avian songbird Deluxe Fan Fret & ibis Deluxe Fan Fret
A pair of fan-fretters prepare for flight! With US design and Far Eastern build, how sweetly will these birds sing?
The Avian range is the brainchild of USA guitar makers Michael Bashkin and Harry Fleishman. The duo creates the designs, which are then built in China under the strict scrutiny of another relocated USA guitar maker, Abe Wechter. This means that it’s possible to buy boutique design at a more affordable price. The Avian range has been reconsidered for 2017 and now features four models – the Falcon, Skylark and our review pair – of various sizes and shapes, each one split into standard, standard cutaway, deluxe and deluxe fan-fret appointments, all with clean, eye-catching, contemporary design.
To begin with, we’ll address the elephant in the room: yes, they’re both fan-fret models and top the range in terms of price. The thinking here is that by allotting each string a slightly different scale length, it becomes
possible to tune across the guitar’s range more accurately. This is particularly the case when we consider drop or alternative tunings. With standard fretting, it can be a case of ‘how low can you go?’ with players often taking their instruments to the absolute edge of acceptable intonation by dropping a 0.012 gauge bass string down to baritone C territory. On a fan-fret guitar, the longer scale on the bass strings – these Avians spread from a conventional 645mm (25.4 inches) on the treble side to 660mm (25.98 inches) on the bass side – means that, in theory at least, any such drop tuning retains stability and, to put it plainly, each string stays in tune whatever you throw at it! We’ll look at how it feels in the player’s hands a little later on, but for now, let’s investigate the basic build of each of the models on parade here.
Both the Songbird and Ibis retain many of the characteristics you’d normally associate with classic acoustic guitar design. Both are slightly more bulbous than, say, a standard OM or 000, veering more towards the region
The trebles sing as sweetly as any self-respecting bird should
of the bigger-bellied jumbo, perhaps. The Songbird is a little shorter in body length and, visually, it’s surprising how this slight difference affects the looks generally. The Ibis appears longer and somehow more slender, but apart from that, both models are very similar in appearance.
They’re similar in build detail, too. Both guitars use all-solid wood construction with Sitka spruce tops – nice, tight grain patterns with neat bookmatching – and rosewood back and sides (although both mahogany and maple are offered). Both have a bevel to the lower bout to facilitate a more comfortable hold. Then there’s the demi-cutaway. It might look a little like a standard cutaway, but in reality, it’s merely a recess to allow access to the upper frets, and because the cut doesn’t go too deep, it retains a lot of the guitar’s internal dimensions, meaning that the soundbox responds tonally more like a non-cutaway instrument. Clever stuff – and quite pleasing on the eye.
The necks on both are one-piece mahogany with a central fillet of maple and that distinctive, elongated headstock with Avianlogo’d sealed-back tuners. The fingerboards are rosewood and the frets are neatly appointed and medium sized. All well and good… so how do they feel in the hands?
Feel & Sounds
The first thing you notice here is that both guitars are slightly top heavy. Not so much that it would warrant either earning a black mark, you just observe it, that’s all. In fact, we notice that before we even think about the fan frets. Tuning both guitars, focusing on what the tuner is telling us, it’s moments before we think, ‘Surely this should feel slightly weird?’ The truth is that the fan frets don’t distract the fingers as much as you might think – even a barre chord down at the 1st fret is not a problem.
The Songbird and Ibis also have very similar tonal characteristics. There’s plenty of bass, without any unpleasant boominess, and the trebles sing as sweetly as any self-respecting bird should. Strumming chords offers up an even balance across the tonal spectrum, but the wider fingerboard suggests to us that these birds are fit for fingerstyle and tuning experiments. We try drop D and various other
alternatives, and the Avians deliver every time and, furthermore, the intonation remains stable throughout.
Both guitars are fitted with B-Band’s Crescent II pickup system (with both undersaddle and soundboard transducers), which features extensive controls hidden away on the player’s side of the soundhole. A slight gripe is the positioning of the battery holder. This is affixed via Velcro to the inside of the lower bout, meaning that you’ve got to remove some of the strings to effect a battery change.
Through the standard issue AER Compact 60 amp, both birds sing sweetly, the B-Band system really just reinforcing the sound that’s already there with commendable transparency and useful tweakability.
verdict
At this price point the Avians are up against other fan fret producers like Eastman and Ibanez, but they enter the ring with a great sound, offering a good playing experience – and they’re ready for all your flights of fancy!