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Ronny
North Test Drives the 34 1/2
Source: Modern
Guitars Magazine
by Ronny North
When I was doing a demo for my sponsor,
AMT Pedals, at the Summer NAMM in Nashville this past June, I
noticed these cool guitars at a booth a couple spaces down from
where I was playing. I was rushing to get to the AMT booth on
time to do my demo, so I told the guys at the guitar booth that
I would like to come by and check out their guitars after my
demo.
As always my demo ran long, so I only had a few minutes before
my next demo on the far side of the convention center. I did
manage to go to the booth with the guitars and got the low down
on them.
The company is called The Alternative Guitar and Amplifier
Company. The founder of the company, Mal Stich, and his son
Lothar talked about their guitars while I tried one out
acoustically, before plugging it in. Mal worked at BC Rich
Guitars during their heyday in the '80s, so he knows a thing or
two about guitars. After chatting for a few minutes I had to run
to get to my AMT demo.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran into Mal and Lothar again at the
California World Guitar Show in Pomona,
California.
This time I had a chance to sit down and play their guitars. The
model that I really liked is called the 34 ½ Guitar. It has a
single cutaway body with a flamed maple top on an Agathis body
with 25 frets, Kahler trem with a locking nut behind the guitar’s
standard nut, and two import EMG HZ passive humbuckers. The body
is very comfortable. Even using a Fender amp with no gain, the
guitar got great clean sounds and really played well.
Last week the guys from the company were kind enough to send me
the 34 ½ guitar to review. After playing the guitar a bit I
noticed how well it was built. The frets were great and the
finish was well done. The guitar had cool light amber sunburst
finish with a mild flame and felt more solid than a lot of
budget priced instruments. It’s imported from Korea and setup
here in America.
I played the guitar in my studio and ran it both clean and dirty
through a tube amp. It really performed great in both situations.
I’m really not a fan of EMG pickups, but the passive HZ models
on the guitar did a good job and I was able to get very usable
sounds. The guitar had great sustain and was relatively light
weight. I’m told that the guitar retails for $699.00 which
means that the street price will be in the $500.00 range.
My only complaints about the guitar were about the hardware, not
the guitar overall. The imported Kahler bridge had a very
noticeable rattling when you strummed chords. I do want to note
that the guitar did stay in tune when I went nuts with the trem.
You could hear the rattling acoustically, although it was barely
noticeable through the amp. It was very distracting. My other
issue was with the pickups. I felt that the front neck EMG HZ
pickup sounded a little boxy when used with distortion. That
being said, the pickup got great Strat-like tones when run
through a clean amp.
A call to Mal Stich ended up with him telling me that he'd look
into both of my concerns with the guitar. He also told me that
the company will be offering a stop tail piece option in the
near future. The 34 1/2 was a lot of fun to play and would be
great for everything from jazz to metal and everything in
between. It also has a cool vintage type vibe. If you’re
looking to get a cool great playing fun guitar to play that’s
also affordable, you really should check these guitars out. I’m
thinking about possibly getting one for myself.
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The
object of The Alternative
Guitar and Amplifier Company is
to make high quality, well crafted, solid body guitars that
sound great, feel great, play great, for a reasonable price.
But, most importantly, the object is not to make copies of other
companies designs. The designs we're offering are truly
alternative, original designs, based upon styles that we admired
in the past, but with a look at the future. 
We’ve
attempted to give the designs a vintage or period look
incorporating a modern and futuristic touch. This has
taken over four years from their conception to the
manufacturing process.
enjoy
your visit!

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