Reviews & Testimonials
Ahh , Shucks
A few comments from some of our new friends
Mr Berger,
I received this beautiful work of art today. I was looking for a back up guitar to the Lazar that Marc Erlewine made me after Johnny Winter passed away - believe me this Rodeo King is far as you can get from a back up!
I haven’t been able to put it down - the fit the finish the neck the frets the nut fit me like a glove. God Bless you what a Masterpiece !! Thank You again, I am sure I will purchase from you again.
Kind Regards,
Terry Jacoby
Fort Lauderdale, FL
PT,
I'm really loving these three PT Berger guitars I picked up yesterday.
I can't put the Olde Stockdale down. It is the first time I have ever held a guitar that melted in my hands like it is part of me.
Thank You!
Pete "TL" Daszkiewicz
Champlin, MN
Hi PT,
I'm only angry that I can't give this purchase a 6 out of 5 stars!
Not only did it come packaged perfectly for a long trip to Hawaii, but for some unholy reason the thing was in tune when it got here! Beautiful craftsmanship and an absolutely stunning guitar that I would imagine being much more expensive than it was. Fantastic piece. Every t-top fan should own a PT Berger.
Joshua E
Honolulu, Hawaii
(and Thank You Joshua for your service to our Country!)
Hey PT!
Now that I've had some time to sit back with the Old Stockdale, I wanted to tell you I am really falling in love with it. I've been playing it non stop. It feels great to play. The sound has been just what I was looking for in a body that feels completely comfortable to me. Tonight my band's going to a little studio date, and I'm looking forward to surprising the boys with my new instrument.
I saw on your website that you were requesting videos of people playing your guitars so I made one. I don't have a lot of youtube experience or any proper video equipment, but I tried to make one as complementary to you as I could:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUGuJ3bjrUw
Hope you like it!
-Brice Henry
Fifth Street Quartet
Vienna, WV
Guitar arrived in perfect shape, excellent packing box...everyone should use these! No packing mess to clean up, and it protects the guitar perfectly. Unbelievable quality for the price, light weight, fast neck, flawless finish, great sounding pickups.
My first Berger was a 2012 green La Cresta SFC#2, My second was a drop dead beautiful gold 2016 La Cresta Deluxe GT. Now, this black "Little Joe". I now have my eyes set on a Rodeo King (as soon as I can save up the small amount he's asking).
David Lanier
Clermont, FL
Hey Paul,
I just wanted to give you some feedback on my new Dynamic Metropolitain (Serial No. 03).
As a guitar player and collector for over 52 years, I've played and
owned several hundred instruments (throughout the quality and
price spectrum) all the way from department store "House Brands" to high-end, vintage, and handmade boutique guitars.
Up until about a month ago, I had never heard of PT Berger Guitars! However, while I was taking my daily (sometimes hourly!) stroll through Reverb.com, I stumbled across one of your listed guitars, and I followed up with a casual visit to your website. Your site was nicely laid out, the guitars were visually appealing, and I really enjoyed your down-to-earth writing style!
After a very pleasant and highly informative phone conversation with you, I decided to give one of your guitars a try, selecting the Dynamic Metropolitain model, with the unusual Amboyna Burl top. Upon unboxing, I was quite impressed with the overall quality of the guitar. The fit and finish was nearly flawless, the action was silky smooth and very comfortable, and it sounded really nice in both the full-humbucker and split-coil settings. Overall, the guitar has been a pleasure to play! It's inspirationally-musical to my ear, and the outstanding "eye-candy" factor of this beautiful guitar is in a class of its own! With its unique European design, stunning Amboyna Burl top, and highly-specialized appointments, this (prototype, first-run) Dynamic Metropolitain is definitely a "keeper", and it'll likely remain one of the "prize-finds" in my collection for many years to come! Keep up the great work my friend!
Best regards.....and thanks again!
Ron Rocco, Lusby, MD
THIS GUITAR. ! Every single thing I wanted AND hope for. Tone. Tremolo. Ebony board. The humbuckers. THE FINISH! People go crazy when they see it. Such an amazing price.
I'll be posting a video review shortly on YouTube but in the mean time I am so pleased to thank PT Berger for his work. Great great guitar AND at huge value. I'll definitely be buying more of Paul's guitars!!!
Terry Burden
Producer, Park City TV
Park City, Utah
Hi PT,
All I can say is WOW, the guitar is really a stunning piece of craftsmanship.
As soon as I opened the box & pulled out the guitar, it was obvious the amount of care
& thought that went into the design & manufacture of the guitar itself. I also couldn't believe how light the guitar was, I'm 6'4" 250lb & the guitar felt weightless when I strapped it on.
The guitar put out some sweet sounds when I plugged it into my 60's vintage Fender Vibro Champ & again when I plugged it into my 80's vintage Roland JC 120. I'll have to pull out my 30 year old copy of Mell Bay & learn some fancy chords to do the guitar justice. Coming from my Gibson's, I'm still getting use to the various sound combinations that this guitar can create. Is this the first in the run of Little Joe's? It looks like it has the number 1 on the sticker. Thanks again. I'll have to start saving up for another one of your creations.
Mark Minar
Niantic, CT
Excellent Mail Service,
Arrived In Perfect Condition,
No Buzzing, Action to Perfection.
Clear Super Jazzy Sound, Solos crispy Clean.
Size is Perfect, Comfortable and Easy to Transport
...10 Stars
Jose Torres
San Juan, Puerto Rico
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpb4MoygQKk&feature=youtu.be
PT,
The gear arrived today. Had to put the guitar down after an hour or so, and get back to work. My initial impression is complete satisfaction. Beautiful looking instrument, with great tone variation, good action & a good overall feel as well.
Thanks for being so helpful throughout the purchase process ( at such a busy time of year to boot). I will highly recommend you and your products. Anxious to see your 2017 offerings, as I have a spare guitar stand!
Marko
Swanzey, NH
(7)
Hi , I got the guitar today, I haven't plugged it in yet , but if the electronics don't work out for me I will just put in the best money can buy because that is what this guitar deserves. In all my years of playing custom shop relic Teles, this is by far the most incredible tele I have ever laid my mitts on!
I can tell by playing a tele in just a few minutes if it's going to be a real player or just another pretty face and this guitar is a dream. If you did the set up on this I am truly humbled. Your friend Jim
James Iandoli
Hawthorne, NJ
Wow! I received my first Berger (Bakersfield Custom II) endorsement guitar on Friday and used it at a gig on Saturday night. I planned on using it for a test run on a couple of songs, but just couldn't put it down. (My Fender Strat was a little jealous because it never came out of the case).
The look, feel and tone of my Berger guitar are second to none. I'm so thankful I stumbled across your website. This guitar will help many people across the country dance the night away playing Louisiana Zydeco music.
Thanks PT Berger for everything!
Ronnie Rue
Guitarist for Leroy Thomas & The Zydeco Roadrunners
After finally getting a chance to really sit down and play this guitar
I have to say I love this 'lil guy. I've been wanting a Thinline Tele for a while and this more than scratched my itch. This is a quality guitar that will definitely have a permanent spot in my ever changing collection.
I've gone though American, Japanese and Mexican Fenders as well as a fair amount of oddball Japanese guitars from the 60's, and I would put this at the top of the ranks of everything I've owned. It almost reaches the "Too-Pretty-To-Touch" tier, but I can't put it down for more than a few minutes at a time.
I can't wait to see what PT Berger has in store for the future,
they're definitely some guitars worth keeping an eye out for.
I read the reviews and took a chance on the La Cresta Deluxe, and boy was I glad I did.
Anthony Pasarel
Philly, PA
RE: Received Olde Stockdale and played it all night!!
Hi PT,
First, thanks for the gig-bag, that was very thoughtful of you to include. It's almost as beautiful as the guitar and compliments
the instrument so well with its colors and retro stylin'. I'm not the biggest retro style fan but you did it right sir, tastefully.
The axe is a work of art, both in terms of it's visual appearance and playing. Starting at the top: dig the headstock and its lines more than that of the headstocks
of Fender teles, which always looked rather anemic to me. Tuning knobs are great in appearance and function. Like how they are compact, which is a good design with a headstock with only top side tuning knobs.
Excellent fret work on the Berger. Next to my dad's two teles: the Olde Stockdale tapers in more in the middle of the body and overall the curves look more accentuated to me. BTW, I just made my dad sooooo jealous. His tele "blacktop" and his other tele can't touch my Bakersfield. Told him to sell both his Fenders and buy some of your guitars off ebay. Played the Bakersfield with the Mustang III amp I got my father for Christmas, sounded great.
The axe is super light and balance in my hands and on a strap. I could play the guitar for hours, oh wait, I did! I literally started playing again for the first time in three years about three weeks ago so my hands are so sore right now but it's a good sore. The thing really sounds (metaphorically speaking of course) like a thinline tele and a Gibson 335 got drunk at a bar together one night and the resulting one night stand resulted in this awesome sounding axe : D. Wow, the hardware, gorgeous...the gold works so well on the Bakersfield. Excellent job on the pick-up and I'm not easily impressed when it comes to pick-up sound and tone. Running through a vintage Harmon Kardon 40-watt PA tube amp that's been custom modded into a two channel bass/guitar amp, with a touch of verb (or tremolo) and delay, pushing a vintage 15" speaker, sweet mercy the axe sounded lovely. I can get 60's - 70s Buddy Guy tone, BB, Son Seals, Johnny Guitar Watson, and my own thing with ease with the set up of the Bakersfield, a few stompers (eq pedal, always) and my HK amp. I know you designed this axe with the jazz cat in mind and my heavily BB/Gatemouth Brown/Guitar Watson influenced playing used it to those ends but equally my Son Seals/Jimmy Page/Hubert Sumlin influenced playing self turned up the gain on the HK and let er' rip. This guitar was meant for playing "Kashmir" as it handles the atonal qualities of DADGAD tuning very well. I've used several turnings and they all sounded great on the guitar. I finger and flat pick, often alternating often within a song. The Olde Stockdale is already my second favorite axe I've ever played utilizing this playing technique.
So to sum up, I'm exhausted from playing from about 7:00 pm to 3:30 am. I'm elated with my purchase. I'm glad I didn't have a job to do last night so I had the time to spend with my new best friend. Can you make five more? Joking...well, kind of. I'd love to be able to give one of these guitars to my dear friend Sol Creech. His Nashville type Tele (three single coil PU model) has failed on him once or twice before or during a gig and he doesn't carry a back up electric (he only has one other, an Epi 335 knock off) often enough to gigs.
Again, thanks so much Paul. I look forward to doing much more business; and hopefully even a video collaboration with you.
Sincerely, Michael Shannon Bowyer
Video & Film Production & Post Production Specialist/Adroit Productions
When this instrument first popped up on Reverb.com, I thought it looked pretty cool with its blue sparkle finish, bridge humbucker and “Strat” tremolo; enough to make me look into it more and contact PT about it. Man, the information I received did not come close to describing how AWESOME this guitar is!!!
First, but as expected, the finish of this traditional Tele Thinline design is beautiful and is setup incredibly by the multilayered black and white binding and the Mother-of-Pearl pick guard. But it far from ends there!
When it arrived, I plugged into my (FJA Mods modified) ’83 Marshall JCM800. The Vintage voiced single coil neck pickup is as good as any Tele pup I’ve played in nearly 40 years of performing. I pulled out some cool jazz and ran through “At Last” by Etta James. The tone was incredible; clean and clear so every note of C7+5 & A#dim ring through! The "BergerBucker" in the bridge with its coil split provide the option of a warm, full humbucker tone or a tight, ringing, “Strat-ish” tone by means of a push/pull volume knob and handled a little SRV with a plumb. Then, I ripped into Van Halen’s Panama and this thing just screamed! But, my BIG surprise was the 5-way pickup selector! Talk about cool tone combinations; you get the great “out-of-phase” middle-bridge and middle-neck illusive tone found heretofore ONLY on the Strat! Think “Cold Shot” by SRV! VERY COOL!
Part two, is this guitar’s playability and resonance. In this category, the "Bakersfield" La CRESTA is second to none! I’ve owned vintage Gibsons and I have played “boutique” Hamers since 1981. PT Berger guitar most certainly should be considered in this category. In fact, this is the FIRST 25-1/2” scale guitar that I have played that feels comfortable. The “C” shaped neck is thin and relatively flat. It came set up with the action low and fast without any fret buzz. Plus, the Thinline design is extremely resonant and imparts the traditional “woody” tone for which these type guitars are known.
On top of all this, the La CRESTA comes with a standard, two-post, Strat-style tremolo….ON A TELE!! Having played guitars with tremolos for years, I’ve missed this feature on my Telecasters. I am thoroughly enjoying this thoughtful feature for us “trem players”.
The bottom line is the PT Berger La CRESTA is this players fantasy Tele! Its fit, finish, playability and tone are on par with “the Big Boys” in the industry! I’ve paid MUCH more for far less guitar! If you haven’t played one, do yourself a favor; try one. I am confident you will be as sold as I am and you too will buy one! PT Berger guitars ROCK!!
Andrew Frazo
Baldwinsville NY
Hi Paul, I received my Bakersfield Excel today.....As I collector and a player for well over 30 years, I would say to any player, WOW!
Buy a Berger guitar! I don't care how many great guitars you own, if you're a collector you'll want one of these.
This guitar:
1. looks terrific
2. the build quality is outstanding
3. sounds great (especially when used with a guitar effects device)
4. the coil tap for the pickups adds value
5. overall, the value is over the top - a home run
6. nicely setup right out of the gig bag - you obviously care.
7. attractively designed thickly padded gig bag with high quality backpack style straps
8. setup with the perfect string gauge and brand (D'Addarios 10s - my favorites)
9. Vibrato is smooth and works great with just the right resistance
10. Neck is the perfect width, straight as a arrow with a nice fast profile, love the ebony fingerboard - plays as nice as any expensive guitar.
11. Solid, good looking retro style tuners work great
12. Excellent customer communication/service - fast FedEx shipping
You really did your homework Paul. It has been a pleasure doing business with you and you certainly have my full endorsement. My Bakersfield Excel #3 is a keeper, a truly outstanding value and one I never intend to sell. You've most definitely have designed a beautiful guitar that has really added something unique to my collection. I'm very glad I was able to get one of the first made. Feel free to share my review with others and great success to you!
Will L. Pahrump, NV
Dear axedog, I absolutely love this guitar!
I was wondering if you are considering other models besides tele based ones?
If you are, I would love to make a suggestion... ;)
I have been telling a bunch of people about your guitar.
I am a worship pastor in GA and love to promote products I believe in.
Let me know if there is any way that I can help!
Tim Zeager
Worship and Creative Arts Pastor
Solid Rock Church | solidrock.comMidland, GA
(14)
Thanks for everything! It arrived this morning and I just opened it up after giving it a couple hours to warm up.
1. The value of what I got for the money is beyond phenomenal. But more importantly, 2. I really love it. It's hands down the most comfortable guitar I have, in terms of body shape, balance, neck, and overall comfortable position ...thanks for the great service and all the extras!
Scott Moodie
Plover WI
...and more friends and more feedback:
Just wanted to let you know that I love the guitar. Thanks so much!
Buyer: cookin77
Unbelievable guitar for the $! Great seller with awesome communication!
Buyer: tzeager
WOW! A wonderful instrument with huge vibe! A++vendor! Great transaction!
Buyer: ptslincoln
Great guitar! There is simply no better seller on ebay than Paul "axedog" Berger
Buyer: guitaron
If U R interested in 1 of the guitars, BUY IT NOW!! They R Exceptional 4 the $
Buyer: heretichick
Outstanding guitar and seller A+++ Highly recommended...And I know guitars!
Buyer: 5rewasxf58
Very nice guitar, great communication, fast ship. Perfect seller, thanks!
Buyer: kriskov
Great item. Sensational value. quality, friendly, reliable, honest seller.
Buyer: shallyshal
Excl comm, great 5☆ seller, great luth, Thanks Paul!
Buyer: red*ryder
Great communication, excellent service. Would definitely do business with again
Buyer: gregory.barker
Accurately described, great communication, a pleasure to do business, thanks!
Buyer: fiestafinishes
Integrity-based seller, a true gentleman designing beautiful instruments +++++++
Buyer: rudleydudley
Excellent guitar from a super and supportive seller.
Buyer: Asad1464
Very nice seller . Very satisfied . Fantastic guitar . (2nd Berger guitar purchase)
Buyer: Swedetheking
Beautiful, beautiful guitar!, quality craftsmanship! Fantastic Seller! A+++++!!
Buyer: Grayhorseguitars11
I'm not going to take up space with BS, this man works magic with a guitar !!!!
Buyer: Slick571529
PT's craftsmanship is sublime and the guitar plays like a dream.
Buyer: M Leyson
Perfect guitar and Perfect Seller! PT went out of his way to make sure the guitar arrives safely.The guitar is truly one of its kind. It plays so smoothly, sounds open and clear the way guitars are meant to be. Thank you PT for making this guitar like you read my mind.
Buyer: Ed Wing
