Thread: Lamaq Acoustics
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Old 12-22-2006, 01:10 PM
davidkilpatrick davidkilpatrick is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Kelso, Scotland
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End of this part of the story - my GAL5990E midi-jumbo cutaway arrived 30 minutes ago, perfectly packed, by carrier - 6.30pm on the Friday before Christmas is not bad! This is the £xx '2nd' and all it needs to look like a '1st' is a John Pearse armrest, since the area of finish damage is exactly where that will cover it permanently and perfectly. The action is set very low especially on the bass E but it's still fine despite D'Aquisto strings which have very dead basses. Before changing strings and raising the bass-side split saddle by a tiny amount, I tuned up and played a while. It's very accurate indeed, perfect intonation, and the sound is exactly what you would expect from a tight-grained cedar top, apparently solid rosewood body both back and sides, and this size of body. It has a slimmer (43mm) nut width than I am used to with the strings set well in from the edge, which is purfled but not bound and has well-trimmed frets and quite a small fingerboard radius with a very deliberate compensation of the bass side for string movement. The neck is very deep, almost a semicircle profile, and I was surprised to find this made barre chords easy - I've been playing shallow profile wide necks for ages, and this one has me surprised, because it's proving easier to play.

The general finish and internal stuff is a bit basic - purfling is all hand done, and a bit complex with extra doubled lines and things, and abalone letter L offset fret markers, abalone rosette etc. It looks like Chinese work with small inaccuracies and tiny bits of fill or width variations, and the bridge is quite roughly finished (planed and sanded but hardly brought to perfection). However, the geometry is accurate and the fit is solid. The frets don't look very even but there's not a single bad one despite the low action. The Fishman has a three-screw flanged endpin jack/strap button, a cheaper product than regular endpin jacks and the same type as used by Artec's pickup on my Romanian zouk imports. But the sound with the split saddle pickup and the Fishman Classic 4 preamp is great, well balanced and just right at neutral EQ.

All in all - an AMAZING solid rosewood/cedar for £xx and disturbingly well capable of giving my £xxxx Lowden a hard time. The sound is not as full but if anything it's sweeter, has more air in it, and the guitar is much lighter all round.

It's quite possible the second guitar I have bought from Lamaq - a small body, ultra slim, cutaway flamed maple with maple top acoustic electric - may arrive tomorrow. At least one of my friends has bought a dread today and if it matches what I have just received, he'll be very happy.

David

Last edited by cotten; 01-08-2007 at 06:37 PM. Reason: AGF Rule 2 in FAQ: No guitar price discussion.
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