Mean Street Guitars

**danward5150** · 06.27.07, 11:18 AM

Thinking about buying one of the blem kits out on http://www.axcessories.com/proddetail.asp?prod=ExileKit

Anyone know how these really play? I've heard that they are worth the money but are they just decent or one of your favorite axes's to play?

For $300 (for the maple neck) Seems like a decent deal. I've got some extra pickups around I could chuck in. Just looking for some feedback.

Thanks!

**mikelong** · 06.27.07, 01:53 PM

I hate to say this and please take it with a grain of salt...I purchased one of his EVH striped guitars about two years ago...I ended up selling it one month later for half of what I paid (450 vs 900). It had a beautiful paint job, and the rest of the guitar was a POS. Just my .02.

**Evmeister** · 06.27.07, 02:10 PM

I have an exile, with the red quilt, looks good. It plays nice too, not perfect, but definitely a good bang for the buck. As long as you know how to do a good setup and are willing to spring for an OFR (the liscensed crap won't cut it), then you should be good to go. However, I would have preferred a non-floating route option, but ya can't win em all. Hope this helps

**pancho** · 06.27.07, 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by mikelong

I hate to say this and please take it with a grain of salt...I purchased one of his EVH striped guitars about two years ago...I ended up selling it one month later for half of what I paid (450 vs 900). It had a beautiful paint job, and the rest of the guitar was a POS. Just my .02.

I think that this is sensitive area that can cause a boat load of arguements. However, a guitar is just wood and metal, Ed says so himself, shit Frankie repica's are on the market for the price of a new car!! And Ed built it from piece of shit materials.. I can tell you that in my 30 years of playing guitar, I have had guitars that just flat out,, no arguement, just have "mojo" and sound better... but zero of my guitars "play" better then the other, grant ya some feel different and that is the uniqueness about guitars, it's wood and metal and each is a lil different. But if you know how to set up a guitar properly,, you should NEVER have a POS in your line up. Like I said some should sound better to your ears, or feel better, but all should be playable.. I think that the most common mistake players have is trying to sound like someone else, you want "that classic VH sound" or fair warning sound, or vai, or whomever, but you should be taking the guitar in your hands and let it sound like itself, but with all the options available today, you can make a bright guitar a lil darker, and a midrange heavey guitar sound different, I mean pick ups and materials in bridges can always be changed. I have played Hamers, Kramers, Ibanez, Fender, Gibson, Epiphone, Olp's, peavey's, music man, Jackson, charvels, aria pro's, hello kitty's, act I's, on and on,, but if you take the time to set it up and intonate it to the wood, all should be playable... again I can see this as an arguement filler.. Just my 2 cents, and a case of beer opinion.

**Double Down** · 06.27.07, 08:28 PM

Originally Posted by danward5150

Thinking about buying one of the blem kits out on http://www.axcessories.com/proddetail.asp?prod=ExileKit

Anyone know how these really play? I've heard that they are worth the money but are they just decent or one of your favorite axes's to play?

For $300 (for the maple neck) Seems like a decent deal. I've got some extra pickups around I could chuck in. Just looking for some feedback.

Thanks!

Just to help you out a little, if you do a search of this forum you'll find several threads about Mean Street Guitars. I don't own one but the feedback I've seen around here always seemed to be overwhelmingly positive. I'm very surprised by the responses so far in this thread. Also, the tetimonials at his site are extremely in favor of his guitars. Of course, that's why they're there, but still, you can't ignore them.

AT · 06.28.07, 01:50 AM

I've bought nothing from Mean Street or either of the two companies linked below, but they might be worth checking out as well.

http://www.divebombinc.com/
http://www.frankenstraat.com/home.html

**HipCat5** · 06.28.07, 04:35 AM

Just a suggestion (and I know there's a lot of respective love and hate for these but it *is* an option) ... you could buy an OLP MM-1 Floyd and rebuild it with new pickups and a sturdy original Floyd Rose. I rebuilt one and its a nice guitar for the money. The only suggestion I could make, however, is that you seal the neck. The OLP MM-1 comes with an unfinished neck and I believe most of the issues people have with them come from the neck reacting to moisture changes.

**danward5150** · 06.28.07, 09:46 AM

Thanks for the words guys. I'm not looking to slag anyone or any company here just trying to get an idea on the materials. I'm aware of the hardware and pickup issues that have been mentioned on these guitars and I'd definitely swap them out.

This was a kit guitar to put together myself.

Regarding neck sealer, I usually end up sanding mine off. I've done a bunch of work and even built a guitar or two from parts. I wanted to get an idea of how the body and neck feel. As a point of reference my favorite guitar neck belongs to a 1986 Music Man Silhouette that I got at a pawn shop for $200. Had a cracked finish and bad pickup. I repainted it and popped a SD Custom Trembucker in there and it was much better. Still sounds a little thin due to the smaller body.

Again, looking for the quality of neck and body, the rest can be fixed.

Thanks for the feedback. Still on the fence.