Fairclough Sky.indd - GotoGuitars.com

Review Fairclough Sky
Electro-acoustic guitar
Reach
For The
Sky
Fairclough Sky electro-acoustic guitar
Fairclough guitars might be new to the
guitar world, but those of us who are
fortunate enough to have witnessed
Steve Fairclough’s awesome guitar
playing know that he would only put
his name to something a bit special.
Steve Fairclough has a pedigree second to none in the world of acoustic
guitars and has amassed a vast wealth of experience in teaching and tuition
at every level from beginner to master class. In the course of his teaching
he has formed some pretty strong opinions on what constitutes an
ideal student grade guitar and has always felt a little uncomfortable
when asked to recommend an instrument for people to learn on.
His belief has always been that most manufacturers of entrylevel
or intermediate guitars build the guitars down to a price,
using the cheapest components and hardware in order to offer
the cheapest instrument on the wall. When Steve became
involved with ‘Go To Guitars’ — UK distributors of Hamer and
Breedlove — he was presented with an opportunity to put all
his theories about guitar design and production for entry-level
and intermediate acoustic guitars into action. The experience
he garnered from his work as a demonstrator for Takemine
and Parker guitars, his teaching at the Guitar Academy in the
north of England and his patronship of the Bath International
Guitar Festival put him in a unique position to design a guitar that
reflected not only his opinions but also his musical character.
The guitar I have for review is the Fairclough Sky model;
a cutaway electro acoustic guitar featuring a whole host of upgrades
over the average standard of a guitar aimed at this particular market
62 May 2007
Review by Steve Hughes
and supplied to us guitar players complete
with a high-grade gig bag. Lets get one thing
straight now, this instrument is not aimed at
the complete novice, more at the player who
has mastered the initial stages and needs an
instrument that will see him or her through
to the professional level before needing to
upgrade, so we can include semi-pro, gigging
musicians in its target audience. A guitar aimed
at this market needs to a bit of a jack-of-all-rades;
it must be easy to play, so as not to discourage
its owner from exploring new techniques, and
it must be capable of doing a good job in all
musical styles. An instrument like this must be
capable of sounding better and better as its
owner improves his or her playing technique and
must be able to take them almost all the way to
the top level before they need to spend serious
money on a high-end guitar. Even then it must
be able to perform duties as a second instrument
without ever letting its owner down. All in all,
a pretty tall order!
Construction
Before I explore the playing experience let’s
have a look at the guitar’s construction. The
instrument is a single cutaway design and it
measures 15.5 inches across its lower bout with
a narrow waist of 9.5 inches. This body size
is slightly larger than a concert guitar whilst
being a size down from a Jumbo. The guitar’s
depth is 4.5 inches — a full quarter-inch deeper
than most Jumbo guitars. Generally speaking
a concert size instrument is suited to finger
picking with a sweet treble, detailed mids and
a piano-like bass whilst a Jumbo is more suited
to strumming with a big booming bass end,
slightly withdrawn mids and enough treble
response to maintain definition. The size of this
instrument seems to suggest a compromise,
retaining the sweet treble and detailed mids of
a concert and adding the big bass of a jumbo.
We will see whether it succeeds later. Scale
length — the actual ‘speaking’ length of the
string from nut to saddle — is something that
designers of guitars must always consider;
a shorter scale length is easier to play and
tends to yield a mellower tone than a longer
scale. Student and younger players tend to
find a scale of 24.75 inches easier to play
than a length of 25.5 inches, however, the
longer length definitely gives a sharper, more
percussive attack and also, due to the fact that
the string has a longer length to vibrate, more
volume. Fairclough have opted to go with the
longer length here, no doubt feeling that the
tonal benefits and increased volume outweigh
the marginally easier to play shorter scale.
It is a generally accepted fact that acoustic
guitars with solid tops rather than laminated
music musicmart
Fairclough Sky £315
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Key Notes
Single-cutaway electro-acoustic guitar.
Solid spruce top.
Rosewood back & sides.
Fishman 4T preamp.
Gig bag included.
High Notes
Superb build quality.
Great-looking guitar.
Acoustic tone and dynamic range.
Low Notes
Ebonoid tuner buttons.
Too much corrective EQ required for electric
performance.
A little tricky to get in and out of its gig bag!
Go To Guitars Ltd 01925 444696
www.gotoguitars.com
The Faiclough Sky electro-acoustic
incorporates a Fishman undersaddle
pickup and an integral Fishman 4T
preamp, offering four bands of EQ.
tops sound better, with the added
benefit that solid tops mature with
age, sounding better and better as
they get older. Steve has specified
a solid spruce top for the Sky guitar to
ensure that it not only sounds good
now but will sound even better in years
to come. The back and sides of the
Sky are constructed from laminated
rosewood and the grain is particularly
beautiful, exhibiting some golden
streaks against a dark background.
The whole of the body is bound with
maple strips, adding a real sense of class
that plastic binding is just not able to
match. A maple and ebony centre stripe
separates the two-piece, book-matched
rosewood back of the guitar, and you
will want to lean the instrument facing
the wall just to admire the sheer beauty of the
back. Rosewood is also the feature wood of
the soundhole rosette, which is sandwiched
between two thin lines of black/white/black
plastic — very classy. Tortoiseshell plastic is
the chosen material for the small, but elegant
scratchplate and the whole body is finished in
a thin layer of high-gloss poly lacquer.
Quality wood
Internally the construction is of a high standard
with cross-braced scalloped braces supporting
the top and parallel braces giving strength to
the back. The purfling is very tidily done with no
visible traces of glue evident; altogether a very
well built attractive body.
The neck of any guitar can make or break
the playing and owning experience and it is
here that Steve Fairclough’s experience shines
through. The neck of the Sky is made from three
pieces of mahogany, The main body of the
neck plus a spliced-on headstock and heel, all
finished in a very smooth-feeling satin finish.
The manufacturers describe the wood used as
“a higher grade of mahogany than you would
normally find on an instrument of this price”.
Well, they are not wrong; the wood used has an
exceptionally straight grain and is finished in its
natural hue so there is no hiding of sub-standard
wood behind a dark stain here. I would go as far
as to say that the Mahogany used would not be
out of place on a guitar costing three times the
price of this instrument! As with the body, the
neck is bound with maple and the join between
the two woods is imperceptible to the touch,
unlike some high-end electrics I have played
of late. If the Chinese can sand their binding
smooth why can’t certain citizens of the USA
manufacturing £1k plus guitars do the same?
Rosewood is the choice of fingerboard material
and it is a decent piece too, with a reasonably
tight grain, inlaid with mother of pearl dots.
music mart musicmart-mag.com May 2007 music mart
63

Review Fairclough Sky
Electro-acoustic guitar
The headstock is a narrow design with the sides
tapering in slightly to the end which has a rather
fetching double-notched dome topping off the
guitar. Rosewood makes another appearance
here as the face of the headstock, with a 2mm
piece inlaid with the Fairclough ‘F’ and logo, and
finished in a high gloss, which contrasts well with
the natural piece used for the truss rod cover.
Action and tone
The neck shape is best described as a medium
C-profile and is very comfortable in the hand;
it is not too big for small hands yet it remains
uncramped for those with larger hands and, as
such, fulfils its design brief admirably. The guitar
is fitted with twenty small, narrow frets and the
action is set at 3/32-inch at the fourteenth fret,
which, whilst not being super low, is eminently
playable for student guitarists. The final feature
of the headstock is the gold plated,
high-geared machine heads
fitted with ebonoid buttons,
which I have to say don’t
match the rest of the guitar.
Surely Rosewood buttons
would have tied in
with the overall
appearance
much better?
Having said
that, the
machines work
very smoothly
and accurately
and hold their
64 music mart May 2007
tune well. Bone is the material of choice for
both the nut, which is accurately cut, and the
bridge saddle, which should bode well for the
tone.
Talking of tone, what does the Sky sound
like? Played with the fingers it displays a strong
treble with a slightly hard edge that never
actually gets harsh — ideal for playing single
note lines. The mids are strong, with the
fundamental taking precedence when played
hard, but when played soft the harmonics
come more to the fore, giving the instrument
a wonderfully fluent delicacy that will only get
better as that solid top beds in. The bass is solid
and nicely taut, without too much boom, and
remains well balanced throughout the length
of the fingerboard. Country blues pickers and
folkies will find plenty to like here. Fairclough
call this guitar the Sky;
I would call it Jekyll
and Hyde as it
becomes
The ebonoid buttons of the tuners
may not be to everyone’s taste.
The body is something of a hybrid —
larger than a concert, smaller than a
jumbo and with a little more depth than
the profile leads you to expect.
a booming monster when attacked with gusto
with a pick. All of a sudden it is loud, really loud,
with a huge booming bass that still retains
its definition,. A strident barking midrange
full of harmonic overtones complemented by
a sparkling treble that retains its detail and cut,
never getting swamped by the bass and mids
like some budget instruments are prone to do.
Played like this with a pick you could entertain
the folks down the pub or on the beach without
needing any amplification.
The Sky’s the limit
The Sky is fitted with a Fishman 4T preamp
which features controls for volume, bass, mid,
treble and brilliance as well as having a tuner
built in. When I first plugged this guitar in
(straight into the desk via a BSS DI box in my
studio) I was disappointed. It was as if someone
had put a blanket over the speakers. The mids
and bass were dominating the tone and the
treble had all but disappeared. However, the
Fishman is a really good bit of kit and just by
boosting the treble and brilliance and reducing
the mids a little, a top-quality, balanced tone
leapt out of the speakers. Once set like this you
can use the bass slider on the preamp as a sort
of size control — add more bass and the guitar
sounds huge and would be excellent for solo
performers looking to fill a room, or reduce the
bass for a great band rhythm tone, sitting well
in the mix and not stealing other instruments’
frequency space. This particular guitar did not
suffer from piezo ‘zing’ unless the Brilliance
control was maxed out, and even then it was
only a minor irritant. At high volume I had
to be careful as feedback could be an
issue if I stood too close to the speakers
or at the wrong angle. The Sky is
no worse in this respect than most
electro-acoustics out there, it is just that
I have been spoilt by the Breedloves that
I reviewed in the February issue.
Steve Fairclough has succeeded
in designing a guitar for the student
and intermediate player that is above
the norm for this market. When
you consider that this instrument
was designed to a spec and not to
a price then it was a case of finding
a manufacturer to build it correctly.
Little touches like the maple
binding, bone nut and
bridge saddle, and the
flawless sanding of the
joins between the binding
and neck wood all serve
to set this guitar apart
from the crowd. I would
not be unhappy to pay
£500 for this guitar,
so the fact that it
retails for just £315
including a quality gig
bag makes it well worth
checking out.
musicmart-mag.com