NGD: Phred Instruments Ernesto

[Heady Jam Fan]

[Down_With_Sco]

How's the Phred treating you? How's holding up?

Looks nice may I add.

[Heady Jam Fan]

How's the Phred treating you? How's holding up?

Looks nice may I add.

I just got the Phred last week and I'm actually digging it. I've been gigging and recording a lot and needed a backup for my Artinger, but my funds are really limited. I happened to hear that the Phred Ernesto guitars are now "Fully Hollow" rather than "Virtually Hollow." I emailed Fred Rose (of Phred Instruments) to ask what this means. From my conversation with Fred, my understanding is the back and sides are one piece, but routed to be completely hollow (rather than separate, braced back and sides like a Languedoc/Artinger). He was interested in my band, and how the phred would compare to the Artinger, so he offered to send Phred with some Seymour Duncan 59's for a closer comparison. The guitar is definitely completely hollow and nice n light! Its hard to find a hollowbody in the same price range, though there are some semi-hollows I considered as well. But the cost of adding a set of SD 59's and having a tech make some wiring changes (I hate working in a hollowbody) made the Phred a no brainer for me, actually.

I played through it a lot last week and brought it to band practice today. My band really liked it. After playing it for a bit, the other guitarist in my band was really surprised you could get a guitar like that for that price - he wants one now.

[Buffered]

Nice! I've considered one, how are the frets? Do they need leveling or crowning?

[Heady Jam Fan]

Nice! I've considered one, how are the frets? Do they need leveling or crowning?

The frets are pretty nice on mine. Particularly the edges: they are nicely rounded and polished, none of them catch my hand when I'm playing. It looks as though someone (either at the factory or Fred's tech) took the time to level and crown the frets. As far as the crowning, its done pretty nicely, a bit rounder (wider) at the top of the fret than some guitars, but still nice and finished. I definitely don't feel the need to do any fretwork myself (or have a tech do anything).

Additionally, below is the review, and comparison to the Artinger, I sent Fred Yesterday. I haven't heard back from him yet. For what its worth, the bass player in my band wanted me to play the Phred at our gig next week - I told him I was planning on it. We are opening for some far-out band called Consider the Source to promote some sort of jam band festival they are playing it.

I think the guitar is a great value; not just a look-a-like, but an instrument, and a tool for musicians. Having said that, in comparing to the Artinger, it is important to consider the fundamental differences. The most obvious is production. Matt Artinger is a master luthier on par with Paul Languedoc, and the Phred is factory-made cost-effective alternative to the Languedoc guitar. Consequently, there are numerous differences between something like the Phred and handmade guitar by a world-renown luthier. This also translates into cost; while I got my Artinger used at a fraction of the original price, a brand-new Artinger clocks in at 13x the cost of the Phred. There are several cost-effective hollowbody options at a comparable price-point to the Phred guitar. All of these options, of course, involve compromises compared to something like the Languedoc or Artinger. However, it's my opinion that the Phred compares quite nicely to many of the options in its price range (the other guitarist in my band couldn't believe how much guitar you get for the price - he was very impressed). Additionally, I got my Phred with Seymour Duncan '59's, but if I would have bought, say, a Schecter Hollowbody, I'd have to buy pickups and pay a tech to install them (I hate working inside a hollowbody). Not to mention, getting the tech to wire the guitar with a funky Languedoc-style wiring. This could add up to nearly half the cost of a Phred itself depending on your tech's fee for working on a hollowbody, making the Phred a smart buy for a Jam band phan.

The first thing I noticed was the weight. The Phred is LIGHT. Far lighter than my Artinger. The body is much smaller, which probably contributes to a good deal of the difference in weight. I believe this has affects on both tone and ergonomics. I'll get to tone later. Ergonomically, the body is VERY comfortable and playable for hours without neck pain, but the light-weight body doesn't balance out the neck/headstock; the headstock wants to dive toward the floor. A pound or two more near the bridge of the guitar would fix this. This imbalance might be partly due to the fact that the Artinger has a 25" fretscale while the Phred (and Languedoc) have a 25.5", or the difference in placement of the strap buttons (the strap button on my Artinger was moved to the back where the neck meets the body). The neck itself is slightly fatter than the Artinger, yet similar enough it didn't take any getting used to. The necks edges and frets were smooth and easy to play. The finish is on the thicker side, especially on the neck, which gives the guitar a slightly "plastic" feel and actually somewhat cheapened the initial playing experience for me. After getting used to the finish for a couple days, I hardly notice it anymore, but Artinger has a very thin finish and when I've personally built guitars, I've finished with Tung Oil.

Aesthetically, the guitar is pretty. The "flame maple" veneer doesnt... flame... too much, at least on the model with the brown finish. I'm not big on veneer anyway (as it comes from tonewood, but as veneer it has no tonal qualities, so luthiers look at veneer as a waste of tonewood). There are some obvious flaws though: spots of dried glue under the finish on the binding, places where the veneer goes too far or not far enough, and it appears there are construction techniques with which I'm unfamiliar. However, overall these blemishes are small: if I was at a music store, I might pick up the next copy of the same model guitar, but I didn't have the expectation of perfection (in this regard) when I bought the guitar (the reviews I've seen indicate similar blemishes). As you can see, in the picture from a few feet away, the guitar looks beautiful.

One thing I was surprised about was the setup. I've heard great things about the setup on Phred guitars in other reviews. When my Phred arrived, the action exactly where most guitarists like it, and the neck relief was set moderately (not straight like an arrow, not overly bowed). However, it was immediately apparent the intonation was quite a bit off. I'm guessing this was a fluke on my guitar because other reviews say the setup is perfect. I was able to adjust the position of the bridge and each saddle to get the guitar playable, but I eventually had to re-string and do a setup to get the intonation spot-on. This could be a problem for guitarists who don't know how to do this, but was a mild frustration to me (I just wanted to play!). While I was setting the guitar up, I dropped the action a bit lower (I injured my fretting hand about a decade ago and it never healed, so a 25.5" fretscale is tough on me); combined with Ernie Ball Slinky strings, its an easy guitar to play.

Before comparing the sound, the electronics differ slightly between the Phred and the Languedoc (as well as my Artinger). All three guitars can be purchased with Seymour Duncan 59's. I swapped the 59's out of my Artinger and replaced them with Lollar Imperials. In my Artinger, I found the Lollars more balanced from neck to bridge, as well as from humbucker to single coil. However, I thought the pickups sounded pretty similar, particularly in the neck humbucker setting (which I use 90% of the time). So, even though the Phred came with 59's, I do not think this played a big role in my comparison of tone. Though the 59's were a tad louder. The other difference is the mini-toggle switches. The Phred sports a humbucker-to-single-coil mini-switch for each pickup. The Languedoc has one mini-switch that toggles between humbucker and single for BOTH pickups, and another switch that puts both humbuckers in series like a huge, 4-coil humbucker. My Artinger is setup exactly like the Languedoc, but my humbucker to single coil toggle also has a third setting for parallel. I rarely use the parallel setting unless I need a single coil tone and I'm picking up too much noise (like a bar with lots of neon lights and bad wiring). I also rarely use the 4-coil humbucker setting. So I don't think your losing anything with the Phred's wiring scheme, but I'm still deciding if I like a one coil-tap switch for both pickups or one for each pickup.

Tone!

Strumming the Phred before plugging it into my amp immediately sounded different than my Artinger. The Phred did not project as loud and was not a deep / rich or resonant. It sounded good though - it was easy to discern from the thin sound of a solidbody guitar: it sounded like a hollowbody. The difference between the Artinger and Phred, in this regard, is probably due to: the size of the body, the types of wood, and the construction. As I understand it, the Phred's sides and back are the same piece of wood that is routed to be hollow, while the Artinger (and Languedoc) have separate sides and back that are braced. This makes a big difference, and of course separate braced sides and back are are a more highly regarded construction, but this difference isn't necessarily good or bad, just different (discussed more in the last paragraph on tone). Additionally, the Artinger's spruce-top likely increases it projection, and the mahogany neck adds warmth compared to the Phred's maple neck that adds bite and clarity. When I plugged in the guitar, a similar tonal difference was evident; once again the Phred was not as deep or rich. The Artinger had a big round jazzy tone with a strong funadmental, while the Phred has more chime in the upper midrange, more bite on top, and a bigger/looser bass. This chime really shines through on the in-between setting (pickup toggle in the middle), with a glassy tone reminiscent of 80's/90's Grateful Dead chord-work. I found myself playing more crunchy texas-blues and hard-rock with the Phred, but I could also still nail a John Scofield tone on the bridge pickup by cranking the bass way up on my Mesa Mark III. I was pretty easily able to match Phish's Trey Anastasio tones, from his version of Hendrix (neck or in-between setting with single-coil setting, mild overdrive and a bit of modulation), his Beatles tone (middle position), and his own tunes from Mike Song to Stash, Waste and Twist.

Along with the difference in tone from the body size and construction, the fretscale makes a huge difference. I always tended to prefer the snap of a 25.5" Strat neck over the butteriness of a 24.75" Gibson neck. However, as I mentioned, I never quite healed from a hand injury, so I tended to play guitars with a shorter fretscale with slinky 10-gauge strings and very low action. The Artinger is a 25" fretscale, which is a great compromise. But I really enjoyed the snappiness of the 25.5" fretscale on the Phred. The first couple days, the Phred gave my hand a bit of a workout, but once I got it setup with slinky 10's, it was very easy to play.

Switching back and forth between the guitars, every time I picked up my Artinger, I was surprised by how much the guitar vibrates as I play. The Phred does not vibrate nearly as much and, again, I think this has to do with the construction of the guitars. The body size and separate back and sides of the Artinger likely make it more resonant. This lends itself to sustain and feedback, which is a great and awesome thing if you know how to control and use it. The problem is playing at venues that tend to have louder stage volume can lead to uncontrollable feedback. In this situation, the less 'lively' body of the Phred might be a welcome change. However, in the large basement where I was comparing these guitars (even standing directly in front of the speaker, 10 feet away), I found myself reaching for more sustain here and there, when my Artinger would have been singing the octave-above harmonic. [Update from band practice: at our typical volume in a moderate size practice room, I was able to get nice, controlled feedback and sustain without unwanted screeching.]

Conclusion:

I think the Phred is a great option in its price range. Anything built with separate, braced sides and back, a fretscale 25" or longer, and a moderate body size seems to cost at least a couple grand (i.e., a used PRS Hollowbody II). I'd sugget the Phred to a phriend and I'm excited to have it not only as a backup, but a guitar I'm excited to play at home, practice, studio and gigs. I would not have bought the Phred simply because it looks like a Languedoc - thats not important to me. The price was right, especially considering it came with the right pickups and a wiring schematic I'm happy with. Additionally, I was aware of Phred guitars pretty soon after their website popped up, and watched as the quality and build-style improved and evolved. Since I'm gigging and in the studio a lot, I needed a second guitar in case something went wrong with my Artinger, and the Phred was the right cost and quality.

[No Nice Guy]

I have one of the original Phred Ernestos.  The only guitar in my house I like playing more is my friend's American Strat