ELECTRIC GUITARS SECTOR SPOTLIGHT
Fret-King Super-Matic £1,399
JHS has made much of the self-tuning Super-Matic, the first guitar to feature the revolutionary Wilkinson ATD HT440 self-tuning hard tail guitar bridge – and why not? As well as the auto-tune, the guitar has a two- piece, centre-jointed American alder body, a hard rock maple neck and a hum-single-hum pickup configuration with Wilkinson offset pole piece Zebra humbuckers and a Wilkinson vintage voiced single coil.
Schecter Jerry Horton Signature Solo-6 £879
Papa Roach’s guitarist’s signature model comes with a distinctive Candy apple red back or Satin Black Top with Piston Head Graphics. The guitar features a three-piece, 25.5” scale mahogany neck, an ebony fretboard, Seymour Duncan JB at the bridge and a 59 at the neck position. A Tone Pros system provides rock-steady intonation (along with Schecter locking tuners and a Graph Tech Tusq nut).
Dean Deceiver FMF (Flame Maple Floyd) £713
Fender 60th Anniversary Telecaster £1,400
The first in a series of 12 due this year, the Blackguard Blonde has an ash body, tinted maple neck and fretboard, American Vintage Telecaster single-coil pickups, American Standard bridge with bent steel saddles and stamped brass plate, black pickguard, thin-skin lacquer finish and ships with a Fender/SKB moulded case.
This beauty is a single-cutaway, solid mahogany bodied axe with a flame maple top and a set neck, designed to appeal to players looking for a muscular sound that does not compromise on playability. Fitted with EMG Active 81 and 85 pickups, an ebony fingerboard and a Floyd Rose trem, the guitar is finished in Scary Cherry or a transparent black called, er, Trans Black.
new set-neck model is due to hit the shores of the UK, proudly sporting a £2,800 price tag. Fender and Van Halen have gone for a thicker body for this model (about two inches), although the trans red/orange sunburst and asymmetric body shape makes this immediately recognisable as an EVH guitar. Extensive trussing for excellent rigidity and EVH humbuckers, a choice of finishes (namely black or white aside from the burst) and you have a high-end axe that is going to turn a lot of heads.
MEANWHILE, METAL Schecter has some gorgeous-looking axes – as can be seen from the featured Jerry Horton model – many of them falling in the ‘signature’ category. As well as the Horton Solo 6, there is also the Dan Donegan Ultra DD, described by Schecter as ‘supercharged’. The Disturbed guitarist’s model has a neck-thru body construction, a multi-laminate maple
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neck, raised centre with mahogany wings and a figured maple top. Donegan’s choice of Seymour Duncan pickups see a high output custom-shop El Diablo in the bridge position and a four-conductor 59 model at the neck, providing ‘brutal versatility’. The player will get a quid’s change from £1,100 for this one. Chris Garza (of the extreme metal band Suicide Silence) and Schecter have created a distinctive take on the seven- string guitar and there has been no compromise in construction. Despite the traditional body shape, the guitar has been finished off in a spectacular silverburst finish, giving it an undeniably unique look. The three-piece neck ensures rigidity when fretting and stable low end, while the two EMG active pickups (an 81-7 at the bridge, a 60-7 in the neck) capture every crunching frequency available. Although an established brand in
Europe, Vigier is just now beginning to
turn heads in the UK – and one expects that once fingers that know what they are doing get moving on these guitars, it won’t take long for the range to take off over here in a big way.
As well as the limited edition GV
Wood model, Vigier’s ‘staple’ is the Excalibur series. Whether the Indus, the Special, the Supra, the Ultra or the Ultra Blues, alder bodied, maple necked axes have a range of variables, from fingerboard to body tops and promise some of the best guitars under the player’s fingers as one can hope to find. Sleek lines and very careful attention to detail make for that most desirable balance of looks and sound. These guitars are a real treat. Vigier also has the classically styled
Expert series, and the single-cutaway GV models, meaning pretty much any guitarist would be hard pressed not to find a guitar model that suits him or her perfectly.
AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE The Fret-King Blue Label range is full of great playing, looking and sounding guitars, all built to the exacting and idiosyncratic designs of Trev Wilkinson, starting at around £599 and building to £1,099 for the versatile single cutaway Eclat version. More luxurious than the Blue Label
range, the Fret-King Green Label guitars are hand-built in Wilkinson's Southport workshop. The Corona and Elan models with their double cutaways and varied pickup operations, along with the single cutaway Country Squire models with a smooth lower horn are simple, uncluttered designs ranging in price from around £1,100 up to the more forward- looking Ventura and Esprit models (the latter of which tops out at £1,899). The most exclusive Fret-King models
are one-offs – literally. Made by hand by Wilkinson, Fret-King Atelier and Stvdio
miPRO MARCH 2011 65
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