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* ATLAS ULTIMATE MODEL REVIEW
*
Updated Saturday May 10th 2008
 
Whilst it’s always a little unfair to generalise, we have
found by experience that Asian and Far Eastern guitars tend to fall into two
categories, cheap reproductions of famous brands that to be frank are well worth
avoiding and superbly built hand-made guitars that are as good, if not better,
than the famous brands they emulate. So when the Atlas Ultimate arrived we
opened the case with a certain degree of trepidation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
However, we needn’t have worried.
First impression as the lid opened was one of pleasant
surprise as the guitar looked superb with a stunning quilt top that with a
different label on the headstock would be in the £3,000+ range, the build
quality was the best we have seen for a long time. With the likes of Gibson
Customs struggling over the last decade to live up to their image it is an ideal
time for an Asian manufacturer to get noticed and show their skills at producing
top quality guitars at a sensible price and Atlas Handmade Guitars have
certainly managed to do just that. There are of course some aspects of the
Ultimate that come in for criticism which we’ll get to later in the review but
this is hardly surprising as we have been spoilt over the years by specialising
in top end guitars and therefore set our standards very high but it has to be
said that even they are hardly ever perfect.
The ‘ideal’ guitar is after all a very personal choice so it’s difficult
to set an exact standard but it is possible none the less to assess whether the
guitar is good value or not compared to high end Gibson’s and for that matter
PRS who it has to be said have achieved consistent levels of high quality finish
for many years even if the playability does vary and isn’t a patch on their
pre-factory Santana 1 for instance.
It is much easier for Asian and Far Eastern manufacturers to
keep their prices down for all the obvious reasons but it still takes a high
degree of skill and dedication to produce consistency across the range and we
have seen on many occasions in the past that when a product becomes really
successful and factory techniques are employed to cope with demand the quality
almost always drops. Whether this will happen to Atlas guitars or not remains to
be seen but in their favor is the fact that they have been building top quality
instruments for many years and it certainly shows in their build quality which
has that hand built feel that is almost impossible to replicate from a
production line.
Ultimate Spec :
Hollow body
Grade 5a Maple Quilt top
Grade 4a Flame Maple back
Flame Maple neck
Masked Maple binding
Ebony fingerboard with Abalone shell inlays
Jumbo Frets
Bone nut
Gold Schaller Tuners
Gold stop and tail bridge
Hand-wound X1 neck and X2 bridge pickups with Gold covers.
Quality fitted and lined locking case
Price £1295
Manufacturer :
Atlas Handmade Custom Guitars. Thailand
Sole UK Distributor :
Paul Cummings
Contact details :
www.atlas-customguitars.com
The
overall finish as already stated is just excellent and the quality of the base
materials leaves many much more expensive guitars for dead. As far as appearance
goes it is pretty much faultless and you would have to go a long way to find
another guitar in this price range that could even come close. Looks aren’t
everything of course but it’s a good place to start and in all honesty this is a
stunning looking guitar.
So how does it play ?
The factory set up straight from the case was for us a little
too high. As with most manufacturers Atlas seem to have erred on the side of
safety as it’s obviously far easier for the buyer to lower the action than try
to raise it to their preferred style but the adjustment was easy enough even
though we had to re-cut the bone nut to set the strings. One big advantage was
the Gibson style bridge and the fact that the neck itself was set to perfection.
If you are not use to doing your own set up however we’d suggest that you took
it to a professional to cut the nut if necessary as you have to be very careful
not to overdo it. The hand-wound pickups obviously had to be adjusted to cope
with lowering the action and we found that angling them downwards towards the
base strings greatly improved the overall balance as the bass tended to drown
out the top three. The guitar was played through a Marshall R100 head and a twin
bank of 4x4’s without any effects programs and performed well both clean and
distorted with none of the usual feedback normally associated with hollow bodies
when the gain is cranked up. The overall sound is almost classic jazz style but
fairly flexible with a reasonable range from the pots. Personally I did find the
response a little muddy but in all fairness my own style is a bit odd as I
don’t use a pick and the tone from bare fingers does vary a great deal depending
on what my hands have been doing etc and if played with a pick the harsher
plastic rather than skin produced a much better tone particularly when a medium
to heavy grade pick was used. This guitar is such good value however that even
if you had your own favorite pickups installed it would still be a far better
buy than a high end Gibson, PRS or custom shop Fender leaving you a great deal
of money better off. We don’t however want to be too harsh here as the Atlas
pickups generally performed well but when this guitar is so close to perfection
it is easy to find the slightest thing to criticise that would be overlooked in
lesser instruments. The ‘D’ shape neck is reminiscent of the 50’s Les Pauls, a
touch more generous than the slimmer 60’s trend but is very comfortable with an
easy feel, not sticky like most new guitars and the frets, whilst described as
Jumbo, are a less heavy than say the usual jumbo Stratocaster gauge.
In summary we have to say that this is one hell of a guitar
for the money and easily rates against a modern Gibson or PRS in the £2500+
range and that isn’t an exaggeration. Those of you who have read our reviews
before know how difficult we are to please and our overall rating is amongst the
highest we have awarded 9/10, which by comparison beats the modern Gibson Custom
335,( not the earlier version), various PRS hollow bodies,
anniversary single cut (zebras ) which is one of our favourites and the somewhat
lesser Fenders etc.
The sole UK distributors are Paul and Gaynor Cummings, nice
genuine people who actually care about who buys the guitars and who go out of
their way to match the right instrument to the buyers requirements. When you add
all this up and consider the range of options on offer to personalise your
guitar, it becomes a very appealing package. In short if you are in the market
for a top end branded guitar that costs in excess of £2500+ think very
seriously about a guitar from Atlas of Thailand. This Ultimate range cost just under £1300, and
that's really an excellent buy.
Get on the phone to
Paul or send an email and get the ball rolling, you won’t regret it.
SM
Sound clip coming soon & Solid Body review !
Call or Fax : 01409 253 123 / 01409 211 641
Email :
admin@diobas.com
Diobas is a very
special company, totally un-replicated by any other and without competition.
Link :
www.supafish.com :
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