Artist ST62 Vintage White Electric Guitar

I'm throwing out my 70's Strat!

By: Mike Stelzig on 10 April 2021

In the late 1970’s, I spent all Summer holiday working in a stinking metal parts factory to save up for a US Fender Stratocaster. The guitar I eventually bought was a 1976 Strat in egg-shell white, black scratch plate, maple neck and three-point tilt neck plate. Fast forward 42 years. After owning dozens of guitars and after reading great reviews about the ST62, I wanted to try one. The guitar was delivered super-fast. To my surprise, this $299 guitar is superior to my genuine ‘76 Stratocaster original. What? Why? The ST62’s neck has a very comfortable feel. Not too thick and not too thin. The fretboard is made of eco-rosewood (whatever that is) and has medium jumbo frets. The frets have been levelled and polished perfectly. There are no sharp fret edges. I was able to adjust the lowest action of any Strat-type guitar ever. There is no fret-buzz or dead spots on the fretboard. The body and paint are immaculate. The neck sits perfectly in the neck pocket. In comparison, my genuine ’76 US Strat had a 3mm gap between the neck and neck pocket, the guys at Fender had painted lacquer over the frets (yes, you read correctly) and the tremolo didn’t work: it was never in tune and the thread wore out within weeks. In stark comparison, the Artist ST62 is perfect. The ST62’s vibrato uses two pivot bolts and feels good to use with little resistance. The pickups use strong alnico magnets. They sound great but due to the strong magnetic pull, you have to be careful not to raise them too high – otherwise you get weird frequencies in your tone. The 5-way switch, volume and tone controls work as they should. The guitar uses quality locking tuners*. *Well, not quite…there’s a twist to the story. The ST62 is made of poplar compared to my ’76 Strat which was made of alder. As a result, the ST62 is “twangier”, “brighter”, “sharper” sounding than my original. This “edge” was also demonstrated on YouTube by Brett Kingman in his review of this guitar. If you want an edgy Blackmore sound [like on the Rainbow live album or the Deep Purple in Rock album] then this is your instrument. The guitar has good sustain and cuts through. I can’t really fault this guitar sound wise. It’s great to play on and rocks. Now the negative. Two of the locking tuners were faulty. The tuners were hard to turn. The cog wheels inside were grinding. However, Artist Guitars did not hesitate to send me replacements. I take my hat off to Ryne for the extremely quick turnaround. Unfortunately, Artist Guitars sent the wrong replacement tuners. Instead of sending the tuners with large square heads, they sent the ones with small round button heads. Ryne resent two more tuners. Hopefully these will be the correct ones. Also, the guitar did not stay in tune. The faulty tuners were one reason, the second more obvious reason was that the strings were wedged in too tight between the nut grooves. After replacing the string trees with roller trees and widening the space for the strings on the nut to move freely, this guitar stays in tune 99.9% of the time. Once I get the replacement tuners, all other issues should be gone. Kids nowadays are spoilt rotten when it comes to great and affordable gear. I like it when an overseas manufacturer takes a guitar icon and improves on it. I am glad that I can go out and buy an affordable guitar where the technology used and manufacturing standards exceed that of the big guitar brands of the 1970’s.
(5)

By: Artist Guitars

Thank you very much for your awesome review and kind words. This is highly appreciated and we are very glad that you liked the guitar. If you need help or have any questions, please contact us again. Cheers!

Gig worthy Guitar

By: Daniel on 22 January 2021

Well, the reviews and other accolades led me to expect good things and Artist delivered. You could have delivered this to me at a gig and (apart from a bit of string stretching to stabilise the tuning = normal on new strings) I'd happily play it live out of the box. The pickups are good, hardware is good, the weight is just right, and I love the neck (the part that tells me whether I'm going to like playing it). One day I'll A-B it against a real Fender Strat for curiosity's sake. I'd recommend this to beginners and any other level player who wants a strat. I was going to mod it immediately but I like this one as it is so I'll just have to buy another one! Will be back for more soon.
(5)

Above & Beyond

By: Alex on 4 January 2021

One of the best Strat copies going 'round. Love it!! ... right out of the box and, a couple of minor tweaks later, this very well built axe really delivers. I will have no hesitation and have full confidence in letting the 'baby' lose on stage. "Well done Artist Guitars - keep 'em coming"
(5)

Great Guitar, Great Value, Excellent Quality

By: Keith on 1 December 2020

This was my second Guitar purchase from Artist. And Like the first I was amazed at the Quality and value for money. Yes it is not a Strat, but it's so damn close to one who cares. Artist always offers great value and they haven't failed on this one. Beautiful to look at, flawless finish, Pickups are brilliant the two way tremolo works exceptionally well. It sounds so close to a Strat, only the highest trained ear would notice any difference (If Any). The neck, and frets are very well finished, bending is so smooth (no notches on the frets). You want a Strat without having to pay Thousands of dollars, get this baby, you won't be disappointed!
(5)

Artist guitars ST62- A beautiful strat

By: Anup on 17 August 2020

This is an amazing guitar for the price. Really well built, very comfortable to play and sounds really nice. For the price, you really cannot fault it. Will be visiting Artist guitars again.
(5)

A beautiful instrument

By: Bel on 15 August 2020

I am so impressed with my recent purchase of the Artist ST62 electric guitar. It came out of the box in mint condition, with a lead and a few picks put in to sweeten the deal! The guitar itself is a quality instrument. Only wish I had purchased one years ago! The action on the fretboard is fantastic and the feel of the neck is so smooth. The sound is perfect and even better through the Joyo vintage overdrive effects pedal that I got at the same time. I love the fact that Artist guitars is an Australian company.
(5)

Very happy with this guitar

By: Isaac on 24 July 2020

I was surprised by the build of this guitar. It's a brilliant guitar and quite versatile too. Warm and woody or clear and glassy sounds are easily found.
(5)

A great guitar!

By: Phillip Rowe on 24 July 2020

My opinion on this guitar is, a fine instrument, overall! The finish is excellent, the neck is straight and smooth to play, the frets are finished very smoothly (no fret sprout!) the weight feels good, and the action is fine, before I even look at it. I'm already playing it as is, and I'm fairly fussy about string action, height, etc. The tremolo arm has a small grub screw that has to be loosened, to allow the arm to slide in, and I had never had this on my other trem systems, so I didn'y know about it! (Perhaps I should've looked harder!) Artist Guitars gave me the right advice and help with this matter, and it's working like a charm! So, all in all :- great finish, smooth action, I can get good tones from this excellent instrument, plus it has locking tuners, and also, a good size metal block in the trem system, which adds to the sound and sustain! What else would you want from a guitar? I am suitably impressed with the fact that they can supply this guitar for their affordable price, and still maintain the quality that we all want! This is my sixth Artist Guitar, apart from other accessories, and I have to say that I've never been disappointed with any purchases! Thank you, Artist Guitars for great instruments and great service!
(5)

Good guitar but......

By: Gerry on 10 June 2020

This guitar is great but....it does not include the trem arm even though it has a trem system and their official videos all show one. When I quized their Customer service they only go off their website. The customer service definitely have no idea on their products. Would have been a five star but the after sale support brought it down.
(2)

Guitar

By: BVS on 26 May 2020

Great guitar.. very good for it's price.. the tremolo has a thick solid block rather the thin block you see on another brands at this price range.. P/U's sound's good.. neck feels smooth...
(5)