Product: Fret King Corona ES III Price Paid: 450 (Euro) used
Submitted 09/13/2004
at 01:07pm
by Ed
Email: edind at gmx<dot>de
Features
:10
Both bought 2003, eBay. These sweethearts are both made in Chech Republic for Trev Wilkinson, the guy who is also manufacturing guitar parts like tremolos and so on. Chech Republic is a land with a very long tradition in building musical instruments. You can notice that - the guitars have a perfect finish. There ales also many improving and interesting details comparing to traditional Fender strats. For example the perfectly working Wilkinson VS50 tremolo, Schaller locking tuners, tone knob for the middle and(!) bridge pickup together (finally!), no string trees, excellent sounding stock pickups, 22 frets and many other. The EU III SP has also a P90 pickup at the bridge for an ultimate rock power riffs. The one w/o SP has an regular single coil. For me - anything you need, this guitars have it. Great!
Sound
:10
I play blues and bluesrock loving the SRV tone and with this guitar you have it on your fingers. Theese guitars have power and excellent rockblues sound. The pickups are slightly overwound but transparent and with let them sing and scream as you like.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:10
As I already said the finish is perfect. Every detail sits perfectly. Love it.
Reliability/Durability
:10
Solid as rock, there's nothing to worry about.
Customer Support
:No Opinion
Did not have an occasion or need to contact them - perhaps to congratulate ;)...
Overall Rating
:10
I love theese guitars and if I would need a Strat-Sounding guitar I would buy Fret King over and over again.
Product: Fret King Corona ES III Price Paid: EUR (444)
Submitted 06/05/2004
at 01:36am
by Ed
Email: edind<at>gmx dot de
Features
:10
I bought mine 2003. Saw a very good test in a german magazine Gitarre&Bass, where another model EU Corona III SP with a P90 at the bridge has been found terrific. Got it new on eBay for a great price. It has a wonderful one piece neck with locking tuners, two piece body, the Wilkinson tremolo and three singlecoils. The controls are classic two tone and one volume, where one tone is for the neck and middle pickup and one for the bridge pickup, the one which really needs it, imho. Way better than how Fender solves it. The quality is at a very high level, really good job. The guitar looks far more expensive as it was. Everything is working perfect and the way expected. In the meantime I own two Fret Kings and love both of them.
Sound
:10
I play mostly blues and bluesrock stuf and for that kind of musig this guitar is simply perfect. I have another one where I put a Haeussel blues set in and must say the stock pickups are not worse. They're different and not that aggressive and dirty like Haeussels. Very transparent clean and semiclean sound, many harmonic-like highs with more distortion but never rude. Great guitar for funk also. Haeussels are more for SRV and Buddy Guy stuff, this goes more towards David Gilmour, if you know wwhat I mean.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:10
Everything was perfect here! 'nuff said!
Reliability/Durability
:10
No problems so far. All parts working as expected.
Customer Support
:No Opinion
No need for it so far.
Overall Rating
:10
This is a great guitar. I love both of mines and would buy it again immediatelly, even at higher price. My motivation to play after buying it raised a lot. Every time I see it I have to take it in my hands and play a few riffs on it. Mostly I stay a few hours with it. Wow!
Product: Fret King Corona ES III Price Paid: 460 (Euros) used
Submitted 01/19/2004
at 07:10am
by Kaloosey
Features
:8
A strat style guitar from the UK (or the Czech Republic? I'm not sure about the ES III model. The brand Fret King is UK based and Trevor Wolkinson is said zo be the man behind the company. They manufacture in the CR as well). Controls: Volume, 2 tone, 5-way selector.
Pickups: 3 single coils, AFAIK by Fret King 'emselves. Passive electronics. Wilkinson tremolo bridge. Closed locking tuners.
In summary, no surprises here, but all in all good quality stuff. Therefore 8 points.
Sound
:8
I like and play rock and metal. Regardless of style, I like a guitar to sound CLEAR. If my fingers play complex chords, I want to be able to hear them clearly, even with a bit or two of distortion. This guitar does the trick for me.
It's definitely got a single coil sound, sparkly and full in the neck position, more spangy and metallic in the bridge. That's what I was looking for in this guitar. If you need a humbucker sound, look elsewhere!!
I usually play at home. I use it with an OKKO Diablo Overdrive into a Rocktron Piranha (speaker emulated) into my mixer. In my home environment, the guitar is not overly noisy. I do not know if noise would be a problem somewhere else.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:7
As I bought the guitar second hand, I cannot judge any factory setup. Anyway, I haven't found any flaws yet. Only the string action is rather high for my taste, so I'll try to lower it.
Reliability/Durability
:8
Up to know, the guitar has always worked impeccably. I believe it was built to last. I'd gig with it. Finish is good.
Customer Support
:No Opinion
No idea.
Overall Rating
:8
I'm not a very good guitar player, I've been playing acoustic for several years and electric for one year now. However, I believe that I've got an ear for sound, having played in a band for ten years.
If it were stolen, I wouldn't be terribly sad, but I would buy it again for the same price. The thing I most like about it is the sound. Maybe I'm a bit too fond of the guitar right now, as it complements my other guitar (Les Paul copy) very well. Time will tell.
: