Longtermers
A few months’ gigging, recording and everything that goes with it – welcome to Guitarist ’s longterm test report
Knaggs Choptank & Fret-King Country Squire Semitone Special
Back in issue 455, along with reviewing both of these guitars, we looked at the whole relic topic. In this exploration of the merits of two very differently priced instruments, relicing plays an important part. Personally, I’m a relic fan. Okay, some of the heavy relic stuff might just be a bit too tattered-looking, but the huge advantage of having a guitar with an aged or reliced finish is that should you ding it, it’s not going to affect its value. But more often it’s the lived-in feel that’s more important to me: I just prefer the feel of an instrument that’s been played in… even if it’s brand-new. The Knaggs Choptank fits that bill. Not only does it look like it’s been around the houses, it feels like it’s been a guitar for some time. “What’s that?” asks my bandmate, and before I can reply: “Something you made back in the 70s? ”Once again, appearance informs an instant opinion.
I know I’ll have to return both instruments, but simply due to its already bashed finish I’ve been pretty care-free with the aged Knaggs over the past weeks. I bung it into a gigbag and head off to a gig without thinking… Hang on a minute, this is £4k’s worth of guitar! But it means that during my test time I didn’t think twice about gigging the Knaggs. It’s a remarkably unshowy guitar; it drops under the radar. Conversely, the brand-new-looking Fret-King, although a fraction of the price, is more coveted and cosseted.
That said, during a slow start to the year on the live music front, I found most of my play time was on the Fret-King. Hooking up with a couple of mates I hadn’t played with for (unbelievably) over three decades, the subject of new songs and recording was high on the agenda. Back in the day, like any band we’d hunker down in some flea-bitten rehearsal studio and try to turn some rough ideas into something our management and record label thought had some legs.With our bassist now living in Germany and no drummer on the horizon, any regular rehearsals or gigs are out of the question, so we turn our rusty creative minds to a bit of remote demo recording. As the months passed the main songwriter and nifty guitarist sent a stream of tunes over. Our European bassist added some ideas and I noodled around whenever time permitted to add some additional bits and pieces.
The lowly Fret-King has to be a virtually perfect writing/recording guitar when you’re working in this fashion. It’s lightweight, first and foremost, and has surprising tonal width. Adding heft to the bridge single coil is easy with something like a Line 6 Helix LT’s selections of compressors, overdrives – and fuzzes, which I’d rarely use, but with such easy control I soon find I’m coming up with sounds that normally I’d never access.
But as this is a two-guitar test I made the ‘mistake’ of pulling out the Knaggs, which, of course, sounds different. It also sounds more authentic.What do I mean? It sounds more Strat-y and its bridge pickup in that extended bridge plate sounds twanging and bright, yes, but with added body. Overall, there’s that lifting bloom or sustain to the note tail…
Still, different guitars make you play differently, correct? That’s a little more complex.There’s one song on which the writer suggests I try a funk part. I work it up on the Fret-King and it’s sounding okay.Then I pick up up the Knaggs and bingo! It’s perfect. I seem to relax a little more, too, and whatever the psychology is at play, the exact same part sits better in the track. I go back over the various songs or snippets of songs that I’d recorded with the Fret-King and try the same parts pretty much with identical patches on the Helix and, give or take, it’s the same result. If I’m honest, I’m not sure at this stage in the process that my ol’bandmates would notice the specific sound quality, because virtually all the parts have some kind of processing on them. But I notice the Knaggs makes me sound better, to me. It’s nothing to do with where it’s made or any bragging rights about its ‘boutique’ quality. Even if the guitars cost the same, I’d choose the Knaggs. Life’s too short not to play a good guitar.
“The lowly Fret-King has to be a virtually perfect writing/ recording guitar for remote recording”