OCTAVIA - 6-String, Headless, 25.5" Scale, Transparent Gray

Excellent customer service

Thank you! I love it! I would LOVE to see this model come with a Sophia tremolo

I recieved my new Halo Octavia a few days ago! This is my first Halo guitar. The build quality is fantastic! I will eventually get around to doing a video review but for now I'll just write a not so brief post. My initial impression is a very positive one. I first noticed how heavy it was, especially for a chambered guitar. I like that. Don't get me wrong. It wasn't too heavy either. I've had other healdess guitar that I felt were too light and seemed to move around when really digging into rhythm notes. I have been an Ibanez guy for years. But, the neck profile is very comfortable I must say. It is a little thicker but not much. There wasn't a single bump or catch on the sides of the fretboard from the ends of the frets at all. This is somewhat of a pet peeve of mine as it seems there is always that one or two fret ends that are just a little rough on my Prestiges. Not the case here! Silky smooth! Speaking of silky smooth, the roasted maple neck is to die for! My thumb glides effortlessly along it. Love the satin finish. The end of the neck could use some attention. It's just a square block. Not a deal breaker but a nice curve or something would be cool. The neck joint allows for good upper registry access as well. It would be nice to see the body tapered or slanted a little bit at the bolt on joint to facilitate easier access but again, not a deal breaker. Love the Luminlay fret markers and side dots! The Flamed Maple top and finish are flawless! Like glass. It comes loaded with Fishman Fluence AND the USB jack in the back to plug it in. Hell yeah! I won't go over the pick ups. There are plenty of videos doing that already. The bridge will take some tinkering with. I don't know if the tuners need a little grease or something on them but a couple were hard as hell to turn. So much so that it made the adjacent tuners go out of tune as I had to use a death grip to turn it. It looks like other Chinese built bridges like GOC, etc. It came setup very well but I will change out the strings to my personal preference. Fortunately it looks like there is plenty of room to adjust intonation as I tune to B standard. The electronics cavity is shielded nicely. It looks like all the soldering was done nicely as well. The only reason I took the plate off in the first place was because something was something rattling around in there. Turned out to be a small ball of solder and a small piece of wire. No big deal. The output jack had a nice solid connection/feel when I plugged in the guitar cable. The pots were smooth and had no issues with them other than they both are crooked. Another stupid pet peeve of mine. But, having replaced them on other guitars I know it can be a little tricky to get them set just right so when you turn them they don't look like they're wobbling. Either a shorter pole or a longer knob will fix that. My Ibanez knobs are almost touching the body of the guitar and are perfectly level. The communication after buying the guitar while it was being setup was really nice. It gave me the feeling that if I had any issues with the guitar they would make it right. Hopefully I won't need to find out. The guitar was packed with plenty of bubble wrap and a cardboard box. There was also extra packing material in the guitar case. They even took off the selector switch knob so it wouldn't be damaged during shipment. It was in a little bag in the case. Nice touch! The guitar retails for $1499. It comes with an awesome locking hard shell case, all the necessary case candy and some Halo guitar picks! Plus, a certificate of authenticity and a t-shirt! I've never gotten a t-shirt when I bought a guitar. Not one from Strandberg, Kiesel or Ibanez. Nice touch Halo! Now they just need to make a model with a Sophia tremolo. I would definitely buy one. Overall, great job Halo. You killed it on the things that really matter most.