Faith Trembesi Neptune Acoustic Guitar

The Faith acoustic guitar brand is something that I have been seeing around quite a bit. Visually, they're rather well designed, constructed and are presented well straight out of the case. Legendary UK luthier Patrick Eggle designed this particular model and it was then manufactured in Indonesia.

This instrument features a quite beautiful, solid Englemann Spruce top that is finished flawlessly. The back and sides are made from Indonesian Trembesi, a wood that I had no idea existed. The ebony fingerboard is really beautiful and has a lovely grain to it and the mother of pearl  “f” fret marker at the 12th fret is a nice touch. This guitar features a “Shadow” preamp and pickup system and has a simple 2-band EQ and phase switch. One handy feature of this preamp is the fact that you can lock in the knobs into place by pushing them into the control panel … like buttons.

The frets are superbly smooth with no sharp edges and the matt finish on the neck and body give the guitar a nice organic feel. So, looks aside how does this guitar sound?

There is an interesting “boxy” sound to this guitar. I would have expected, given the size of the guitar's body that there would have been a lot more girth in the tone. Open chords sound fine and the thing holds it's tuning quite well. I found the top end of the instrument a little dry. There is however something kind of brash that I like about the “middle-y” nature of this tone… it's kind of dirty. At $1,399, this model is more expensive than your budget guitar, but much cheaper than your high range name brands and this is something to consider when judging any guitar's sound. In most cases, you really do get what you pay for.

Next I decided to plug the guitar into the Schertler Unico Deluxe Acoustic Combo.

The piezo tone coming from the guitar was acceptable and the sound did improve with a little reverb sweetening it up, but at the same time had me hankering for my top of the line acoustics. All in all, this guitar is a well-designed and beautifully presented piece of kit.  Not being familiar with the Trembesi timber, I hope that with the passing of time that tone of this guitar will “round out”. If you've got just under $1,500 to play with, then throw the Faith into the mix of guitars you should try before you buy. This one might just be the guitar to suit your sonic needs.

$1399 inc GST