reviewed - GotoGuitars.com

REVIEWED
Words: Simon Croft
Fairclough
Guitars
Star/River
Acoustic Star
SRP: £215 incl vat
Acoustic River
SRP £230 incl vat
With padded gig bag
and strap
GoTo Guitars
Tel: 01925 444696
www.gotoguitars.com
WHAT IS IT?
A brace of acoustic guitars
offering remarkably good
materials and build quality for the
money.
WHY SHOULD I WANT
ONE?
Well, they’re cheap enough to
learn on but the sound and play
well enough to use live or record,
which can’t be bad can it?
There are other models in the
range that may suit you better, depending
on what you want to do. For instance, the
Fairclough Acoustic sky is described as an ‘orchestral’
model. It comes with a more rounded body than the
jumbo Acoustic River and is also available with Fishman
pickup and tuner under the Electric Sky banner. This model
also has a left-handed version available. The Acoustic Star
again is available as the Fishman-equipped Electric Star, while
the equivalent for the River model is the Electric River. (We
reckon you’re probably getting the hang of these naming
conventions by now.) The Acoustic River is available in
a left-handed version. The Acoustic Mountain has
a body with a bigger lower bout than the
jumbo-sized River and is said to have
a stronger bass response. Electro
and LH versions are also
available. PU
IS IT FOR ME?
pickup436
Good price,
great build
quality and
tones to
make you
smile. The
River and
Star are
guitars
you’ll
come
back to
every
time!
It’s hard to get one past us
when it comes to guitar prices
because we get to see a lot of
models in a year. In addition to all
the ones we review, there’s models
we get to play at trade shows, the
London Guitar Show and so on.
So it’s not often we are out by
much when we guess the price of
a guitar – acoustic guitars doubly
so because there is less scope for
variation between models that
might throw us off the scent. (Let’s
face it, you can put together a
jumbo beautifully, or you can throw
it together. You can use the fi nest
materials or the worst but in the
end, they all take about the same
amount of materials, so comparison
is that much easier.)
These Fairclough guitars threw
us a little bit though because the
materials seemed too good for the
asking price. I mean: rosewood back
and sides, solid spruce tops, solid
bone saddles and nuts – with their
sealed gears and wooden buttons,
even the machineheads looked
too luxurious for the money, and
that was before we had factored
in the cost of actually putting the
instruments together.
We couldn’t fault the fi nishes
either. The necks on both the
models we were sent were in a
blemish-free satin, while the bodies
and the rosewood-faced headstock
were buffed to a glorious gloss that4

REVIEWED: Fairclough acoustic guitars – Star and River
4it would be hard to criticise on an
instrument at any price.
This is the point at which I had
to do some serious thinking. After
all, for this sort of money, there had
to be a catch. That, or there’d been
an embarrassing mix up, and these
were actually much more expensive
instruments.
Next stop, the inside – the
obvious place to cut corners and
hope that no one will notice. The
white struts stood out against
rosewood like pin stripes of a
gentleman’s suit. And there was
no getting away from it, they were
neatly shaped and glued without
a surplus glob of goo to be seen.
Even a desperate fumble through
the sound hole to check the work
pickup438
“The Acoustic River is still a very good guitar
for the money, but personally I think the
Acoustic Star is my favourite, because it’s
rare to find such an all-rounder at this price.”
I couldn’t see very easily failed to
reveal anything other than the feel
of orderly precision.
The only concession to costcutting
I could find was that the grain
of the wood on the inside didn’t
quite match the grain on the outside,
suggesting that the rosewood back
and sides are laminate.
Frankly, if they had have been
solid I’d have known for sure that
the prices were wrong. With the
sides in particular, their contribution
to the tone is minimal, and while
the back is theoretically more
important, a lot of people play
with the back muffled by contact
with their own body, so spending
the extra for solid rosewood is an
absolute luxury.
A look over the frets failed to
find too much to complain about.
OK, they had superficial scratches in
them but they appeared to be level
and the ends were finished nicely. In
fact the neck binding, body binding
and heel cap appeared to be maple,
so complaining about a few scratches
in the frets would be churlish.
Most players don’t bend strings
much on an acoustic, so probably
won’t notice whether the frets are
buffed. If it is an issue to you. I
suggest half-an-hour of self help,
working across the frets with steel
wool, followed by Brasso cloth. If
you’re going the DIY route though,
don’t neglect to cover the areas
around the fingerboard with some
masking tape because you don’t
want to damage that gloss finish.
A phone call later to GoTo
Guitars and it was clear that there
had been a misunderstanding over
the prices. “Does that include
VAT?” I asked suspiciously. “Yes
– and a 20mm gig bag and a strap.”
Jeez! That only left the possibility
that these guitars – while appearing
to be the perfect bargain – were
in fact complete dogs to play and
listen to.
Starting with the larger
instrument, the Acoustic River,
these are my findings on sound and
playability.
The Acoustic River is yer
archetypal jumbo – a big-bodied
acoustic that should produce a fair
amount of boom.4

REVIEWED: Fairclough acoustic guitars – Star and River
4Straight out of the gig
bag, the tone is on the bright
side, as modern acoustics tend
to be. I sometimes suspect that
people’s perceptions of what an
acoustic guitar should sound like
have been formed by the way it
sounds on many recordings, so
guitar designers are meeting thast
expectation by making instruments
that are almost pre-EQ’d in tone.
Havind said that, there is plenty
of scope for the bass end of this
guitar to loosen up with playing
– in fact it’s almost a dead cert
with a solid spruce top. When that
happens I’m sure it will sound a
lot bigger. Meanwhile, the tome
is quite well balanced and the
separation between strings is good.
As such, it responds well to gentle
picking and heavy strumming. In
fact, I was very impressed by the
way this guitar did not give up
the ghost and start to go thin as I
gave it increasing amounts of welly.
There are not many low-cost guitars
that can continue to convert that
much kinetic energy into sound.
If I were to change anything on
this guitar, I’d probably increase the
width of the neck slightly. At about
42mm (1 11 / 16 ”) it’s not abnormally
slender but my hands are quite
large, so I’ll happily accept a bit
more room across the neck.
One down, one to go. The
Acoustic Star is described as a
‘parlour guitar’, but the body width
is possibly a little more generous
than some I’ve seen of that type.
It also sounds better than some
parlour guitars I’ve played. As a
genre, they tend to sound smaller
and more intimate than a jumbo
guitar. When they’re good, I’d
describe them as ‘woody’, and
when they’re bad I’d be more
inclined to use the word ‘boxy’.
Unless you have a fortune to
spend on a parlour guitar, the
chances are that you’re going to get
a bit of both characteristics, so your
typical low-cost guitar of this type
tends to fare a lot better at finger
picking than hefy strumming.
Not so the Acoustic Star, which
copes with picking and strumming
with equal ease. It will never have
the bass end of the Acoustic River
because it’s not built to shift so
much air. For the same reason, there
comes a point where more physical
force creates a more metallic sound
rather than more volume.
That’s fine: if you want a big loud
guitar that projects well, choose
the Acoustic River. If you want a
quieter guitar, perhaps for home
“When parlour guitars are good, I’d describe them as ‘woody
and when they’re bad, I’d be more inclined to use the word
‘boxy’. You normally get a bit of both at this price. ”
pickup440
and recording, the Acoustic Star is
the ace in the hole as far as this boy
is concerned.
The Acoustic River is still a very
good guitar for the money but
I think the Acoustic Star is my
favourite because it’s rare to find
such an all-rounder at this price.
I don’t doubt that this summer’s
parks and beaches will see a fair
few of these gems visiting. PU