Halo Guitar Review: MERUS-7-R-25.5''-HIPSHOT-TOJ-NAZGUL-SENTIENT

“I have had ample time to play with my guitar, and first off let me say I am very happy with it overall... If I were to rate this guitar out of 10, I would give it a solid 9.”

Mockup: HALO MERUS 7-string guitar, 25.5", Hipshot Bridge, Seymour Duncan Nazgul & Sentient pickups

Actual: HALO MERUS 7-string guitar, 25.5″, Hipshot Bridge, Seymour Duncan Nazgul & Sentient pickups

Some Background Info:

This guitar was configured with our Customization Tool and the configured price was $1429.00. We were commissioned to build it in 2014 and we delivered it in 2015. We reached out to the owner of this amazing guitar to ask for his honest and critical feedback. Before getting to the review, here are some general specifications:

• Body Shape: MERUS
• Number of Strings: 7
• Dexterity: RIGHT HANDED
• Scale Length: 25.5"
• Bridge: HIPSHOT FIXED BRIDGE
• Color: TRANSPARENT ORANGE, SATIN (MATTE)
• Pickups: SEYMOUR DUNCAN NAZGUL (BRIDGE), SEYMOUR DUNCAN SENTIENT (NECK)

Customer Review:

“I have had ample time to play with my guitar, and first off let me say I am very happy with it overall. I use it in my school's jazz ensemble, the clean tone sounds fantastic, and I use it in a band I am in outside of school for high gain work, and it sounds equally great. The playability is great (... It's fast!!).

The action was slightly too low when the guitar came in, but having the relief adjusted with the truss rod easily fixed that. There really is only thing I would call an issue, though it is not a huge problem for me, and that is that the 24th fret access is pretty tight. That being said, I rarely need to go up high, as I am a pretty experienced soloist and have been playing the first 22 frets for pretty much all my life, so this might be more of a problem with others, not necessarily myself. The other issue, which is another very small issue, is that the intonation was off on some of the lower strings, and I have not adjusted this as of yet, but it is a simple fix. I believe the forearm cutaway could be slightly deeper. I have a Stratocaster that has a very nice, slanted arm cutaway. The cutaway on the Merus is nice but could be slightly more slanted. The belly cut is quite nice though, and makes for very comfortable playing both sitting down and standing up. The volume knob placement is also pretty good, and I generally do not bonk the volume knob on accident. Aesthetically speaking the guitar looks amazing...

Positive things now: playability, as said, is great, it feels effortless to shred on this monster; the neck and body's matte finish feels amazing and smooth to move my hands and arms across, even when I get sweaty after playing for extended periods. If I were to rate this guitar out of 10, I would give it a solid 9. This will no doubt be my primary instrument for quite some time. Thanks for your work.”

Conclusion:

There is so much value in Nathan's feedback, as we are always looking for ways to improve our guitars. We have taken all his comments seriously. We have already re-designed the lower cutaway for the Merus design. All Merus guitars built after March 2015 will have a larger cutaway to allow for improved upper fret access. The low string action was unavoidable as the neck had shifted due to changes in the guitar's environment (temperature, humidity, elevation). But, admittedly, we need to tighten up our QC in the intonation department!