"Man, I really like your Paul Reed Smith…oops, sorry!"
"My God…that is a beautiful guitar! What is it?"
I've responded to the previous statements time & again since acquiring my Zion Primera in 1996. But, to be fair: it seems that more and more people (here & abroad) are familiar with Zion Guitars…and rightfully so.
I've been playing Zion Guitars from their beginning. I was fortunate to meet Ken Hoover (Zion founder & visionary) circa 1975 in Greensboro, NC. I was a frequent visitor during the early days of Zion Guitars and will always regret selling my first Zion, a prototype for the Radicaster (Tyler, you know where to find me if you get tired of it!).
I am a full-time professional musician involved in a wide range of projects, from jazz to roots rock (read more about me here: www.scottsawyer.net). In the past, I've owned many vintage guitars. For years, I bounced back and forth between hollow-body, semi-hollow and solid body guitars, depending upon the gig/recording session. Until I settled on the Primera, I had been using mostly Ibanez hollow and semi-hollow bodies as well as Fender Strats. But, I digress.
I'm here to talk about my Primera, #018. It is quite simply the most versatile guitar that I've ever played. I really can't tell you much about the guitar in technical terms as I've always been most interested in how a guitar feels and sounds...mine is exceptional. It's currently equipped with a Fralin humbucker in the neck position and a Seymour Duncan "JB" in the bridge position. Sperzel tuners. AAAAA quilted maple top on a beautiful mahogany body. Push-Pull pots (1 volume & 1 tone). My current string gauges are .011, .014, .018p, .032, .042, .052.
When I got the Primera, it simplified things for me tremendously: I take it to virtually every gig & recording session. I'm equally at home with my Primera playing a wide-range of music including jazz (standards, bop & modern), blues, funk, roots rock, r&b...WHATEVER. It sounds great through a variety of amps at all volumes (loud or soft): including Matchless Chieftain, Crate V Series, Fender Pro Junior, Polytone Mini-brute, Fender Vibrolux, Deville and Deluxe Reverb. Most importantly, my Primera "speaks" very evenly: a balanced sound the entire range of the instrument. The tapped single-coil sounds have character and the humbucker sounds are clear. I've used it on a wide-range of recording projects, including "major-label" releases. More than one listener has mistaken it (sonically) for a hollow-body guitar.
Please feel free to e-mail me if you have any specific questions and I'll do my best to respond within a reasonable amount of time. If you're considering a Primera (or for that matter, any Zion model), I can assure you through my personal experience that Dale Brown and the folks at Zion Guitars will do everything in their power to keep their customers happy.
The Zion Primera is an exquisite instrument. I couldn't recommend it more highly. - Scott Sawyer (Revised March 2009)