Hey! I'll start with that overall I'm happy with this guitar. It looks bewitching and plays and sound great. I'm glad that I've purchased it, but I couldn't rate it all 5 stars, let's go
I’ll start with the positives. Satin Mapple Vinier looks just awesome. It has a prominent wave texture and a noticeable gradient from dark at the top of the body towards the bottom. With roasted neck (which is too has a nice texture) It’s eye candy.
For my liking, I enjoy a sound. It’s full, reach and quite bassy, especially on neck pickup. Sounds excellent on clean and low overdrive. I’ve been surprised that the pickups hold well on high gain too.
Satin neck is both beautiful and comfortable to play. After I’d received it I spent the rest of the day playing and noodling, not wanting the guitar to leave my hands. It just feels nice to keep it in your hands
The guitar was set up well and playable from the box. Not a scratch on the finish after delivery.
I think Aeolus is a great alternative to run-of-the-mill budget Les Paul. It’s a way to go if you want something more classy looking and feel comfortable with this kind of neck.
Now to the negatives. You can say all of them are minor, but adding up they spoil the impression.
—From the box frets are very poorly polished (or probably not polished at all);
—The fretwork is not very accurate. You can see marks tool marks on the edges of neck and even on the fretboard;
—The «a» logo is not centered :-)
—Tuning keys. Yeah HB decreased the price by about 60 euros and switched for a noname HB keys (not locking). They are fine, but meh. I can’t say they cause any problems, but they just don’t feel nice. Even not brand HB locking tuners on my Fusion III feel much better. I personally would prefer to pay extra but receive Grover tuners from the box (I rumble so much only because they focused so much on these tuners in their promo videos);
—Final woodwork (sanding?) on F holes are sloppy;
In the end, I enjoy this guitar and would love to give it five stars. But with all these little issues adding up, It's a shame that I just can't :-(
Extra:
The neck is the chunckiest I’ve played on. I was expecting this and feel comfortable with it. Someone could find it as a cons. but I find it quite nice to play extended chords
Don’t use Elixir strings on this guitar. The coating on wounded strings causes ham because of grounding issues. It’s the first time I’ve faced this problem, but it’s 100% caused by stings. When I switched back to regular strings it went away