Guerilla News: M-1 Alpha Review on Guitar World

M-1 Alpha Review on Guitar World

Jan 11th 2011

Canada's GUERILLA GUITARS builds nothing but aggressively styled and singularly equipped instruments for metal players, selling them at about half the price charged by U.S. and Japanese custom shops. All of the axes are handcrafted in Canada by a small team of builders and feature neck-through-body construction, which, though costly and difficult, delivers improved sustain and tonal properties. For this review, I looked at Guerilla's M1-Alpha.

Features

THE M1-ALPHA'S BODY shape looks like a military hybrid of a Soloist and JEM, with extremely deep cutaways and the generally familiar Strat outline. Radardeflecting horn angles, sharp edges and a reverse fighter-wing headstock are obviously inspired by the creator's love for war machines. To achieve its to-hell-and-back look, the entire guitar and hardware, minus the fretboard and pickups, are painted black, then strategically sanded by hand. As a result, no two guitars look exactly alike.

Because this is a neck-through design, the transition from the body to the neck is seamless and gradually contoured. Players will barely feel the hill's slope under the upper registers. The D-shaped neck is thin enough to play at mach speeds but also nicely rounded on the hill and shoulders.

Bright, fast-responding ebony tops the neck, and flat-crowned jumbo frets help legato runs remain as distinct as picked notes.

Performance

A lot of guitars feature a similar complement of metal attributes, but it's the quality of Guerilla's work that sets this guitar apart.

Sustain is incredible, even without a ton of gain at the amp, thanks to the combination of active EMGs, the neck-through construction and long headstock.

Tested through a Fortin-modified Marshall and an Elmwood, the M1-Alpha created decimating crunch characteristics, with innumerous layers of edgy harmonics. Sucking the mids out of these amps yielded extremely heavy sounds that didn't obscure minute intonation and pitch changes.

There is plenty of brightness in the treble range for screaming leads and effortless pinched squeals. Clean sounds are certainly respectable and clear, even when driving through a long signal chain, but it's obvious that the M1-Alpha was not designed with jazz players in mind.

THE BOTTOM LINE

GUERILLA GUITARS' M1-ALPHA is not for the faint of heart or blues guru who's excited by the interplay of bell tones and airy acoustics. This is a high-powered guitar but also an extremely fast and precise tool for the well-trained shredder.