Smash B1's goodness

Ivan had finally bought his guitar, a Smash B1 (as shown below).

Price: S$270

Many had heard of Fender, Gibson and Ibanez's budget series namely Squier, Epiphone and Ibanez Gio. But Smash doesn't lose to them, too. Smash is a budget series of Swing guitar from Korea. Many may look away from these not-so-famous brands, especially those who are ONLY aware of the more famous ones. 

Body
B1 has an Indonesian mahogany body. The shape of the body is somewhat like the shape of RG but it doesn't have sharp cutaway like RGs. I thought it was a basswood body but I had my doubts since it was TOO heavy for a basswood guitar.

Pickups

The guitar is loaded with Swing Heartbreaker pickups, featuring Alnico 5 magnet and plain Enamel coil. It is also the highest output pickups produced by Swing. Smash B1 is also the only guitar that comes with Swing pickups among all the Smash. These pickups has very distinctive high and mid tone. They are rather good pickups and it is rather hard get a guitar with relatively good pickups with this price range. A good beginner guitar. 


Controls
The guitar comes with a 5-way pickup switch so it is possible to get the single coil in its 2nd position (neck) and 4th position (bridge). Comes with one tone and one volume control.

Headstock and tuners

This is Swing/Smash style headstock. At the back of it includes its serial number. It has stringtree for its low E and B strings, like many other swing and smash guitars.

The tuners are Smash diecast tuners.

Neck and Fretboard
The neck construction is bolt-on. It is rather hard to find a guitar with set-neck within this price range as well.

This hard maple neck isn't that thin even though Smash B1 looks very alike to Ibanez RGs and GRGs. They are relatively thicker but not as thick as that of strats. The staff at SV had set up this guitar well and the strings are as low as possible, giving it its maximum low action.
B1 has a rosewood fret board with jumbo frets. What I like about SV is that they always care to set up their guitars. This is evident by looking at the polishing done on the fretboard

Bridge

The bridge of this guitar is 2-point synchronised roller saddle tremolo. Well, it is not a fixed bridge. To be frank, fixed bridges are more appealing to me than tremolo. The irony is.. both of my current guitars are tremolo bridges. But i had 5 springs to pull back both of my bridges.


Others

Many of Swing and Smash guitars include a soft bag as show above. The bag is not of a very lousy quality. It is still properly padded. To buy this 'A la Carte' would costs $25 dollars. 


Rating: 4.5 / 5
I rate this 4 stars because it is indeed a good guitar for its price. Would rate is 0.5 if the bridge is a fixed one. Of course you couldn't expect it to be at a Ibanez Prestige standard. But, if I am to buy a guitar with a budget of $300 and is looking for something of an RG shape, I would get Smash B1 rather than choose one from Ibanez Gio series.


Hope this help