WestCreek Revenge Solid Body Electric Guitar, Heavy Metal Guitar, Right Handed, Heavy Metal Pickups, Rounded End Jumbo Frets, Bone nut, Rosewood Fretboard, Mahogany Body (Camo Green)

As an owner of several other "cheap" guitars (e.g., Xaviere, Glarry, Firefly) I took a chance on the WestCreek Revenge (red), fully expecting it to require a complete set-up and to have some minor fit & finish issues, maybe even require some downstream mods/upgrades to get it to punch above its weight.So I was very pleasantly surprised when the Revenge arrived this afternoon in (nearly) flawless condition, was playable right out of the box, and sounded absolutely fantastic.Appearance - positives:+ The red is deeper and more nuanced than the Amazon photos; in some lighting it is very vibrant and in other lighting it is almost maroon. Really comes alive, especially with the flame top.+ The sides, back, and neck are not black as they appear on screen, but more of a deep burgundy. A nice surprise!+ The stain, lacquer and binding are flawless all-around. The flame top is subtle but adds plenty of color depth.+ The glued neck joint is perfectly blended with the body as if the entire thing were carved out of one solid block of wood.+ The stainless frets are already polished with smooth, rounded ends - just as described. Extremely comfortable without any filing needed.+ The mother-of-pearl fret marker inlays are vibrant with plenty of 3-dimensional depth.+ The fretboard itself appears to be high quality wood; the coloration is consistent and there is no wood filler.+ The headstock logo appears to be mother-of-pearl inlay. Higher-end than what I expected; based on the Amazon photos I thought it would be a white decal. So another nice surprise.Appearance - negatives:- The highest fret marker inlay is *ever* so slightly crooked. You can only see it because the strings make vertical reference lines; most would probably not even notice. I’m picky about such things but even I can live with it.- The humbucker pickups in the Amazon photos have chrome covers. The one I received came with uncovered black pickups. Which I’m actually happy about because I would’ve preferred that look anyway. But it's in the negative list because it's still an assembly discrepancy; if someone is ordering this guitar hoping for the chrome pickups that are pictured, they would likely be disappointed.- All 3 of the control knobs are marked "volume" when in fact there should be 2 volume (top and middle) and 1 marked "tone" (bottom). The knob functions properly as a tone knob so the pots are correct; it's just the wrong tophat. I submitted a customer service request this afternoon to the seller to either send me a replacement tophat OR send me a partial refund that would cover buying new tophats myself. Again, it works right, so not a big deal.Functional - positives:+ As mentioned above, the guitar required minimal setup. I watched a YouTube review (apparently from a prior run of Revenge models in late '22) which said the nut needed cut way down, the truss rod needed big adjustments, the bridge was too high, and the intonation was way off. Well in my case, at least, none of that turned out to be a problem. The nut is cut perfectly; strings are low with no buzz. Neck relief is right where I like it (flat with no relief), and bridge height was also perfect. Just needs *slight* intonation adjustments on 2 strings. Honestly, I've never bought or worked on a guitar that was this close to being dialed in right out of the box.+ Pots seem to ramp up as they should. Saw a prior Amazon reviewer who had bad luck with a volume knob jumping straight up to full volume but this wasn’t an issue for me.+ The factory tuners are tight and don't seem to have a lot of slop in the mechanism. We'll see how well they hold tune but so far, so good.+ This guitar sounds amazing! The sound of these (black, uncovered) pickups matches the appearance of this guitar, i.e., full-bodied & aggressive. Crisp & vintage clean tones, monster crunch at high gain, with sustain for *days.*EDIT: Another + The pickup specs aren't listed, however, according to my multimeter they measure just shy of 10k at the neck and slightly below 14k at the bridge. So they're fairly hot and provide plenty of crunch, as you might want/expect with this style of guitar.Functional - negatives:- The strings suck. But factory strings always do, so I'm not sure this really counts as a minus. Just replace them with your favorite strings at your earliest opportunity.- The fretboard looks pretty dried out, so it's in bad need of oil at the first string change. But that's pretty much standard operating procedure unless you have a maple fretboard.- The high-E tuner knob is really hard to turn. So much that I was worried about breaking it when I initially tuned up the guitar. It seemed to loosen up a tiny bit after that, but still pretty stiff. Not a big deal, but might be a reason to upgrade the tuners at a later date.Overall, I am extremely pleased with this guitar. Especially at a sub-$250 price point! I realize that other user experiences seem to be mixed, so quality control may still be luck of the draw. But I'm pleasantly surprised and impressed with the one I received. Even if it had come needing a setup it would be a steal. This guitar looks and sounds as good - and perhaps better - than other "Explorer" and "Snakebite" type guitars costing >10x as much that I've played around with. If you're in the market for this style of guitar - and maybe tired of waiting for other more popular "cheap" guitar brands to release their next batch (as I did) - the Revenge is an excellent value.EDIT: I contacted WestCreek via Amazon customer service link about the volume/tone knob and they issued me a $10 credit within 12 hrs. Enough to cover the cost of a set of 4 identical replacement tophats, which I can easily change out myself.Bumping my review from 4 stars to 5, as this was really the only “negative” above that bothered me.

The guitar I ordered/received (Revenge/white in color) arrived via UPS in a heavily damaged box. Upon unboxing the guitar, I found it intact, but it did have damage to the lower bout and along the lower back edge of the guitar. The damage on the upper bout was a chip out of the body, exposing raw wood.While there are very minor finish blemishes, the guitar plays well. The action is low (there is some slight fret buzz - which can be remedied), the neck and fretboard are in good shape, and the guitar stays in tune with decent sustain. The guitar is enjoyable to play, even with the damage to it. It's worthy of upgrades to parts to customize to your liking.I own several other solid-body electric guitars from several manufacturers (ESP, Epiphone, Ibanez). I took a chance on WestCreek to find an alternative at a more affordable price range. The guitar itself is sturdy, plays nicely and the quality is impressive at this price point. So much so that I plan to invest in upgraded parts.What I'm most impressed with is the customer service from WestCreek. I notified them on a Saturday evening of the damaged guitar I received. Within 20 minutes I received a response. I corresponded (via the Amazon seller feedback) with Westcreek and within 30 minutes that same day they made it right. This has to be the best customer service I've ever received from a seller on Amazon. I'm just surprised and extremely impressed with WestCreek as a company. They really do stand by their product. This one experience with them has made me want to keep purchasing from them with confidence. It's also earned my loyalty.The 5 stars in the review is primarily for WestCreek as a company and the amazing customer service experience I had with them. This is uncommon these days. I'm very grateful.Read the reviews. WestCreek stands apart from the rest and they proved it to me. Let them impress you, too. I recommend this company and will continue to buy from them. Thank you, WestCreek Guitars!

The guitar is very nice. The neck is straight and the frets well done. The reason no 5 Stars:1. I think the bridge pickup is microphonic and has a high squeal when high gain is added (no it’s not feedback). Also, you can hear the switching is the toggle and rubbing on the body when the volume is on- this is also a sign of Micophonic pickups.2. This is actually a 0 or 1 star, but I didn’t want to give lower than a 4 star and mess up the rating on the guitar- but the BOX and SHIPPING ARE TRASH AND LOW QUALITY; it’s a miracle the guitar made it in one piece. The box is flimsy and not double boxed… it has a single layer cheap foam covering, sandwiched between cheap thin styrofoam- all in a cheap bag. What a horrible packing job.West creek needs to get their packing figured out- I’m not sure how they aren’t getting broken guitars returned.I just ordered another body style and man- I hope it’s not broken when it arrives and the guitar is as great as the first one.