The AXL Badwater SRO relic guitar is a great looking instrument that really captures the feel of a relic.  It features antiqued hardware and a distressed body, creating the illusion that each of these instruments have been around for decades.  Even the headstock and the backplate feature some distressing.  Of course, they don’t sound like they’re that old.  In fact, they feature high quality parts and can deliver amazing hard rock sounds.

The Badwater SRO features an alder body and a rock maple neck.  The neck is done in a C profile and is bolted on.  The fretboard is generally done in a rosewood, although if you purchase a Badwater SRO in a brown finish, it will come with a maple fretboard.  The pickups are EMG-designed and include a humbucker and two single coils.  As far as controls go, this relic has volume, tone, and a five-way selector switch.

The AXL Badwater SRO relic guitar comes in a variety of different color options.  The crackle brown/white finish has a nice dirty look to it, as does the off-white finish.  The crackle blue, on the other hand, invokes images of the sea, while crackle black looks almost like the guitar has survived a fire.  The brown finish looks quite different from the others—it makes the instrument look preserved.  No matter which you decide on, you’ll be getting a quality instrument.  The Badwater SRO was named the Guitar World’s December 2007 Gold Award winner.