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Maverick F-1

 

Review of the Maverick F-1 TR by The Man in the Jar

Features of the Maverick F-1

Tuners - Maverick branded mini-tuners that are smooth and accurate. Just remember to loosen the locking nuts before you touch them.

Headstock - A distinctive "slashed Strat" six-on-one-side style with the cream Maverick logo on a gloss black face. 

Nut - The nut is a lot deeper (measured laterally from fretboard to headstock) than on conventional guitars as it houses the locking mechanism for the strings. The height at the nut is still set by individual grooves in the metal nut. But as soon as the strings pass this point on their journey to the machine heads they can be clamped into place in pairs by three small blocks of metal tightened by allen screws. On this model they leave the nut and pass under a bar on their way to the tuning capstans. This adds useful tension over the nut whilst tuning and setting up but is redundant as soon as the nut is locked. 

Neck - Lovely smooth, slim maple bolt-on neck that feels wider than average across the fretboard. Once you get acclimatised to the dimensions it is a beautifully playable neck. 

Fretboard - Top grade piece of rosewood with cream dot markers. Very smooth and sexy under the fingertips.

Frets - Two octave (24 fret) span of medium-sized well-polished frets. Accessibility to the high register is excellent.

Action - Quite stunningly low from the box, and in tune!  This suggests a meticulous set-up prior to shipping (which is rarer than it should be on this type of guitar).

Body - Extra pointy Stratoid shape that doesn't add a great deal to guitar design, but why mess with what works? There is some contouring for comfort at the back and some nice contouring for visual effect on the front. The body is basswood which makes for a lighter feeling guitar bearing in mind the quite extensive routing required for the Floyd.

Bridge - This is a fully engineered Maverick trem (sometimes called a vibrato by people who know what an onion looks like) which is manufactured under Floyd Rose License. This is the first Floyd I've seen that is perfectly set up straight out of the box (more evidence of the meticulous set-up). If you're not so lucky I have published an article on how to set up a Floyd Rose trem

Pickups - Two custom Maverick black open-coil humbucking pickups sit in chrome mounts.  

Controls - Here's where Maverick have added a quirk to guitar deign standards with their guitar control layout. The volume and tone control are inset rollers on the lower edge of the body. You'll have to spend a little time getting used to these but I must say that, from a playing position, it's easier to reach than knobs in a standard layout and the low-profile of the rollers make them a lot less intrusive on the playing area than, for instance, a Strat volume knob. A three-way selector on the lower horn completes the set-up. 

Strap-buttons - These seem quite small to me and the one in the upper horn doesn't look standard so is not easy to replace with a fatter button. I would heartily recommend a set of strap-locks as your first accessory purchase, especially if you're performing the kind of music this guitar is built for.

Output Jack - On the lower edge in an oval plate.

Finish - The metallic Tribal Red on the model I tried was lovely and without visible flaws.

 

Sound of the Maverick F-1

Running clean it is already possible to feel the aggressive power of the Maverick Custom pickups. But why, oh why would you run a Maverick clean? Overdriven through a decent valve amp the Maverick lights up as Blood-Soaked, Heavy Metal Beast of Battle. The bridge pickup has grit, aggression and depth of tone a-plenty, and despite the basswood body there's plenty of sustain. Drop in both pickups and the tonal depth ratchets up a notch or two. Knocking on the neck pickup on its own retains much of the tonal depth of the two-up setting but naturally some of the gritty edge drops away.   

 

Overall Impressions of the Maverick F-1 

If you play heavy metal you probably lust after a Maverick and I can see why. The Floyd is a joy to use in combination with the metal-voiced pickups. All 24 frets are within reach to all but the chubbiest fingers, so the whole history of Rock and Metal is here on this neck for you to find. This is an excellent quality rock axe with great playability, sound and sustain that will break neither the bank nor your back.     

Buy the Maverick F-1 in Tribal Red

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