Hello.
The Phase III (and IV) Hi Fliers are great guitars. The combination of the pickups - awesome, under-rated design - and the very lightweight and lively body gives them a really unique tone that's way more versatile than you might think. Since I got into these guitars I use them for absolutely everything I do from session work with quiet singer songwriters (where the pickups really come into their own - playing quietly through a slightly-too loud amp) through straight, blasting punk rock and even using it as a bass through an octaver.
They do vary in quality and I have 3 Phase IIIs -
and they're all different. At some point during Phase III production Univox redesigned the neckplate so the black one has an earlier "Made in Japan" neckplate whereas the other 2 have the large "U" for Univox plate. The earlier plate is smaller and it doesn't secure the neck as well so the main thing to check when you're buying a Hi Flier is the string alignment. If you just do a quick Google image search you'll see tons of HFs (mainly the Phase I and IIs and then some Phase IIIs with the smaller neckplate) that have awful string alignment - the high E will be hanging off the fretboard usually. Here's my friend's which has the problem:
The black one came to me with 5 strings on it and when I fitted the 6th it hung a good 5mm off the neck edge because the smaller neckplate didn't hold the neck, it'd taken a bang at some point and the neck was out of line. This is the main reason people think they're badly made and they don't intonate well. It's not unfixable - my tech friends took the black one apart, filled and redrilled the holes and sanded the contact area of neck heel and neck pocket so the wood fitted flush. But obviously, if you can avoid that it's better.
The stock, plastic-tipped tuners are OK. I swapped them out on the sunburst and black guitars because the tuners on them were in a real state when I got them and I prefer Grovers aesthetically anyway. Means drilling holes but I can live with that. I think because these guitars were (up until recently) cheap people often messed about with them and the original tuners (and bridge) work fine until you start taking them apart and then they're just not up to the task. But if you look at Dimtri from Off! or Asa from Lungfish, they both use HFs with stock tuners and don't have problems.
The bridges are fine too but again they fall apart when you dick with them. The bridge for the black one literally fell apart into little pieces mid-gig so I had to swap it out. I swapped it for a cheapo tunomatic roller bridge and then combined the original mounting posts and height wheels with the new bridge piece and cobbled together a replacement. The roller tunomatics work better because of the trem and the reduced friction but I always put pencil graphite in the slots as I break tons of strings at the bridge still.
Here's the old one (held together by luck pretty much and some foil and tape):
Here's the replacement bridge set up:
I'd say that the original Phase III is a great guitar so avoid anything that's been modified - there's a trend (because of Nirvana) of putting replacement humbuckers in these things and that, for me, loses the character of them. The pickups are absolutely crucial to my ears. I'm working with a pickup manufacturer at the moment to build a replica Phase III humbucker so people with the eastwoods (or people who have HFs with shitty Seymour Duncans or something in them) have an option to return the guitar to stock. Will post details once we get it sorted.
The trem arm gets lost on these a lot too. I had a Floyd Rose type in mine for a while and it was crappy - I put it down to bad trem design. But when I got an original trem arm it worked perfectly - like a Jazzmaster trem almost, lovely weight and feel.
The other thing I did to the black one was install a tension bar at the headstock and have dot markers added to the neck edge so I could see what the fuck I was playing:
of the 3, the black one is the best by far. The work done on the neck socket and changed bridge makes it really stable and resonant and huge sounding. The sunburst one is heavier (presumably a different wood as it's visible through the burst) and it sounds a little deader - maybe the plastic bridge is at fault partially but it doesn't feel lively like the black one. The natural one is somewhere between the 2. It's totally stock (except the colour I think) and feels great. I'm tempted to get the bridge and tuner mods done to it and a nice Lake Placid Blue refin but that can wait.
The thing that people don't like about them, when they play one, tends to be the neck and the 'feel' of the neck. They have insanely small necks (some Phase IVs had wider necks towards end of production) - really skinny, really thin. The frets are purposefully low as well as the guitar replicates a Mosrite which had almost no fret height at all. And the neck radius is pretty flat. It's a perfect surf guitar - fast neck but not good for bends. I love that but it throws a lot of my friends.
Anyway - I'm slightly evangelical about these guitars so any questions hit me up and I'll do my best to answer them. They are unique and wonderful things - I can spot one on a recording a mile off (despite what people have said, I'd bet my house on In Utero being recorded, at least in part, with a Hi Flier esp Serve The Servants and Heart Shaped Box) and they deserve more love and respect in the guitar world.
Chris
