Head to head

Is there clean air between any of our semi foursome?

On first glance, these are all attractive guitars – the kind of instruments you’d expect to find in a 60s memorabilia museum, surrounded by pictures of early rock ’n’ roll legends strumming them criminally high above the waist. The relic’d Artcore goes one step further, however, with its degraded aesthetics finished convincingly without even the slightest whiff of kitsch – a common danger in budget boutique.

The compact models by Epiphone and Hofner aren’t necessarily easier to play because of their smaller bodies. They might initially feel less bulky than the Ibanez and Gretsch, but after a few minutes of adjusting, size makes little actual difference in playability. Perhaps the only downside to the Streamliner is its access to the very upper frets – the bottom cutaway is a little restrictive for any ambitious lead playing beyond the 17th. In every other regard, from sound to appearance to versatility, it’s an axe that goes above and beyond.

The Verythin Deluxe suffers from the same issue, while the double-cut Ibanez has no problematic area on its fretboard whatsoever. It’s an attention to detail carried across every aspect of the instrument from top to bottom – typical of the brilliant Japanese craftsmanship that infuriated the American brands as far back as the 60s. And even though it’s the heaviest of these four guitars, there’s something about that very fact which helps it capture the essence of the vintage prototypes. And despite being less versatile because of its natural acoustics, what the Epiphone does, it does incredibly well. The softer P-90s facilitate an emphasis on warmer sounds, and even before it’s plugged in, you’ll inevitably enjoy the thrill of playing it acoustically for hours on end. It offers great access to all frets and weighs about the same as the thin-cut Hofner, without any sacrifice on natural vibration – if anything, that’s its forte.