FGN Guitars (Fujigen)
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Lorcan Ward
7slinger
The ones I tried years ago at Musikmesse weren’t near the quality of a Prestige.
nickgray
Well-Known Member
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Prestiges aren't amazing though, especially considering price/perfomance.
I haven't tried one, but if you're looking for Fender-style stuff, G&L is pretty high regarded. USA stuff is PLEK'd, and there are lots of cool custom order options, and they're suprisingly affordable too, they're in $1.5-2k range.
FGN's pickguard shapes are godawful too, they just decided not cover the lower horn fully for some reason. Why...
soliloquy
Well-Known Member
I have no experience with the brand, but i've heard great things about them over on the mylespaul forum.
curious how they favor compared to other les paul type brands like Greco, Burny, Tokai, Edwards, etc
curious how they favor compared to other les paul type brands like Greco, Burny, Tokai, Edwards, etc
Exit Existence
Well-Known Member
Yo! I just picked up their LP custom style one (NLC20EMH I think the model is).
It's a fantastic instrument and probably one of the best LP clones I've seen.
Great way to scratch the LP custom itch at like 1/3rd the price which is nice.
Build quality is super good as I expected and most importantly it sounds and feels very high end.
Build wise: It's very good. No sloppyness anywhere, real pearl inlays are super clean and you can definitely tell it's Japanese made with the attention to detail. Nut is very good quality and cut well, no tuning stability issues that commonly come with a LP style headstock design.
Finish: They do some sort of semi-gloss acrylic lacquer clear top coat over a polyurethane finish so it has kind of a nitro look and feel but doesn't have that "sticky" feel that Gibson nitro finishes have. I would assume it's more durable too since it's harder. There's a little bit weird "orange peel" effect going on, but that might just be part of the semi-gloss style.
Frets: The frets are mostly good. They weren't crowned exceptionally well, but you can tell they did do a complete level job on them and they are dead level. Just have a little flatness to the tops which I could always re-crown over if I really wanted to. FGN has some weird radiused frets they call their "circular fretting system", basically the fret slots are not cut straight but cut with a slight arc and the frets follow those arcs. It is supposed to compensate for the change in narrower string spacing from the nut to wider at the bridge, not sure if it makes a big difference in intonation but it's there.
Sound: Sounds awesome, bright down on the lower frets and more mellow and sweet on the upper frets. Just like a les paul should sound. The stock Duncan 59/JB are a perfect in the guitar imo.
It's a fantastic instrument and probably one of the best LP clones I've seen.
Great way to scratch the LP custom itch at like 1/3rd the price which is nice.
Build quality is super good as I expected and most importantly it sounds and feels very high end.
Build wise: It's very good. No sloppyness anywhere, real pearl inlays are super clean and you can definitely tell it's Japanese made with the attention to detail. Nut is very good quality and cut well, no tuning stability issues that commonly come with a LP style headstock design.
Finish: They do some sort of semi-gloss acrylic lacquer clear top coat over a polyurethane finish so it has kind of a nitro look and feel but doesn't have that "sticky" feel that Gibson nitro finishes have. I would assume it's more durable too since it's harder. There's a little bit weird "orange peel" effect going on, but that might just be part of the semi-gloss style.
Frets: The frets are mostly good. They weren't crowned exceptionally well, but you can tell they did do a complete level job on them and they are dead level. Just have a little flatness to the tops which I could always re-crown over if I really wanted to. FGN has some weird radiused frets they call their "circular fretting system", basically the fret slots are not cut straight but cut with a slight arc and the frets follow those arcs. It is supposed to compensate for the change in narrower string spacing from the nut to wider at the bridge, not sure if it makes a big difference in intonation but it's there.
Sound: Sounds awesome, bright down on the lower frets and more mellow and sweet on the upper frets. Just like a les paul should sound. The stock Duncan 59/JB are a perfect in the guitar imo.
Marked Man
Well-Known Member
Nice, have you had a chance to compare with the equivalent from Edwards? I have their "standard" LPC and their John Sykes sig model and they are killer values.
I would like to check out some of those Edwards models. They are kind of hard to come by in the US.
soliloquy
Well-Known Member
I'm curious about this too, as I have the LPC-130 or whatever the numbered variety is, and the FGN does get a lot of love on the MLP forum for the same reasons as Edwards.
Exit Existence
Well-Known Member
I have played an Edwards model, both are fantastic guitars and built well. I wouldn't say one is "better" than the other but if you want to compare both to a Gibson LP custom, the FGN is more in that realm in terms of feel. One reason why I picked the FGN LP over an Edwards was because it has real MOP block inlays vs the plastic ones on an Edwards. Might not be important to some people but I just personally can't stand plastic block inlays on LP custom style guitars. Even the old Rondo Music Agile LP Customs had real mother of pearl inlays and those were relatively inexpensive/mid priced guitars, so I'm not sure why more companies don't use them on ~$1000 instruments. In regards to the finish I believe Edwards has or had a model with a similar lacquer top coat finish which would help with the vintage vibe.
soliloquy
Well-Known Member
Humm, not sure if certain Edwards come with plastic inlays, but I know mine comes with real mother of pearl inlays.
Exit Existence
Well-Known Member
That's awesome then, the one I played way back had the plastic ones. If they come with MOP now that's amazing. Super solid guitars
AltecGreen
Well-Known Member
FGN are best known for their OEM work. Obviously Ibanez, but they make guitars for a lot of other Japanese domestic brands. Some of these are fairly high end. They used to be the OEM for G-Life. They currently do a lot of work for Shimamura (large musical instrument chain in Japan focused on stores in shopping malls). The brands include Ryoga and History. It would be interesting to compare a History Les Paul clone to the other well known Japanese Les Paul clones.
FGN do make some very high end instruments under their own name. They have a custom shop/store in Tokyo. The quality produced is proportional to the price or price point. There are a few artists that use custom FGN guitars.
https://twitter.com/fujigenguitars/status/1367638521305997314?s=20
These are the five 60th Anniversary instruments that FGN made. Kazuya got to unbox them before they went to the store for sale. These are all over $10K USD. These instruments are interesting because Gotoh supplied custom hardware for the project. Apparently, it is Gotoh' 60th Anniversary too.
FGN do make some very high end instruments under their own name. They have a custom shop/store in Tokyo. The quality produced is proportional to the price or price point. There are a few artists that use custom FGN guitars.
https://twitter.com/fujigenguitars/status/1367638521305997314?s=20
These are the five 60th Anniversary instruments that FGN made. Kazuya got to unbox them before they went to the store for sale. These are all over $10K USD. These instruments are interesting because Gotoh supplied custom hardware for the project. Apparently, it is Gotoh' 60th Anniversary too.
josh1
SS.org Regular
I never noticed this until you pointed it out. Terrible design on otherwise nice guitars.
FrashyFroo
Well-Known Member
I also own an FGN LC20, it doesn't have that cool faux nitro look though. Pretty sure mine is just poly. Maybe Exit Existence's is a newer one? The LC20 is an excellent guitar. The build quality is basically flawless. The fretwork is perfect and the ebony fretboard is beautiful. The mop inlays were a big selling point for me too. The only gripes I have with it: I prefer my LP necks thicker than the one on the FGN (it's similar to a Gibson 60's neck), the pickup choice is not what I would go with in an LP (jb in the bridge) and it's a good bit heavier than my Tokai. It also all mahogany. It doesn't have a maple cap. But that's how an LP custom was originally built.
Anyway, I think they're pretty hard to beat in their price range. Their Tele deluxe in a solid colour is only around 800 euros over here. For a Japanese made guitar, that's frankly amazing. Their 'Boundary' series is even cheaper, like under 600, but I'm not sure what wizardry they employ to manage that. I would love to get my hands on one of their Rise models but those are hard to come by.
Anyway, I think they're pretty hard to beat in their price range. Their Tele deluxe in a solid colour is only around 800 euros over here. For a Japanese made guitar, that's frankly amazing. Their 'Boundary' series is even cheaper, like under 600, but I'm not sure what wizardry they employ to manage that. I would love to get my hands on one of their Rise models but those are hard to come by.
AltecGreen
Well-Known Member
Here's the followup video of the 60th Anniversary FGN guitars.
T00DEEPBLUE
SS.org Regular
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They use an acrylic lacquer. Not a polyurethane or polyester finish.
I stumbled into purchasing an FGN Mythic used last December. Amazing guitar, so much so that I've been on regular hunt for another one, or perhaps one of their Dark Evolution models. Not my pic but mine looks identical. Their bridge with 2 ways to string the guitar is a very cool feature. Got me into Fishman Fluence pickups in a big way as a result. (Big picture is big. Sorry.)
I stumbled into purchasing an FGN Mythic used last December. Amazing guitar, so much so that I've been on regular hunt for another one, or perhaps one of their Dark Evolution models. Not my pic but mine looks identical. Their bridge with 2 ways to string the guitar is a very cool feature. Got me into Fishman Fluence pickups in a big way as a result. (Big picture is big. Sorry.)
That is a fantastic guitar! The other good thing is that in the long run these guitars should hold their value quite well! They have been getting more and more popular in the US.
