Nice sounding and playing guitar after some TLC

Nicely shaped Semi-hollow/chambered Ric copy guitar from Fazley. 24.75" set neck, which reminds me a lot of the Epiphone SG-400, but slightly beefier and a bit wider. Fazley claims the body is Maghogany, but it's not. I'm 99% sure that the body is basswood with a laminated top. Even though a lot of folks bash Basswood for not being a "tonewood", I think this guitar proves 'em wrong. The chambering is in the same style of a thinline Telecaster and the guitar is about the same size.

The Good: It's a nicely made guitar for the Retail price. Set neck joint is clean and represents a good angle. Finisch (Sunburst) is very nicely done and for a "copy" guitar representing a "Quality well known brand" it's not a cheap carbon copy, but stylised in the shape of a Ric. The sound of the mini-humbuckers is really good. Vintage output Pu's (no high gain + 10K ohm screamers on this) The sound of the neck pu is simply stunning, middle is nice and bridge is missing a bit of "beef" imho, but overall, nice sounding pu's. The hardware is not bad, tuners are ok and do what they are suposed to do. Bridge, tailpiece, knobs are ok. I did replace the cheap jack output with a better Quality item.

The Bad : Out of the box, this guitar was unplayble… buzzing frets, choking notes, uneven fretwork, sticky frets at the side…. So, I took it apart, levelled the frets, polished them, gave the truss rod a quater turn and slapped a set of 0.10- 0.46 string gauge strings on it. BIG improvement. Now this guitar is very playble. Although I have to say the the Quality control on this Fazley left something to be disered. This guitar should not have left the factory like this. On the bright side, I upped my skill on guitar set up, so happy endings.

The Ugly: The routing inside the chamber, under the soundhole is kinda ugly… looks sloppy, but it does not affect the tone or playability of this guitar. Pu's are not well wax potted, so at high gain feedback squeeling is to be expected...didn't I mention "no guitar for shredders aleady".... 2 of the control knobs were broken, so I had to fix these.

Verdict : With some TLC and DIY/guitar skills this guitar ticks the right boxes! It's nicely made, sounds good and I think the cheapest "Ric" style guitar availble. Sunburst finish is on par with much higher end guitars and the hardware is ok. Pick ups are real shiners for those looking for a vintage kind of guitar sound. This guitar is not for shredders. I'd say for the price and guitar players to up their "luthier" skills this might be the ticket. I Always play this guitar with a big smile on my face and crank some "jazzy/surfy/beatnick" stuff out of this.
In short, this guitar is really cool for guys and galls looking for something with a vintage vibe/sound that reminds them of those old far eastern knock off's from the 60's and 70's. This Fazley has just "that vibe and sound". If you ain't afraid to do some work on a guitar, grab one, put on a Beatles face and crank out some Brittish Invasion tunes! Oh, and I won't be surprised that in a few years these guitars might be noticed as nice sleepers....