This is the Slick Guitars SL 55 – an eye-catching, affordable take on a Filtertron-equipped, Cabronita-esque rock and roll machine… with a few twists up its sleeve!

More info on Slick Guitars: http://www.slickguitars.com/index.php...

I’ve seen the odd Slick Guitar model around dealers near me over the past couple of years, but until recently I’d never had the chance to play one. That’s all changed now, though, as Musik Wein – German Slick distributors – have sent me the SL 55 to put through its paces!

And what an interesting guitar it is! This seems to be a common theme with Slick Guitars – they all seem to have something a little different about them from the norm, which is pretty refreshing to see these days.

Designed by – and bearing the surname of – former David Bowie and John Lennon guitarist Earl Slick, the guitars in the Slick range are all simple, no-nonsense affairs, stripped of anything unnecessary in the making of sweet rock and roll music. Like tone knobs and pickguards, for example.

This SL 55 comes in a stunning Black Ash finish, although other relic finishes are available. The ash body feels lovely and natural, with barely any finish there – and this extends to the neck too, which feels like naked maple topped with a jatoba fingerboard.

The interesting twist here is the fact that we have a Fender-ish Telecaster style body and Gibson neck measurements: namely a 24.75” scale length and a 12” fingerboard radius. Add this to the pair of Earl Slick-designed “hard vintage” GFTron Filtertron-style pickups and the unusual raw brass hardware, and you’ve got a guitar that is certainly its own thing.

It’s cheap, too, coming in at around $270/€430 – but the real question is: how good is it? Can it compete with the likes of a Squier Classic Vibe Cabronita Tele, for example? Well, that’s what we’re going to find out here, as I test the SL 55 in as many different musical styles as I can, from country, folk and indie, to pop, rock, punk, metal, and more.

Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:

00:00 Hello!
00:17 Introduction to the Slick SL 55
01:54 Specs and info
05:01 Today’s rig and plan

Clean Sounds
05:39 Clean tone reference chords on all pickup settings
05:53 Country ballad arpeggios
06:06 Country lead sound
06:12 Strummed country pop chords
06:31 Grungey droning chords
06:49 Blues progression
07:01 Ringing open indie pop chords
07:13 Funky rhythms
07:26 Surf riff
07:44 Soul pop riff
07:58 Ascending droning indie chords
08:12 Atmospheric indie arpeggios

Light & Medium Overdrive Sounds
08:30 Kings Of Leon inspired riff
08:36 Garage rock riff
08:52 Indie octave chords
09:18 Choppy barre chords
09:27 Upbeat indie barre chords
09:51 Volume control roll off test
10:10 Fat indie rock rhythm chords
10:41 Southern rock picked arpeggios
11:00 Classic rock riff
11:12 AC/DC inspired riff
11:26 Groovy classic rock riff
11:41 Quacky rock riff
11:50 Airbourne inspired rock riff
12:01 Hendrix inspired riff

Heavy Overdrive Sounds
12:19 Glam rock riff
12:39 Melodic hard rock single note riff
13:00 80s rock riff
13:20 Classic hard rock riff
13:38 Alternative rock riff
13:50 Pop punk riff
14:03 Pop punk melodic lead riff
14:20 Green Day inspired punk rock riff
14:33 Punk rock power chords
14:46 Pop metal riff
14:57 Progressive rock riff (Drop D tuning)
15:12 Modern rock palm-muted chords (Drop D)
15:36 Rage Against The Machine inspired groovy riff (Drop D)

Heavy Distortion Sounds (all in Drop D)
15:53 Metal chugging riff
16:10 Mastodon inspired metal riff with country twang
16:22 Hardcore punk riff
16:33 Heavy metal lead sound
16:48 Rammstein inspired industrial metal riff

17:01 My thoughts
17:39 First impressions and looks
18:41 Price
19:23 Build quality and hardware
20:20 Weight
20:54 Playability and neck
21:20 Gibson neck measurements on a Fender body
22:25 Sounds and pickups discussion
24:35 What other similar guitars are out there?
26:17 My conclusions on the SL 55 and why you should buy it

My setup was as follows: I ran the SL 55 into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, also using my Greer Lightspeed and my Revv G3 pedals for overdrive and heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box DI straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, which went into Logic Pro X. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done.

Get all this gear at Thomann: https://thmn.to/thocf/jkhog8l06m
Get all this gear at Sweetwater: https://sweetwater.sjv.io/LXqdE0

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Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.

#SlickGuitars #Cabronita #Telecaster

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