Faith Venus

my guitar is a venus eclipse 12 string.
solid spruce top, mahogany back and sides... but black.
shadow Pro pickup (faith branded)
nice and unusual to get a smaller body elecro 12 string.

Sounds great. Only realy ever tried to amplify a regular acoutsic 12 string before - which worked ok - but this makes life that whole bit easier.
acoustically it sounds fine. a big bright sound with lots of ring to it, but when you plug it in, it comes into its own.
i use an AER acoustic amp which is brilliant on its own, but it sems to marry up really well with the Venus 12 string. The pickup has enough adjustment to make a difference but isnt too confusing.
it also has a built in tuner which helps on those dark stages in larger venues.

the one i bought had been set up by patrick eggles workshop in the UK, so it was feeling good in the shop, and even better once iplayed it in at home.
it looks visually fine apart from a few tiny buffing scratches - something i have seen a lot on black guitars.

ive had it for maybe 6 months now, and have played live maybe 40 to 50 times with it in a variety of places, and i have no problems to report. i srpay a little switch cleaner into the jack soicket every now and then which keeps any crackles at bay.
scratched more now... but thats my fault.
this is the only 12 string i have, so i have no backup, but its never let me down so far.

ive had no problems to deal with, but i did send a technical enquiry thru their website (faithguitars.com) before i bought my guitar and it was answered quickly by a helpful guy.

i have been playing since i was a kid, so thats some time now.
i own a number of guitars elec and acoustic, but my 2 faiths ( i have a 6 string too)have relegated my old tanglewood and yamaha to the loft.
i think it looks really nice, and it stands out as being a bit different
overall i am very pleased with the guitars

This review is based on the original Faith series of guitars from 2003. It has a satin finish and the following features:

-SOLID SITKA SPRUCE TOP
-HI-LOW Z OUTPUT EITHER BY XLR OR JACK
-LAMINATED MAHOGANY SIDES FOR SECURE PREAMP SUPPORT
-SOLID INDONESIAN MAHOGANY BACK
-SUMATRA EBONY BRIDGE AND FINGERBOARD
-HEADSTOCK INDONESIIAN ROSEWOOD VENEER
-BRIDGE PINS EBONY WITH PEARLOID EYE
-PRE-AMP SHADOW CLASSIC PARAMETRIC PRO
-VOLUME CONTROL, NOTCH FILTER, BASS, LOW MID, HI MID AND TREBLE GRAPHIC CONTROLS
-PARAMETRIC EQ WITH CONTOUR, FREQ+ WIDTH, NOTCH FILTERON/OFF SWITCH EQ SHAPE SWITCH UNIQUE ON SHADOW PREAMPS ONLY.
-BODY BINDING EBONY AND MAPLE
-2.7MM GLOSS HIGH NICKEL SILVER FRETS
-GOLD PLATED DIE CAST MACHINE HEADS WITH TOTOISESHELL PEARLOID BUTTON
-SHOADOW 5MM INCLINATED BRIDGE PICKUP WITH SADDLE

In short, the guitar is beautiful to behold as the binding and handbuilt construction are perfectly bookmatched to the rosewood headstock and ebony fretboard.

Faith's are great guitars after you've owned them and really broken them in for a few years. I've been playing guitar for over a decade and have tried most of the top of the line brands, such as Martin, Taylor, Breedlove and small local luthiers. With a Faith you don't get that same incredible sound as you get from a high-end Taylor at the very start but give the guitar a few years and it really gains a sweet and beautiful edge to its tone.

Personally, I play a lot of jazz/blues type material but I also do an acoustic rock/country gig with a few friends now and again. Without a doubt, the guitar easily holds it own with the expensive Takamines and other big brandname guitars used by the other guys in the band. Due to its jumbo sized body, the tone can range significantly from a deep, heart-pounding bass as you pluck those walking bass chords to the beauty of a sweet acoustic solo in the upper registers of its tonal spectrum. Playing with a bottle neck has never sounded so good and all those old blues songs really come to life with ease on this guitar thanks to the combination of perfect action, high quality woods and handbuilt construction!

Acoustically, it's quite loud and as a rhythm guitar, it can easily hold its own against a small tube amp (such as a Gibson Goldtone). But it's when you hook it up to a dedicated acoustic amp that you really see the true design genius of this instrument. I run the guitar through a Marshall AS50R with an Art Tube MP Studio running through the FX loop. The flexibility of the guitar's preamp allows me to easily manipulate the Marshall to replicate the tonal depth produced by the Faith. Playing at loud volumes will always be a problem for acoustic players but the Venus has two failsafe mechanisms built into the preamp with a phase shifter and a variable notch filter that help considerably in the fight agianst feedback!

It even sounds really good with clean effects like delay (from a Boss DD-6) and chorus (from a Roland JC-120). Despite the fact that I've said that the piezo pickup can produce exceptional high-end renderings of the guitar's tone, for players who prefer the piezo quack, pairing the quack tone up with a delay effect really brings out the country feel to this guitar ?? la Albert Lee or Zakk Wylde. Even cranking up the Tube MP a little to give some overdrive sounds good and really helps to nail that vintage blues tone.

One final major advantage of this instrument is that if you prefer not having to worry about replacing the battery for the active pickup under the bridge, the Faith also comes equipped with a Low-Z output that allows you to power the guitar using phantom power (ie, from an amp with such a feature or if you have a mixer hooked up to your amp).

This guitar came with a gig bag which I'm still using as I've never seen the need to replace it with a hardshell case. Like many players who began playing guitar on a nylon string, I found the much lower action to be highly favourable. No, it's not as low as my American Deluxe Strat but as far as acoustics are concerned, I feel that you need to have a relatively decent action height to be able to attain a strong, vibrant tone.

In terms of the neck, the guitar has the best neck of any acoustic or electric I've played on - and that INCLUDES the Strat!! There's very little comparison between this and a Takamine/etc. as the feel of the Faith is just so much better and I've got fairly large hands!

The tuners are gold plated and hold the guitar in tune as well as any other set of acoustic guitar tuners. Of course, they don't maintain their original gold sheen as the years pass by but unless they're made of solid gold, no tuner will.

Ok, the problems (few as they are) are as follows:

-be warned of the g-string snapping on you. This happens with a lot of acoustics but you may need to file down the bridge slightly if this does happen.
-the preamp failed on me once, although I think it was due to the fact that I may have disconnected one of the wires linking it to the pickup when trying to get out a peg that was jammed in the bridge.

I've gigged with it for years and it's never failed on me to the extent that I don't even bring a backup anymore!

I haven't ever dealt with the manufacturers as I prefer to deal with the local guitar repair guy.

Overall, I think this is one of the best guitars on the market today. However, the major drawback is that it takes so long to bring out its true tone! Tonal flexibility is essential for what I do and the Faith oozes this with its slick looks, sweet seductive tone and highly reliable electronics.

It would be nice to see the guitar available with a tube preamp as an option though this can be circumvented by using one of the Art products. If I were to be in the position where I had to buy a replacement, I'd seek out a second-hand satin finished one first before succumbing to the high-gloss model as I feel that the newer finish somehow takes away from the tone of the earlier models.

Overall , a fantastic guitar, though I'd recommend searching for an earlier model before buying one of the newer ones.

Venus hi gloss cutaway electro acoustic, 2005 model with Shadow pre amp fitted.

Gloss finish with two strap buttons fitted and leather look gig bag included.

Unplugged it sounded a bit lacking in bass but that has improved since i put new strings on it.

Plugged in took me awhile to get my head around the preamp and its loads of sounds.

At first i was not sure about the sound but after i had worked the controls out it sounds superb and can give loads of variation in sounds.

The pre amp has normal Bass Hi Mids, Mid and Treble and then it has Parametric eq with Freq. and width and contour. It was these controls that took some understanding at first. The contour set mid way is neither boost or cut but once you have your sound you can add a little of this to add some sparkle.

The shape feature is nice and adds bass and treble while pulling mids out for a deep full sound, useful when a deep sound is preferred.

The phase switch is your first feature in eliminating feedback followed by the notch filter control which can be turned off /on.

At the store this felt just right and played very nicely, action was about right for most styles.

I got themn to lower the action at the saddle and nut and it now has an action of 2mm approx on the E at the 12th fret and it plays bar chords right up the neck without string rattle.

The finish on this guitar built in Indonesia is superb, they are hand built and it shows, excellent woods and looks very well put together.

Compared to others in the same price this is far better quality

To early to say but the gloss top should keep pick marks away etc so i guess it will last a while

Had no contact only with UK store

Superb guitar and slightly less known compared to the normal Martin Taylor, Seagull, Simon & Patrick, Takamine, but the quality of Faith guitars is hard to beat.