Fret King Eclat II

The Fret-King ECLAT II is a single-cut mahogany bodied version of the Les Paul Junior, with Fret-King's own peculiarities. Mine is Cherry Red, & it has tulip button tuners, an adjustable stop-tail bridge, & two Fret-King Pro style pickups with black covers. There are two body comfort contours. A forearm scoop on the front & a belly contour, like a Strat's on the back. It is made from solid mahogany, in two pieces(centre-joined)for the body, & a solid mahogany neck. There are single master volume & tone controls & a three-way pickup selector on the upper bout.I believe it is made in Korea & is part of the Fret-King 'Blue Label' series. It comes with a very high quality own-label gig-bag with lamb fur lining.

It is an excellant Vintage-style guitar & would suit all kinds of music except the modern high-gain heavily overdriven metal styles. I myself play typical '60s pop, blues, rock, country etc. I am using a Fender Super Champ XD & Vox AC15H1 Heritage amps with it. It is only a week old (June 13 2009)& I have not yet gigged it live, so have only tried it at home. The sound from the P90s is quite bright, which can be easily tamed with the excellent tone pot, which really does work properly. It gives a very resonant full tone, both louder & richer than a vintage type Strat. I only usually use effects like, Reverb, Delay & Vibrato. On the neck pickup, clean, on a Fender Blackface amp model it sounds like a Grand piano's sustaining low strings. It really rings out.

The quality of this instrument is second to none. The intonation was right, out of the box. The Cherry Red finish is superb & it difficult to see the join in the two pieces of body wood. the hardware is perfect. It is difficult to fault. The neck is a chunky 'D' profile & very comfortable. The one fault I did find, was that the neck pickup was not working when I first tried to play it. I had a poke around at the wiring in the pots cavity, & it suddenly kicked in. I accept that every once in a while something will get past the Quality Control, so I am not making to much fuss about it. I do,however, criticise the Ebay dealer who sold it to me, for not bothering to at least make sure that it actually worked electrically, before he despatched it to me.

This guitar is a rock solid beast with quality hardware that, baring any serious accidents, will stand up to anything. i would risk gigging it without a backup.

I have usually been the devoted 'Fender' man for the style of music I play, but now I will seriously consider the Fret-King alternative before I buy a Fender again. The value for money & quality factors on this guitar are too good to ignore. I have been playing since the early '60s & have several Strats, Teles, Epi LP, Washburn Gold Top, Burns Marvin & a PRS SE Soapbar. Several of these are now going on Ebay. I have always wanted an LP Junior type guitar for it's simplicity & sheer gigability, but the Gibson version was always too expensive for what you got (over here in the UK) & I have noticed they varied a lot in quality. Maybe you pay too much for that 'Famous Name'! Try a Fret-King, you'll be pleasantly suprised.
I got it for a remarkably discounted price, but they are usually sold for around ??499. Ask for a discount, & it may be given.