Faith Guitars has revamped its Eclipse series with a trio of tidy looking cutaway acoustic electric guitars with forearm rests for comfort and upgraded Fishman electronics to make them stage ready.
All three bear the hallmarks of legendary British luthier Patrick James Eggle, and arrive in a gloss Onyx Black finish, with the natural maple of the forearm rest matched by maple binding on the body’s top and bottom.
Faith describes them as “the ultimate ‘stage guitars,’ with workhorse reliability yet maximum performance capability” and the guitars’ acoustic guitar pickup, Fishman’s Ink Body, system is a big reason why.
This is a system that a belt-and-braces approach to capturing your sound. There is an undersaddle piezo pickup and a body sensor, and you can blend the signals of both to find a tone that suits your style.
“This not only elevates the amplified sound to incredible new heights but also allows for greater note expression whether playing chords or complex fingerstyle pieces,” says Faith.
It also should make it easier for percussive players to find their amplified tone, giving them control of how much of that bridge-plate mounted body sensor they want in the signal. Nobody should want for controls here. You will find controls for Body, Brillianace, Notch filter, three-band EQ and guitar tuner function all mounted on the guitar’s shoulder.
Vegan players will also like there. There’s no abalone or MOP anywhere near it. Faith has opted for figured maple instead. And there’s no hot hide glue to set the neck. The neck joins the body with a bolt-on design from Eggle, Hey, even if you enjoy a hamburger of a Friday night, it looks good against that Onyx Black finish.
As for the fundamentals, all three have solid spruce tops, solid mahogany on the back and sides. The bracing has been hand-scalloped from quarter-sawn Spruce, a pattern developed by Patrick James Eggle,
Elsewhere, Faith has used Macassan ebony for the fingerboard and bridge, and there is a set of Grover Rotomatic tuners on the headstock.
Faith is offering these new all-solid cutaway acoustics as the OM/auditorium-sized Venus (£1,259), the Neptune baby jumbo (£1259) and as the Neptune 12-string guitar (£1389).
As we've come to expect from Faith Guitars, these are all very sensibly priced considering their all-solid builds and the spec – and they ship in a hardshell guitar case.
The Eclipse series is available now. See Faith Guitars for more details.
