I walked into a local store to pick up a drum set for my kids as a loud Christmas gift. I'm friendly with a few of the guys working there and they showed me a pile of guitars that they had just got in from a collector who was liquidating his collection. Among the PRS's, custom shop tele, lefty Rickenbacker, and many different Les Pauls, was this 2020 Maverick Dorado. Most of the guitars still had plastic on the parts, the Maverick even had its hang tags on it and the original plastic bag the case was shipped in. From what I understand the previous owner was a doctor who collected but didn't play, and his family hasn't shown any interest in the guitars so he's selling off his collection.
My wife usually gets me a pedal for Christmas every year, and wanted me to try a few to help her narrow down what she liked the sound of. I decided to use the Maverick for these demos, because how often do you actually see them in the wild, right? The price on it, while lower than retail, was still expensive so it was a just for fun.
I really liked the guitar, and soon stopped paying attention to the pedals and tried it through a few different amps. One of the guys I know stopped in and we got to talking. He offered me a good discount (less than half retail) and good money for another guitar of mine I was thinking of unloading. I hemmed and hawed a couple days and pulled the trigger. Cash out of pocket with the trade for this was about the cost of a Squier CV Jazzmaster.
The first thing I liked was the playability. I can zip along this neck really fast, which is unusual for me because its a pretty hefty neck, think SRV boat neck or Gibson's 50's profile. Its an offset and i'm tall, so the balance feels great on me. Its had me playing shreddy stuff again.
I like the extra details on this guitar. Where the original Maverick was made up of leftover parts, this one has unique specs. The neck isn't just a US made XII neck, it has an ebony board, blocks and binding, and 24.75 scale. The pickups likewise are only available with this model. That is a double-edged sword though, the way they mount is a 2 then 1 screw per side, so swapping to other pickups may require some mods to fit. Oh, and did I mention the case? Its a typical offset case but is surf green.
The pickups are on the bassy side, especially for me since JM/Jag pickups are pretty much all I play these days. They look like Filtertrons but are just small humbuckers. I used to gig an early 80's LP with Shaw Buckers, and these Shaw designed pickups in the Maverick have a similar character, with maybe a bit more sparkle and note definition. Basically I love the bridge pickup and both pickup position and tolerate the wooly neck. The bridge pickup is a classic rock voiced pickup and does the hard rock crunch sound really well. It and a Mesa amp were made to go together (I wish I still had a Marshall in my stable). Its cleans are full and clear.
Fit and finish wise, its really good. No dings or finish imperfections. Two small issues, one visible tooling mark on the fretboard and a few scratches in the binding. It wouldn't stay in tune to save its life when I got it home, and if I even looked at the Bigsby it went out of tune. I took everything apart and filed down the nut, cleaned up the string retainer, and had to file some pretty big burrs off of the bridge. Once I did that and intonated the guitar it was a whole other story. The Bigsby is a licensed one, and it seems flimsier than the US made and vintage Bigsby's i've had in the past. I read that the holes don't line up with the US made ones, so I'm stuck with it for now.
Overall i'm really pleased. I'd say its a Gibson sounding guitar for people who don't like Gibson guitars. With what I paid for it I don't think i'm ever going to lose money on it if I decide its not for me. My other thinking is that it would be good trade bait if I want to get back into a Rickenbacker in the future. I'm going to use it at a couple gigs later in the month and see how well it holds up.
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