When I received the Wavepoint guitar from AXL Guitars and opened up the box, I was immediately struck with one of those transcendental questions, “Should your guitar reflect your music?” In many ways, I think the kind of guitar you play can inspire you to take creative paths you might not expect. If you are playing metal, then perhaps you want to reflect a barely controlled, raging inferno of emotion. In kind, the guitar should be capable of bone crushing power chords and lightening fast riffs. Ultimately, the total image and tone should be hard and sharp and keep you living on a razor’s edge. If this sounds like the kind of music you want to play, then read on, because the Wavepoint is certainly all metal…all the time!

AXL Wavepoint

The Wavepoint is part of AXL’s new Mayhem collection of budget priced Chinese made guitars that also includes the Clutch, Jacknife, and FireAx. At a street price of about $250, the Wavepoint offers up some serious features for those looking to maximize value. In fact, AXL has shoehorned so many features into this guitar that it has caused me to reconsider the level of quality I should expect from guitars on the lower end of the price spectrum.

Here’s a quick list of the main features of this guitar:

• Solid Alder Body w/ Contoured Cutaway Design
• 2 EMG-Designed Alnico Humbuckers
• Tune-O-Matic Bridge & Tailpiece
• Talisman Fretboard Inlay
• Ultra Thin Maple Neck
• Rosewood Fretboard




The solid alder body is cut into a surprisingly innovative design. I say surprisingly, because most “metal” or “gothic” type designs that attempt push the envelope with exaggerated edges and curves often fail miserably in the areas of balance and comfort. The Wavepoint has a wonderfully simple, yet sculpted body style that is very comfortable to play either sitting or standing. When sitting, the lower, curved, elongated bout contoured to my leg and provided a large surface area for stability. When standing, the guitar balanced well and was extraordinarily light relative to some of my other guitars. In terms of comfort alone, the Wavepoint is perfect for a long night of thrash. I should mention that the “point” on the upper bout tended to poke me in the ribs on occasion, especially when sitting but all-in-all this was a minor complaint.

My favorite feature on this guitar is the ultra-thin maple neck. It uses a nice-looking, three piece construction that gives it a “racing stripe” appearance. The neck also comes with a satin finish over the natural wood. Without question, this is one of the fastest guitars I’ve played. If you have thick fingers, you may want to stay away from this guitar because the spacing might be a bit narrow. Otherwise, however, I think most people will enjoy the easy reach and playability offered by the thin neck. Furthermore, if you are looking for a guitar to fit small hands then this guitar might be the perfect starting point.



I loved the fact that AXL went beyond the normal “dot” inlays and added some cool Talisman inlays. These inlays match the guitar’s understated, yet edgy, style. They were also quite well done, presumably by the same kind of CNC precision machining that is used to place inlays in higher end guitars.

Overall, the finish was well done in solid, glossy black. This appears to be the only color available at present time - but I would like to suggest that this guitar would look outstanding in a metallic silver! Also, I’m a big fan of cool headstocks and the Wavepoint has a great looking headstock to match the guitar’s design. The tuner knobs were a bit too small for my taste, but the tuners are sealed and once I had the guitar tuned up it held tune well with only minor adjustments required.

Sound Test

I really didn’t know what to expect from this guitar before I plugged it into my pedalboard and connected the pedalboard to my Marshall amplifier. However, from the time I palm-muted my way through some trashy power chord laden runs – I realized that these EMG-designed humbuckers could throw out some serious tone. Despite it’s razor wire looks, the guitar was actually pretty versatile and held it’s own across a number of musical styles – including blues and classic rock. However, it is most at home when playing chunky, distorted nastiness.

My favorite pickup setting was actually the middle position running both pickups with the volume and tone knobs wide open. Although I could wish the Wavepoint was a little hotter on lead lines it is absolute destruction in the mid-range as a rhythm guitar. In this zone, the pickups are crushing and sound enormous.

Summary

When GuitarGearHeads met up with the Music Link (manufacturers of Johnson Guitars, Lucida Guitars, AXL Guitars, and Coda Drums) at the NAMM show in Anaheim, California we wanted to know what their hottest product was for 2006. To their credit, they didn’t back down from our challenge! The AXL Wavepoint guitar we were sent has such great feel and tone that it is hard to believe that it can be had for just a few bones.

Since I am giving this guitar away in our next user review contest – I can’t give the Wavepoint the Rig Ready award, but I am happy to give the AXL Wavepoint the 2006 GearHead Approved award.



Daniel Halberg

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