From Mayer To Metal, Vola OZ Does It All

Made-in-Japan ‘Strat’ for roughly 1000€? There’s no way it can be good, right?

Disclaimer: Vola sent me this guitar to use in my studio and I got to keep it as compensation for my efforts. However, the company has no say in the things mention in the video/post, nor do they get to see the content before it is released.

Addressing The Most Obvious Thing

This guitar has a ‘groovier’ design than some others have, and this causes strong emotions in some people. If you are one of them, there are plenty of other guitars reviewed on this site that you can find here:https://www.isthisgeargood.com/category/guitars/

Specifications

Construction: Bolt-on neck
Body: Alder
Neck: Hard Maple 1 piece, Vola Modern C shape, Thickness: 1st fret 20mm/12th fret 21mm – Satin Neck
Headstock: Reverse Headstock with string tree
Nut: 42mm * 3.4T Bone nut
Fingerboard: 22 Frets – 25.5″ Scale, 12″ Radius, Black Dot inlays
Pickups: Vola VHC humbucker (B), Vola VS-I (M), Vola VS-I (N)
Electronics: 1 x Volume / 1 x Tone / 5 way Lever Switch
Bridge: Nickel, Gotoh 510T-FE1 Bridge
Tuners: SD91MG-T-05M Locking Tuners
Strings: D’Addario XTE0942 9-42
Misc: 5mm Allen key for truss rod adjustment
Country of Origin: Handmade in Japan
Case: Vola Deluxe Gig Bag included

What Is Vola OZ RMN?

Vola OZ is a ‘strat’ type guitar by Vola Guitars made in Japan. Despite that, the guitars are exceptionally affordable and boast professional specifications like Gotoh locking tuners and compound radius neck profile.

Vola OZ vs Vola OZ v3

I should mention that the Vola OZ I had in the video above is an earlier model. On the latest v3 models, the neck profile is modern C, whereas on the one I had it’s something chunkier.

First Impressions

When taking the Vola OZ out of the box and doing the first playtest, I remember having three thoughts:

This guitar feels high quality. There’s just something about Japan-made guitars that makes them different.
The design of the guitar will cause strong emotions in some people.
The neck profile is quite chunky.

Upon playing it through my REVV D20, I found out that I’m a huge fan of these Vola pickups. But more on that later.

Using The Vola OZ For Music Production

I wanted to see how the Vola would handle many different music styles, so I recorded 4 tracks starting from a Mayer style track to raunchy blues, pop-punk, and modern metal.

This way I would be able to find if there are genres the Vola OZ wouldn’t be able to handle.

So how did the Vola OZ do in those tracks?

I started with a Mayer style track, and it came as no surprise that the Vola OZ handled that well. The HSS pickup configuration on this guitar sounds ‘vintage hot’ to me, and all the shades of broken-up cleans were available by just flipping the pickup switch. I especially loved the neck pickup tone for leads, which was exactly the kind of lead sound I was looking for.

Staying on the neck pickup, the blues track reaffirmed my love for the neck pickup. Throw some overdrive on it, and you have the classic SRV-style tone at your fingertips. This guitar may look modern, but it sure sounds old.

Next, it was time to add more gain and dive into the world of pop-punk. This time I went full bridge humbucker, and it certainly delivered. There’s a mid-pushing quality to its tone, which suited this type of music perfectly. I liked the bridge humbucker tone so much I didn’t feel the need to use any other pickup position for this song.

As the last thing, I dove into the world of modern metal. I prefer my metal tones to have a bunch of midrange, and the bridge humbucker didn’t disappoint. Throwing a REVV G3 pedal in front of my REVV D20, the Vola OZ absolutely roared when chugging away at my drop-D riffs. This guitar may look vintage-inspired, but it sure does more than just cleans and blues.

Is The Vola OZ Good?

This guitar makes you feel things. It’s okay to not like how it looks. But one thing you can’t say is that it’s a bad guitar. The Vola OZ is superbly built instrument that feels ‘professional’ for lack of a better term. The pickups sound great and with the new V3 neck profile and the price drop, it’s available for more people than ever before.

If you want to get yourself a Vola, you can find them here:

►►Shop Vola OZ Here: https://volaguitars.com/products/oz-v3-mc