Fret King Esprit 1

British built by someone working for Trev Wilkinson. Weird shape, sort of like a cross between an Explorer and a non-reverse Firebird, similar to a Fernandes Vertigo or an old Overwater bass. I like it. It has a reverse batwing headstock, dot inlays, slab body, three piece korina body and one piece korina neck, kluson style tuners with oval plastic buttons, one Wilkinson P90 and two controls. Wraparound bridge/TP. The vibe is very vintage Gibson or Epiphone. Mine's cherry red with a white Junioresque scratchplate. The neck is a moderate C shape, extremely comfy for long sessions. 22 frets with full access. Expensive for what you get but then it feels and sounds like superb quality and it looks extremely cool. Nobody else will have one! I bought it as used but it had never been played and was factory fresh.

Fabulous sound. Full, rich, fiery and biting. Very consistent across the strings. Tremendous sustain from the korina body. Typical P90 tones, cleaning up nicely as the volume is rolled off (there's a Telecaster stype treble bleed capacitor on the volume control). The tone control is very effective and the sound remains useable. Being a 1 pickup instrument, the range of tones is limited, but the guitar responds well to different picking positions and plectrum tricks. I can play most things on this guitar.

Build quality is generally good but with some flaws that are unforgivable in a ?1200 guitar. The body is 3 pieces with the centre part opposing grain (why? Stability??) The glue joints are good on the guitar front but very poor on the back. I can feel the different levels of wood with my fingernail. The paintwork is flawless, the wood quality is top notch. Frets are medium ovals and should be higher for a more positive feel. I want to get this guitar refretted and that's awful. The actual fretwork is impeccable. The nut is unevenly cut, again this is not acceptable on such an instrument. Fret King should have their bottoms spanked. Worst of all, the bridge, a simple wraparound affair, does not have any fine adjustment screws....don't get me wrong, I don't like Badass or similar micro-adjust wraparounds with individual saddles and such, but I'd expect the guitar as supplied to have at least the facility to adjust the whole thing back and forward a little, like an old Les Paul Junior. This is just dreadful. The actual setup was lousy, string heights all over the place, no tension on the trussrod, pckup polepieces too low. NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

Seems fine. The long neck stays in tune under stage lighting, everything's solid. I have confidence in it.

Fret King are hard to speak to. Get them on the phone and they're great. Email them and you won't get a response.

Playing 35 years and have had them all. This is a good guitar let down by sloppy setup and some silly mistakes. I'm still glad to have it and I enjoy the reverse snobbery that comes with a single-pickup instrument. It balances well and delivers the goods. Overall, I'd buy it again but I wish it had better frets.