As a guitar player for many years I do often wonder, will anyone make something that little different.
This is what you get with this guitar, first of all you notice the looks of the guitar, a great body shape, the inlay on the fret board is absolutely beautiful, for me the best feature of this guitar is where the sound hole is, it is in the double cut aways of the body.
Now this is the guitar for me and it most certainly ticks the box of "that something different" the action is great I have had it set up too a service which skylark provide and what a job, the set up gave me a great low action and a set of gauge .10 strings.
The sound of the guitar is great and acoustically different to any I have heard and played, the true beauty of this guitars sound is to do with the baffle inside the guitar, it gives the guitar a very natural balanced tone to it's sound, which I really like as I play in a funk band it allows me to get good clarity through chords and riffs alike, and this was confirmed when I did a acoustic live performance which was videoed for us, which you can see above.
Now the price of this guitar is absolutey fantastic, have you seen a guitar of this beauty, for this kind of money?
Not only is value for money, but you get a case included, now thats a deal.....
I have seen past reviews of this guitar which are more ‘glowing’, but I want to provide an honest appraisal: Are there better guitars? – Yes! At this Price? No! With this style? – No! Do I like it? - Yes! Is it good value? – Yes! Can I recommend it? – Yes!
Fine to play with good action and intonation. For an all-solid wood acoustic this is excellent at this price. The neck decoration is even nicer than the pictures suggest. Compared with my son’s acoustics the sound lacks a little ‘body’, but his are Martins and Lowdens at 6 to10 times the price, so there can be no complaint there.
There are downsides: Some aspects of finish could be better. The body and neck binding and the lacquer finish are quite heavy, putting me in mind of 1970’s Eko Ranger guitars, (which were decent enough) and the finish inside the ‘funnels’ begs for sandpaper, elbow-grease and re-lacquer to tidy them up. I know in other guitars the inside tends to be a ‘bare’ area anyway, but in this model they are such a feature I would have liked to see a smoother finish.
Mine has some overcutting around the top inlay motif beneath the lacquer, (Only evident on close examination and it does show it is inlay rather than a transfer, so maybe I am being unfair), and there were a couple of minor lacquer chips on the side beneath the lower bout. (would have been 5-star otherwise)
The solidity of the woodwork around the neck and funnels must compromise upper bout resonance so the inner baffle is certainly needed to compensate, and this does work OK. The electrics are fine with my Marshall acoustic amp.
The downsides of this guitar are completely overcome by its ‘upsides’. It is good to play, has a good sound both acoustically and plugged-in, looks fabulous and sufficiently unusual to look the part onstage whether I am playing jazz, traditional folk, mediaeval or contemporary music. Had I bought direct from a shop I would probably have asked to try another example of the model (without the little lacquer chips on the bottom side), but in overall terms that would not be worth the fuss online or by post, and I would have still bought one. If the ‘downsides’ were resolved you could probably treble the price and I could not afford one at all!
The supplied case is good and communications with Skylark and delivery times were spot-on. I ordered late Wednesday night, was sent a tracking number 11.05 am on Thursday to check the delivery website, which promised a 1-hour delivery slot between 11.10 am and 12.10 on Friday, It arrived at 11.25 am! Less than 48 hours and predictable! Good guitar, good service, good value. Thank you
A great quality bowlback electroacoustic from our Fluidtone friends. Good acoustic sound - even better plugged in. Excellent neck and very tidy heel for good playability
