I have never heard that story about the microphonic pickups... that's cool! Although generally accepted as a bad thing, I think it adds something special. You gain a certain percussiveness and edge that you otherwise lose. Some of my favorite Telecaster pickups are microphonic, too.X-Ray Spex wrote: ↑Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:23 am
I actually prefer the thinner bodied ones, they make the earlier designs seem very clunky in comparison.
Never had the experience of the Imron neck, is it glossy or more satin feeling? My Tyranny has a brushed neck which feels fantastic underhand.
The microphonic pickups thing was quite a well known error at the Bean factory allegedly according to Marc McElwee, seems like they only figured out the potting issues on the last few runs of instruments before the company went bust.
The Imron coating is a gloss finish. It basically feels like paint. I believe that it is epoxy based. The biggest reason that I wanted one with it was because it looked cool They do also seem to be less common, I think.
I don't have any problems with the thin body. I had always planned on buying an earlier Artist to supplement it, but never got around to it. Now the prices are pretty well absurd. For several years, I had been after a Standard but kept putting it off, always dumping my money into '60s Fenders instead. The Beans (Standards at least) were only about $1500 then. As soon as I went to actually try to buy one, they had all disappeared and the prices doubled! At that point Gbase was the main place to find stuff other than eBay. I think I gave about $2600 for it in about 2005 or 2006.