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They are most well known for making the Japanese Ibanez guitars.
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.
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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.
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 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.
I never noticed this until you pointed it out. Terrible design on otherwise nice guitars.FGN's pickguard shapes are godawful too, they just decided not cover the lower horn fully for some reason. Why...
They use an acrylic lacquer. Not a polyurethane or polyester finish.I also own an FGN LC20, it doesn't have that cool faux nitro look though. Pretty sure mine is just poly.
Here's the followup video of the 60th Anniversary FGN guitars.
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.)
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