienced this through you because I would not have weathered this well. I read through all the advertisements and specs, and never seen a product that misrepresented. It’s not any monetary issue it’s straight up business. Even if it arrived 50% better like advertised it would be esseptible You made that instrument great.
@@mannydecastro8604 thanks buddy!
Gotta love those “Graf- ite” laminate nuts! Glad you got the real thing!!💥💪👍
Good result Jason. I no longer buy guitars off GFS any more, the shipping to OZ is like 3X the worth of the guitar!
Small items are still good to buy & ship down under!
Cheers!
@@DMSProduktions hey I hear you! Same here. I bought this one on a Father's Day sale and had it shipped to a family member who was traveling to Canada... Otherwise I would not have gotten it!
@@j-man9457 So they scam you on shipping just to Canada, let alone a southern hemisphere country!
@@DMSProduktions I can get guitars here from China with free shipping but from my neighbouring country, it's hundreds of dollars hahaha! Something is definitely not right!
@@j-man9457 I doubt the shipping is 'free'! It's just factored IN to the price!
@@DMSProduktions yeah but the total is still reasonable financially. Shipping from the US costs as much or more than the item ordered. Not worth the purchase.😵💫
I appreciate your videos. I hope you keep making them.
@@bobbywilliams4655 Thanks man! Much appreciated!
Wow, those communications from Steve are wonderful! Good that you got a discount for your troubles. I might actually have to order one of these one day, if they are truly as spec’d. There is a CLEAR difference in the sound and bounce of those nuts though-I’d say if that stock nut is truly graphite-impregnated plastic, then it’s clearly NOT as well formulated as the Graphtech nut. The difference in tone and bounce shows very clearly that the Graphtech nut is harder! Anyway, I can’t wait to hear the results and see what kind of difference the new nut makes to the tuning stability and performance of that guitar!
@@zuperdee wasn't thinking of posting another video but I just might now 😂!
I hope Steve subscribed to the channel! Thanks for sharing, J-Man!
@@BrantYaeger hahaha doubt it lol!
Thanks for the update. Glad they did something for you, not that you were asking them to do so. Rock on!
@@TedTalksGuitars yup good service from GF on this one 🙂
@@j-man9457 - Gotta love it.
You made the Slick slicker and self lubricating nuts are tight!
@@sixstrings4568 thanks! yup love the graphtec stuff!
Well, J, I think that was the least they could have done. I do hope they improve the QC as M musi and West Creek have done. Nice update and fun graphite nut bouncabiliy demo!😅
I hope Steve is there next week.
koool deal brother!
"puddin" my blackguard blond tele is in the shop getting a better nut installed...
i traded my guitar guy several pups removed from various guitars that i modded plus a hoffner bass hardshell case for the work and new nut...
we are going with EB 9.5-44 strings on this one....
@@birdman316 noice! Haha!
Bummer about the nut not being graphite as advertised - honesty goes a long way in my books. I believe you had bought the MusicNomad nut files - how are those working out for you?
@@TechnoRiff thanks! The MN nut files are top notch!
I have a off topic question.
What kind of wifi are you running to make these videos???
My options here are
150bps
500bps
1gig
2.5gig
At&t and hughs net seem most common.
Do you have any information on that?? 👍
@@Vern859 I just have 100mbps internet at home and I bought a wireless router off of Amazon years ago. I don't need wifi to make the videos, only to post them...😀
What are the dimensions of the new nut you ordered from Stew Mac? I have this exact guitar as well and am thinking of doing the same. Thanks!
@@jaxonfitterer6749 it's the 42mm overseas nut that I ordered. here's the item number :
Item # 103401
Do you suppose they color theirnuts with pencils to make them look like graphite?
@@banced1 nope it's just black plastic
J - Did you ever think of putting a tone on that guitar?
@@3cardmonty602 nah, not really. I like the simple nature of it as is. Lots of room for a tone knob in that cavity though!😀
IMO yeap me thinks the nut is the most important part of a guitar
@@melonhusk-kt5ys it's important for sure!