This month's guitar review is submitted to Musicians Hotline from Kevin Pederson of Abyss Guitars, Forest City, IA. My first review of an Abyss Guitar was in September of 2000 when I reviewed a Double Cut Koa wood model, the RMX SE6. That was a very cool guitar, but let me tell ya, "Da boy has come along way" in the past two years. Celebrating the Five Year Anniversary of Abyss Guitars, Kevin Pederson is producing five "Signed" Anniversary models of the Super Cut to commemorate the companies mile stone. So let's get to it.

First Look:
First impression. Wow! Open up the case and the look of the guitar will stop you in your tracks. Book matched flamed maple top over Zebra wood. Brazilian rosewood neck and fretboard, hand laid Mother of Pearl tribal inlay on the neck, flamed maple binding all the way up and down the neck, including binding around the Brazilian rosewood headstock and body. Ebony tuner buttons, all gold Schaller Tune-O-Matic bridge, stop bar tailpiece and tuners. Recessed gold "tele" style volume and tone controls, gold three-way pickup selector switch, gold pickup covers and highly flamed maple pickup rings. Sporting a tobacco brown with black burst finish over the Zebra wood, this guitars first impression is frickin awesome! Kind of like the first time you ever laid eyes on Faith Hill, WOW!

First Chord:
As I start to check out the Abyss Super Cut acoustically, my first G chord rings out with the utmost confidence. Following chord progressions also ring like a bell. This guitar feels great immediately. Bends in the upper registers feel silky smooth and unrestricted. Flawless set up work. Low easy string action, the intonation is tight and right on, there is no buzz or drag anywhere I can find up and down the neck, and believe me I checked it out meticulously. The Super Cut feels solid and stable and has a wonderful acoustic resonance.

The Neck:
The neck on the Abyss Super Cut is a work of art and deserves a separate section for further explanation. First of all this neck is a set neck and a chunk of Brazilian rosewood. Wide, Fat and Round: My personal favorite. Even more beef then say a Les Paul Custom. This neck has two huge graphite neck rods with a dual action trust rod, 22 fret neck with a 25" scale. Brazilian rosewood fingerboard with jumbo nickel frets topped off with flawless Mother of Pearl hand laid tribal inlay with a signature Abyss tribal emblem at the 12th fret. The neck is beautifully bound in flamed maple that also extends around the Brazilian rosewood headstock. Three on a side gold plated Schaller machine heads with ebony buttons, unreal detail! Since this model is #1 of 5, these are Signed Anniversary models. Playability speaking, I personally feel this neck is absolutely "The Bomb"! It's my kind of neck. If you like a big, fat, round neck, you will love this neck. Plenty of beef to wrap your hand around and it feels like you've got a hold of something. Very low string action and even with 10's on it notes bend like butter and I found it's playability to be fast and accurate. The real test of course is when we.

Plug That Bad Boy In:
This is where the rubber hits the road. With a six pack and about two hours to kill we head to the studio so that I can utilize different amp configurations to test through. I will be using three set ups to test with, a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, a Marshall JCM800 half stack and of course a Line 6 POD ran directly into the board. Testing is done at moderate volumes to retain sonic integrity. First I plug into the Dual Rectifier. In the overdriven mode, the Abyss Super Cut sounds like a freight train coming down the track and it will run your ass over if you're in the way. Super beefy fat tone. Very warm with a butt load of tight well defined low end. The Super Cut is loaded with DiMarzio PAF Classic Pickups. This guitar is wired to a split coil configuration with a push-pull feature on each volume knob to split the pickups. This is a great feature and allows for greater tone versatility. With the PAF Classics as the choice in pickups, it retains a nice vintage type of tone. The pickups are no way over the top, if anything the PAF's aren't as dominant in the mids as some of the other higher output pickups. Over all the tone is warm with just enough of the sweet stuff on the high end. In the overdriven mode, the pickups respond well to attenuations in the volume pots. The guitar cleans up nicely by decreasing the output of the volume knob, the neck pickup is sweet and bluesy. Through the Marshall, the Super Cut produced the epitome of the rock n roll tone. It cut more through the mids with the Marshall, which did not surprise me for that throaty Marshall mid-range snarl was there and the Super cut is able to achieve a great crunch tone.

For the clean mode, I switched to the Line 6 POD. With settings of Black Face Fender and reducing the gain a bit, the Super Cut sparkles with clean tones. With further experimenting with the coil split on the volume knob, Strat like tones were capable with bridge pickup split. Adding a bit of chorus this clean tone was amazingly clean and bright. The neck pickup in split coil mode produced similar results but with a more defining low end warmth. The Super Cut has no problem in creating any tone from super clean to super mean, and provides a really nice pallet of tones not ordinarily found in a standard dual humbucker equipped guitar.

Final Mojo:
The Abyss 5 Year Anniversary Super Cut is a professional work of art that has to be appreciated. Every detail is meticulously crafted from the choice of woods to the flamed maple pickup rings. All gold plated Schaller parts including Tune-O-Matic bridge and stop bar, combined with an incredible flamed maple top and binding over a Zebra wood body is cosmetically amazing. With a Brazilian rosewood neck the playability of this guitar is absolutely superb, with tone to die for. As only one of five being produced in this Limited Anniversary model, the investment potential is certainly worth considering and an investment it is!At a retail price of $4900 the Abyss Super Cut is not in the utility price range, it is an investment piece. However, for those who truly appreciate the art of luthering and the craftsmanship associated with this caliber of instrument, the Abyss Super Cut is as impressive as I've seen. This particular guitar is sold and will be available for viewing at "Stars Guitars" in Cedar Rapids, IA (319-362-1881).

Kevin Pederson has come a long way with the designs of his guitars over the past two years. It is evident in every detail. These guitars really need to be played to be appreciated and I would strongly encourage you to check one out.

Information:
Abyss Guitars
535 N. 13th St.
Forest City, IA 50436
641-582-3718
www.abyssguitars.com