NGD Rivera Custom P-93 (3 guitars in one)
Posted: Sat May 26, 2018 2:57 am
First impressions that any serious player might take away could include: Those gold-plated Wilkinson machineheads and Bigsby B-700 tailpiece offer a touch of refinement (though I will be swapping the arm for a Duane Eddy one) - good to see in a mid-priced instrument". It's lighter than I expected and certainly lighter tahn my 2 sheraton's I've tried recently especially the natural one , the 1960s SlimTaper neck profile is a real joy to play P-90's Well, there's a bona-fide tone guarantor of vintage snap, spank and attitude"; and "Oh, yes, you can see there are decades of breeding, with pedigree Epiphone appointments such as the sloped dovewing headstock."
It has a great spine, with a mahogany neck glued to a laminated maple body, and a rock-solid LockTone Tune-o-matic bridge holding everything in place.
It has a great playable feel, with its classically Gibson/Epiphone scale length and lithe neck accommodating to a fault.
Some people have benn critical of the 3 vol, 1 tone set up, however this is the same as one of my all time favorite guitars the Gibson ES-5. To my mind it's actually 3 guitars in one, follow my logic for a minute and you'll see what I mean.
Guitar 1 = a Twin P-90 equipped ES-335
Guitar 2 = by blending the middle pickup in the with either of the other two you can get close to a twin humbucker ES-335
Guitar 3 = by just using the middle pickup on its own you basically have a Gibson ES-225 (these had just a sngle p-90 in the middle (this sounds fantastic for slide work)
Its voice is perfect - why more guitar aren't fitted with P-90's I'll never know. The neck unit has a round, bell-like voice that’s not at all wooly—even with the tone rolled back significantly. It also exhibits the same capacity for harmonic detail that the bridge humbucker displays in spades, and feels alive and of a piece with the semi-hollow construction at lounge-jazz volumes—delivering silky-but-spectral, Wes Montgomery-style octave tones and mournful, mellow blues colours and yet let rip and it's certainly capable of of hard rock and southern rock & strong-armed blues without breaking a sweat.