Price paid: £ 140
Purchased from: Skylark Guitars Ltd
Features: Made this year or last, I reckon - Chinese origin. Parker Fly copy with a slim body (basswood, very light) in black; maple neck, rosewood fingerboard with mythic beast inlay at 12th fret; position markers on side. Two passive humbuckers and a single coil between them. 3-way switch for pups and a toggle coil tap for the buckers. Licensed Floyd Rose double locking bridge. Chrome knurled knobs and hardware. Skylark own stlyle headstock with their logo inlay. A VERY nice looking guitar, and for the money, fantastic value appointments. // 9
Sound: The stock pups can sound quite noisy. The coil tap on single coil gives a brighter tone without associated hum; the buckers have some beef but the tone becomes muddy easily, especially with high gain. Despite the huge variety of tonal options the actual tones produced don't differ that much between pups. Would probably be WAY better with upgraded pups... // 7
Action, Fit & Finish: Action was medium-high out of the box. Dropping it caused some metal to shear off the floyd bridge, which I think led to instability. Otherwise the finish and hardware were excellent for the price. Pickups & wiring etc all seemed to function correctly. The finish and the neck were very good indeed considering the price point. No duff frets, playable right up to the 24th on every string, and the inontation was almost spot on out of the box. Very good. // 6
Reliability & Durability: I am going to return it as the floyd would not stay in tune, despite re-stringing and balancing it correctly. I suspect as above the instability was caused by the poor quality steel used by the Chinese manufacturer which sheared off when I lowered the action and made the knife edge rough so the bridge didn't return to pitch correctly. // 6
Impression: A fine guitar for all sorts of styles for beginners but would need quite a bit spending on upgraded parts for it to be giggable (lots of potential for this). Maybe I had a duff bridge on mine. For the looks alone this is a very very good guitar and I am actually gutted that the floyd and pups have let me down. So far, service from Skylark seems very good - Steve is a really nice helpful guy. Recommended, noting the comments on the floyd. // 7
