I was looking for a budget-friendly modern metal guitar with a hard-tail bridge and 24 stainless steel frets. I studied several options from Harley Benton, Solar and Cort. The neck-through design and the appealing price of the Amarok series caught my attention. Before making the purchase decision, I studied all reviews I could find online. Many famous YouTube channels praised the instrument, but several individuals pointed out that the Amarok-6 is not immune to defects. My expectations for the guitar were high but I was prepared to encounter some quality control issues.
I initially received a faulty instrument: the bridge pick-up produced an extremely loud crackling noise, and the bridge position was incorrect.
As I am not well-versed in guitar electronics, there was nothing I could do about the noise issue.
The bridge was tilted in such a way that the edge of the bridge at the location of the 6th string was much closer (by 2-3 millimeters) to the pick-up cavity than the edge of the bridge at the location of the 1st string. Proper intonation of the 6th string was impossible even with the string rider pulled all the way back.
The bridge was also placed too far to the right in relation to the fretboard leaving the 1st string very close to the edge of the fretboard. The 1st string would often accidentally slip over the edge of the fretboard during playing.
I documented the defects with photographs and videos and sent the instrument back to Thomann.
I received the 2nd guitar two weeks later. The bridge was now perfectly centered in relation to the fretboard, but the bridge was again tilted in a similar way. I was able to remedy the situation somewhat: I removed all strings and all string riders from the bridge and noticed that the three screws used to attach the bridge to the body of the guitar were loose. I tightened the screws, and the bridge became almost level: now, there is only a 1-mm difference between distances from the two extreme edges of the bridge to the cavity of the pick-up. The intonation of the 6th string is still difficult: I had to remove the spring from the rider of the 6th string to allow the rider to be pulled back even further. After proper intonation, the string rider of the 1st string, on the other hand, is placed almost at the other extreme position (closer to the fretboard). Having the bridge tilted in the opposite direction would be beneficial: there would be more room for adjusting the intonation of the 6th string while keeping the position of the string rider of the 1st string closer to the middle of the adjustment range.
Some string riders have small dents where the black paint has been scraped off and the shiny metal surface is exposed. The black paint of the string riders wears away relatively quickly when resting the palm of my picking hand on the bridge during playing. Also, the black paint wears away quickly from the bottom surface of the bridge where the screws of the string riders are in contact with the bridge. Otherwise, the bridge seems to be of high quality, and I enjoy playing palm-muted riffs on it.
Both the neck relief and action were properly adjusted to my taste at the factory. There has been no need to re-adjust them during the time I have owned the guitar. All notes ring clearly without any buzz.
The locking tuners hold tuning relatively well in normal playing. But whenever I perform wide (3-4 semitones) bends on the strings, the strings will go flat. I have to re-tune the guitar after each song in band rehearsals. I have changed strings on the guitar several times, and I love doing it with locking tuners.
There are hairline cracks in the transparent lacquer finish on the edge of the fretboard at the location of each fret. The guitar was built in the hot and humid climate of Indonesia after which it was shipped to the cold and dry climate of Finland in the middle of winter. The guitar was probably exposed to freezing temperatures during shipping. The cracks are most likely due to a mild fret sprout caused by the shrinking of the ebony fretboard during drying and thawing. I can feel the cracks with my skin, but they do not affect playability. I apply fretboard oil regularly to prevent the cracks from widening. The cracks are present mainly on the top edge of the fretboard (where the glow-in-the-dark markers are located): there are only a few of them on the opposite side.
The playability of the instrument is excellent. Due to the neck-through-body design, I can access the 24th fret with ease, and the guitar nicely resonates with the notes I am playing. The finish and fretwork are top-notch. The initial roughness of the frets subsided after a few hours of playing. The fret ends were treated with precision, and there are no tooling marks anywhere on the guitar.
The EMG active pickups have a nice fat tone, and they are virtually noiseless. The plastic lid of the battery compartment is made from cheap plastic: I am sure that it will break easily.
The volume and tone control pots are sturdy and work well. The pick-up selector switch is somewhat wobbly, but functional. The controls are positioned sufficiently far away such that I don’t bump into them while alternate picking on the 1st string.
Both chords and single-note lines are easy to play on the fat modern C neck. However, there is a small neck-dive phenomenon observed when playing in an upright position.
The Amarok-6 has become my favorite guitar: it seems to be a robust, stable, and low-maintenance instrument. Despite the flaws, I am extremely happy with my purchase.
