Patrick Eggle Wave 1

Made in England 2004-ish. Solid maple top and back, finished in purple burst. Body is chambered with a half f-hole/half rickenbacker slash in the upper bout. For all of that maple though, pretty light, only about 7-8lbs. Two Bare Knuckle p-90 style pickups,running through volume-tone-three way selector setup. Tune-o-matic esque AMST tonebridge (more on this later) and Stop tail. 23 fret neck, rosewood board, Middling enough size and width, nice pearl/abalone inlays. headstock is body coloured, with Spezel Locking Heads and Gold Inlay "Patrick Eggle" signature.

Well...I was looking for something to slot between the thin sound of my US re-issue 60's strat and the full out roar of my 72 Tele custom, and to be honest, I didn't get it. What I did get was the power of those big flat fender buckers, with enough snap and twang to relegate the strat to it's case, maybe for good!!! There's not a bad sound in here, short of extreme thrash metal tones which can be a tiny bit thin, but anything less than this sings clear as a bell, and sustains long and loud. Theres a depth to the neck pickup unlike pretty much any guitar of this size, almost giving a jazzbox sound, if it wasn't for the singing mids and highs over the top. How this happens with an all maple body and single coil pickups I have no idea...There's definitley something in unusual. A treble bleed cap on the volume pot stops things mushing up when the volume is turned down. Perfect when you're on the old "single channel amp, no pedals" gigs. It's a great sounding instrument, to be sure, and loud enough to practice with unplugged thanks to the chambered body.

Well, theres not a lot of point commenting on the factory setup here. The guitar I have is a prototype, not a production model. It was briefly used as a demonstrator by the eggle rep, so it was a little lacking by the time I got it, although it still had a nicer out of the box feel than any recent Gibson I've picked up!!! Once the horrible rubber band 8 gauges where ripped off, a good set of ernie 10's went on, and after the smallest of tweaks for intonation, off we set. The action is low, not super-micro millimetre low, but more than comfortable. The bridge is a beaut! The saddles are not individually adjustable, but the G/B saddles can be replaced with another set for wound-third string sets. This replaceable part is bolted onto the rest of the beridge, which is one milled chunk of a Aluminium/ Steel/ Magnesium/ Titanium alloy (hence the AMST name). Frets are just about spot on, a little low maybe, but then I've been playing aging fenders for too long!!!

The top is bookmatched quite well, but isn't overly flamed, whereas the back is really nicely flamed with silvery grain. I guess those are the breaks with prototypes...The edges sport a nice "stripe" of uncoloured maple which is flawlessly executed. The finish is spotlessly applied and has a kind of "flip" quality to it, the burst appearing different in different light.


Overall, though, the build is spotless. The neck joint is well executed with a subtle pitch, although the heel is a clubby big bugger!! It's pretty safe to say that 23rd fret is only for show, as acces is a little cramped. Then again, I got used to a Tele so who can tell??

This is a guitar which looks very delicate. Maybe it's the finish or something, but it doesn't look like it would stand abuse for long. Books and covers, kids, books and covers!!!! After a solid three months of three hour a day kickings, it still looks immaculate. Those big ol' strap pegs grip like gators, the bridge holds position great, it holds tuning superbly under all kinds of Jimmy Page manoeuveurs and the lacquer lasts incredibly. I've no doubt it's gonna end up Rory Gallagher-ed, but thats gonna take a long time...about as long asit'll take me to play like him.

The great thing about this axe is it's simplicity..If theres nothing to go wrong, nothing will go wrong. I gig it without a backup regularly, with no crises apart from a one-off dry solder joint (to be honest, these days I expect worse!!!), but even that was fixed in minutes.

Eggle are sweet. It has to be said. I've called them a couple of times with fairly general queries about the guitar, as I had no clue about it's name/value whatever (it was basically thrown in my direction, at a knockdown price, along with a multitude of more well known guitars when I was out to buy a new one) and they've been lovely. It's almost like I've joined a club. There's no specfic warranty above the usual year, but theres a feeling that this isn't something strictly adhered to.

It's a little ripper. Where it stolen, I'd remove eyelids with nailclippers till I got it back. There's little I don't like about it...Maybe the heel could be dressed back a bit, maybe the headstock could be a little bigger, but big picture, none of these things matter. It isn't any other guitar. It's unique, soulful and, most importantly, designed and built with care and attention you don't see too often.