Since October, 1988, my trusty PRS Custom 24 has been my primary guitar. Since pusrchasing the Music Man Petrucci, they now share the “main” spot relatively equally. I own around 20 guitars, most of which were purchased between the times I bought these guitars.

My primary interest, music-wise, is progressive metal, ala Petrucci/Dream Theater. Although my tastes are much more diverse overall, this style is the focal point. With that in mind, I wish to first comment on the tone/sound of the guitar. The custom Dimarzios are hands-down the best sounding pickups I’ve ever used. Through a Rectifier sound, perfect. Ok, that’s basically Petrucci’s exact setup. Go listen to a DT record. That says it all.

As far as the playability of this guitar. Oddly enough, although I recently read that Petrucci uses 009 guage string sets on this particular setup, I am certain the strings that were on the guitar I purchased were at least 010′s if not 011′s. Perhaps they were changed at some point by the music store, I’m not sure. The increased tension caused the action to sit a bit higher than I prefer, but since my PRS was set up perfectly, I decided to experiment for awhile and played the first few months with the higher action and heavier guage – tuned flat 1/2 step. This is an interesting little exercise to put yourself through, as I feel my playing took a small leap forward as a result of the new challenge of stepping outside of my usual “box.” And I found that my speed soon equalled what it had been, if not surpassed it. Upon returning to the PRS once in awhile, I found the technical gain was even more pronounced, and then when I re-strung the Petrucci MM, I went to my usual 009′s and tuned to standard. This is when I realized that the playability of this guitar surpassed even the PRS, slightly. Early reviews that I had read, raved about the tight action and with 009′s I have found this to be more true than I might have thought possible.

It’s difficult to describe how a pickup can have such a beautifully and hugely saturated sound, yet retain such absurd clarity at high speeds, and yet it does. This is the meeting point of the great sound and the great playability of this guitar.

Furthermore, when expanding outside the realm of this core “sound,” this is a very versatile axe that produces as many sounds as any other highly versatile axe. Although, I do believe my PRS is a bit more versatile.

The Piezo electronics further add to the versatility, and offer something my PRS does not have. My one gripe is that Music Man has not made available 13-pin Roland access to accompany the Piezo accessability. I find this to be an odd choice, and would hope the company would consider providing this option in the future, as I am a huge fan of the great Roland products – both processing and synth.

This is a USA made guitar, and it shows through and through. This guitar is so solid it’s noticeable in just taking a hold of the neck to pick it up. Quality is evident in every part of the guitar.

My guitar has the Mystic Dream finish, which is absolutely beautiful. I love the fact that a variety of hues are available depending on the way the light hits the axe. Since my other avocation is photography, this intrigues me as much as the sound of the axe. I first recall noticing this concept long before it was made available on a guitar (a neighbor had a custom van that I had always seen as black and one day he drove by on a very bright day and I noticed a distinct metallic blue imbued in the finish – when I asked, he explained the clever style of paint job). It was only a few short years later that this guitar appeared with this finish available.

This guitar has the price tag that it does for a reason. And it is worth every penny.

Anyway I burnt my cash on this piece of junk. Dont make the same mistake!

Main drawback I have found is the USB cable length. Probably 6 feet of cable, but this tethers you down to the computer without getting cable extenders.

I have found the guitar and software/GarageBand have a good sound, and excellent recording quality on the computer. I look forward to a couple of years of use for the iAxe, and then possibly upgrading.

Despite previous reviews saying it does not, the iAxe actually does work with Vista just fine – but you have to get the drivers from the Behringer website; it’s not included on the CD. It’s not easy to find there either, (in fact I struggled to find the iAxe listed on their site at all!), so I just goggled the driver and linked straight to the download location.

PROS
1. Good price.
2. Decent construction. (Harmonics work so that means its constructed fairly well).
3. Usable sound. (You aren’t going to get screaming feedback but it distorts quite nicely).

CONS
1. It does not play sound through the PC speakers. You have to use headphones, amp or rig up to route sound through your PC to speakers.
2. Mine did not include an amp – not sure if it’s meant to be in there or not.
3. With the USB and headphones installed you need to be careful setting it down as the ports are positioned on the bottom, right where you’d normally rest it. (Bad design) Suggest getting a guitar stand for it and save yourself damaging either port.
4. The “combo” software included has many preset sounds, most of them pretty bad, but overall the sounds are good enough for what you need to do here. If you are looking for something to record with this might -just- be good enough but it’s probably best kept for folks who want to learn or just tinker on the weekends.
5. The software is a bit fiddly, getting the sound you want can take some effort.

Four stars because it meets my needs almost exactly. No amp taking up room and causing noise issues with the wife. Sounds pretty good and works quite well. I won’t be making a hit CD with it but I will be able to relive the time spent at Brookborough Hall and the guys from “Nothin’ Yet”.