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(More customer reviews)I bought this guitar for my daughter who is just learning to play. She was inspired by a show called K-On and since the one from the show was a Gibson Les Paul (LP from here on) I knew it would be much to expensive and heavy for a 9 year old. I decided to get a LP 'look-alike' to keep her excited about learning her instrument, just like the girl Yui on the show. After weeks of exhaustive research and review searching on sites like harmony central and many others I just couldn't ignore all of the praise the Michael Kelly Patriot line was getting everywhere.
That said, the Patriot Decree, and all the Patriots, don't have the exact shape of the original LPs. The Michael Kelly is a little longer on the top "horn" and the cut-away is deeper at the base of the neck. The central curves of the body are more pronounced giving the shape a slightly more "pinched-in" look. This makes it a very comfortable instrument to play and it has loads of sustain while remaining light. One way they added sustain, even with a deeper cut-out at the bottom horn (for much better fret access at the highest frets) was by having the neck go VERY deep into the body. It actually extends to well UNDER the neck pickup!
It has 2 volume knobs, one for each pickup, and 2 tone knobs that are "push-pull" so you can tap each pickup separately to make them single-coil. Having played around with it I find that I'm a big fan of using both pickups as singles for punk, funk, and some solos and the full humbuckers for most everything else. The stock pups are super fat and were WAY to bassy out of the box for my tastes. I personally play a Telecaster style guitar with a bridge humbucker and wasn't ready for such an immensely fat sound when I plugged in the Michael Kelly. But... after adjusting the height of the pickups and the settings on my girl's new amp it sounded much better that same day. I have since tweaked the pickup height a few more times and I'm very pleased. They aren't what I'd call "hot" pickups like you'd use for a bright 80's metal sound, but add some distortion and you get a BIG heavy growl. If you want blues these pups deliver every blues tone an LP can give plus a few it can't, especially considering the tap knobs. If you want a super versatile metal machine I'd change out the bridge pup for something hotter. Personally, I decided to keep the stock ones. They handle everything from clean jazz and pop to classic rock and up to Black Sabbath. They're just just not quite there for Maiden or Van Halen.
The fit and finish look beautiful. This is what Michael Kelly is apparently known for. Most people seem to raise the action on these guitars as it comes very low from the factory. I had to put super light strings on it so they would feel softer on my daughter's fingertips and I readjusted the truss rod & intonation at the bridge to suit the super light strings, raising the action just a hair to accommodate them but the action is still very low and fast without fret buzz. It was a breeze. I also changed the knobs and pickup rings to match the ones from the girl in the show and my little girl is in heaven. It sounds great, plays great and looks awesome.
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