Cloud replica

[12stringbassist]

I have always fancied a Prince Cloud type guitar and thought I would take a punt on one from Sunfield Music in Miami.
The price wasn't bad, including case. It turns out that they order from China and get them shipped direct to you.

Anyway, back to the guitar. It arrived reasonably quickly after ordering and I escaped customs charges on it. Out of the case it looked amazing.
No case included, so i got onto them by email. They confirmed that they case would be internally shaped, so I accepted having one shipped. Well worth the money (I got slapped for customs on the case).

The guitar needed work:

Replacement posts for the bridge. Frets leveling, as notes choked when I lowered the action. The pickups are branded EMG, but I doubt they are anything at all to do with EMG. Packing under the pickups to raise them. The pickups are quieter than a Strat I was alternating with this evening.

Edited July 2, 2018 by 12stringbassist

[EBS_freak]

I always wondered about these. They look like fun! Just out of interested, was the neck painted then fretted... or fretted then painted? Whats the sides of the frets looking like?

[leftybassman392]

Maybe it's me, but that fretboard looks very wide for a 6-string electric - almost like a classical guitar. Do you have measurements for width at the nut & the bridge?

Edited July 5, 2018 by leftybassman392

[12stringbassist]

It's Gibson scale.
The body is small, as per Prince's request, which makes it look out of whack a little.
Width is what you would expect on an average Les Paul. 42mm at nut. 53 at 12th fret.
The neck is a definite C -  a bit of a tree trunk, but nice to play.

Here it is next to a common or garden Strat.



I am getting an ESP Cloud tomorrow (below), so it will be interesting to compare them.

Edited July 10, 2018 by 12stringbassist

[12stringbassist]

No idea if it was painted before fretting, but imagine yes. Frets are perfectly clean.

Side view of neck:

A bit of recording video - apologies for crappy video sound.
 

 

Edited July 10, 2018 by 12stringbassist

[12stringbassist]

Well I got the ESP and am going to just keep that one now.
I can't justify two Clouds. Hello Gumtree.

[EBS_freak]

Cool stuff. ESP better option then I take it?

[12stringbassist]

The ESP guitar is a lot better.
The Chinese ones are not bad for the money, though I had to get an amount of work done on mine to make it worth taking on stage.

[12stringbassist]

The purple Cloud went to a Prince tribute band at the weekend.
I think it will go down a storm onstage.

[EBS_freak]

Just now, 12stringbassist said:

The purple Cloud went to a Prince tribute band at the weekend.
I think it will go down a storm onstage.

I think I saw that on Facebook. Should be very apt!