Fret King Esprit V

Korean made Esprit 5. I know some people are not keen on Korean made guitars, but Trev Wilkinson has made sure that the production quality of these guitars is as good, if not better than anything made in Japan.It has a beautiful black finish with white scratch plate. Using set-neck construction mating three-piece mahogany bodies with 4??? centre sections to one- piece mahogany necks, the Esprit 5 is a solid platform to build on.Loaded with Fret-King PAF???s. I was lucky enough to have Trevs team at his work shop add the 'Varicoil' control for me and as I was in business in the area I dropped it in personally and was lucky enough to meet the great man. The Varicoil comes on standard with the Green Label version, but mine is a blue label, so it's not pretty unique.

It also looks fantastic. Several female friends have described it as 'Sexy'!

The sound is the winner. You can get a variety of sounds out of this lump of wood but I particularly love using it's clean sound. But if you use the varicoil control you cam mix between Strad and Tele with a quick turn of the dial. I'm using it with a Line 6 Flextone III and it works wonders with the various amp settings.

Mine arrived with quite a high action but fortunately Trevs lads sorted that out for me and gave it the full on set up.

No flaws. Not a single thing.

I've not used it live yet, but it's as solid as they come.

The company have been brilliant. Special thanks to the lovely Kate.

I've been playing 35 years and my main guitar is a 1979 Yamaha SG1500. That baby will be buried with me, but this is a different beast. Not as full on rock god as the Yam' (which would blow any Les Paul out of the room!), but that's the point. Variation. I'd definately replace it like for like if nicked.Though I also have my eye on an Eclat now as well.It plays lovely, and will sound even better as the wood ages and gets used to it's environment. It looks like a cross between a Firebird and an Explorer but with curves, I'm a huge Phil Manzanera fan so my fantasy is still alive without having to jump on the Gibson gravy train. Use some imagination people, you don't have to pay for a name on a headstock! If this had Gibson written on it, it'd cost twice the money for such a high specification.

This is the British built Esprit - an unusual, ergonomic body shape something like a cross between a non-reverse Firebird and an Explorer. Very comfy and balances well. Mine has 3 piece korina body and neck finished in beautiful Old English White. The body has ledges, again reminiscent of an old Firebird. It screams class. Elsewhere, there's gold hardware, a reverse batwing headstock carrying 6 anonymous Kluson types, a rather pale rosewood fingerboard, standard tunamatic and stop tailpiece, twin humbuckers, a 3-way toggle, master vol and tone and a 3rd rotary knob that splits the humbuckers to either inner or outer coils, so a versatile guitar. 25" scale and 22 medium jumbo frets. This one was made in the UK and is quite rare. Supplied with case and a truss rod allen key that doesn't fit (too long to fit into the recess).

The guitar is very resonant and sounds wonderful, very vintage in its tones,not at all overblown. Ideal for Classic Rock, Blues and anything other than full blown metal. The rotary coil-splitter gives useful variations, though the volume drops (of course).

Mine came secondhand but appeared barely used. The nut was cut unevenly and too high, the fret ends were rough and needed work. The paintwork and general finish are exemplary, although look beneath the surface and you'll find oddities, such as the badly drilled trussrod cover mounting hole that's been re-drilled a few mil further up! A personal issue for me is the positioning of the selector switch. I play with an open right hand so continually knock the selector as it's placed just below the neck pickup - my solution was to get a new scratchplate cut without the selector hole and then relocate the selector to the multitap knob hole. Tapping is now limited to one selection rather than two and is done via a push/push tone pot. The guitar can easily be changed back to stock but I find it easier to play like this. A player using a closed right hand would probably not find this an issue.

The basic guitar is very good and, critically, the neck is stable under stage lights. It isn't noisy. Worst feature are the tuners which are both creaky and have up to 50% backlash. They're absolute rubbish and will be swapped out asap for better quality Kluson types. Why Fret King persist in fitting their guitars with such cheap parts is beyond me. My other Esprit has slightly different tuners and is fine. This one gets a 5 because of the tuners.

No warranty as bought used but Fret King are very helpful on the phone.

Been playing 35 years and have owned hundreds of guitars. If you can think of it, I've probably owned it. I currently have 3 Fret Kings and they are, without a doubt, among the most satisfying, toneful, easy-playing, characterful instruments you can buy. Against that, each one has had basic setup issues and the hardware needs an overhaul. If you can live with the enormous price and the need to then spend more money sorting it out, then these guitars are marvellous.