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Faith S2 Saturn Cutaway and S2 Mercury parlour |
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The new Faith Series 2. Out of this world or from another planet?
Richard Thomas takes the trip and reports back to earth.
Faith are a relative newcomer to the acoustic guitar market in the UK. Having launched their products here around two years ago they seem to have quickly established themselves as a supplier of reasonably priced, solid wood guitars. Although they’ve attracted some attention, with some well-known users – Midge Ure, for example - I haven’t personally encountered any of their guitars until now. I recently read with interest, the news that highly regarded luthier Patrick Eggle has an involvement with the company, handbuilding the Faith Carolina series alongside instruments bearing his own Patrick James Eggle brand. He has also been involved in the development of the new Indonesian-built Faith Series 2 instruments, two examples of which we have here for review. A few months ago I visited Guitar Junction’s fine emporium in Worthing and had the opportunity to play some examples of Patrick’s own PJE instruments. I was very impressed, so I was looking forward to seeing the results of his input to these Faith guitars.
Construction
Taking the Saturn first, we have a fairly traditional dreadnought, given a slightly more modern appearance by the inclusion of a cutaway in its design. The soundboard is solid spruce – a fairly wide-grained example – but decent enough. Decoration is mainly down to the abalone soundhole rosette and the nicely executed maple and ebony binding around the top. The bridge is made of ebony, although the somewhat stripey grain gives this particular example an almost rosewood-like appearance. The plain appearance is lifted slightly by the ebony pins which feature (possibly synthetic) pearl dot inlays. Back and sides are of nicely grained Indian rosewood and, like the top, are finished in an immaculate, if slightly thick, gloss finish.
A peek inside reveals that the top’s bracing is scalloped, in line with received wisdom on these things, to enhance vibration and hence tone.
The mahogany neck is satin-finished and appears to be one piece, although the rosewood-capped heel has been fabricated from several pieces of mahogany, revealing where some of the economies have been made. It’s a neat job, though. The flared headstock has a touch of originality about it. It’s faced with rosewood and sports the Faith logo in mother of pearl. Tuners are good quality gold-plated Grovers, with ebony buttons.
The ebony fingerboard appears to be bound in ebony too. It features diamond-shaped inlays in pearl-like acrylic. The nut, like the compensated bridge saddle, is synthetic, but one could hardly expect fossil ivory at this price!
This particular guitar comes equipped with a Shadow pick-up and pre-amp system. It’s a pretty straightforward system, with retractable rotary controls for volume, bass, treble, EQ and phase. The side-mounted control panel also provides access to the battery.
The little Mercury parlour guitar shares many of the same constructional features as its bigger brother. However, in this case the back and sides are satin finished and the top is a little more tightly grained. Of course, the dimensions are much smaller, with a maximum width of 345 mm. At 110 mm the body depth is a little deeper than some parlours I’ve played. The petite dimensions are matched by a short scale length of just 24 inches (610 mm). There seems to have been a resurgence of interest in small bodied guitars over the last few years, pioneered by Larrivee with their no-frills Cherub model. Whilst at one time it was impossible to get anything other than a dreadnought at the budget end of the market, it’s good to see that recently a number of companies, including Washburn, Tanglewood and Ozark have introduced what they describe as “parlour” models – though it seems that this description is somewhat loosely applied to anything ranging from 0 to 000 sized guitars. However, for the most part these instruments have a modern 25.5” scale length which, to my mind, is out of character for a true parlour model. In this respect the Faith Mercury’s short scale length fits the bill most appropriately. Like the Saturn dreadnought, the Mercury comes in a nice brown vinyl-covered hard case.
In Use
Strumming a few initial chords on the Saturn dreadnought produce just the sort of sound I imagined it would. It’s clearly a rosewood dreadnought, with a strong, loud presence. Treble is a little lacking in character and the bass is slightly muffled, so it’s not quite the flatpicker’s dream. Nevertheless, it’s a decent all-rounder with a nice, warm strummed sound and enough separation to make fingerpicking perfectly possible too. Although I’m not keen on dreadnoughts with cutaways from an aesthetic point of view, twelfth fret intonation is pretty good, so the player can safely take advantage of the enhanced access to the upper regions of the fretboard. With the guitar plugged in the Shadow electronics quickly reveals its ability to produce an acceptable amplified sound. Whilst the controls don’t quite have the flexibility of some of the more expensive systems available it’s still relatively easy to obtain a decent sound, which approximates the acoustic sound reasonably well.
Turning my attention to the Mercury parlour guitar, I was taken completely by surprise. I’m quite fond of small-bodied guitars, but they are often not very flexible instruments. Many of them are great for fingerpicking, with a lively, though rather boxy sound and a prominent midrange that makes them ideal for that sort of style, but not so the Mercury. There’s plenty of midrange, but it certainly doesn’t dominate the sound. This is a modern interpretation of the parlour – bright, but warm and balanced. It fingerpicks beautifully, but unlike many parlours I’ve played (especially some of the budget ones) it has a good strummed sound too, no doubt aided by the slightly deeper than average (for a parlour) body. A good set up, combined with the short scale length, made this guitar a joy to play and I just couldn’t put it down. Frankly, I wish I didn’t have to return it!
Conclusion
I know I’ve said this in previous reviews, but it really is true that there’s no reason not to own a good guitar nowadays. Both these instruments are well built, value-for-money guitars, with great playability. The Saturn dreadnought would be a good buy for a player looking to move on from his first guitar. I found myself particularly drawn to the Mercury parlour. With a recommended retail price of £329, including the hard case, it’s fantastic value and has displaced the Larrivee as my previous favourite parlour model. It’s easily the best budget parlour model I’ve played and would make a great travel guitar too. I don’t know how much of it is down to Patrick Eggle, but I’d say that Faith really do have something to offer with these guitars. The dreadnought is good; the parlour is a revelation, simply wonderful – everyone should have one!
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| | | ACOUSTIC RATING: | Build Quality
| | Saturn dreadnought |   | | Mercury parlour | | | | Very well built, using good materials and sensible compromises to keep costs down.
| Sound
| | Saturn dreadnought | | | Mercury parlour | | | | An appealingly dry and woody tone with a characteristic midrange but slightly underpowered in the bass.
| | Playability | | Saturn dreadnought | | | Mercury parlour | | | | Both play well, but the parlour’s short scale length helps to make playing effortless.
| | Value | | Saturn dreadnought | | | Mercury parlour | | | | The Saturn is competing in a pretty crowded sector of the market, but is well priced. The Mercury is way ahead of the competition in value for money in my opinion.
| Wow Factor
| | Saturn dreadnought | | | Mercury parlour | | | | I’m not wild about the synthetic pearl fingerboard inlays, but both guitars look ok.
| | | | | | | Model: FSCEHG - Hi Gloss Saturn Cutaway Electro
Price: £539
Manufacturer: Faith Guitars
Body Size: Dreadnought Cutaway
Made In: Indonesia
Top: Solid Engelmann Spruce
Back & Sides: Solid Mahogany (Hi - Gloss finish)
Neck: Mahogany
Fingerboard: Ebony
Frets: 20
Tuners: Grover, Gold with black wood button
Electronics: Shadow/Faith SH863 - gold strap button socket.
Strings: D’Addario XL 12 - 52
Left Handers: No
Gig Bag/Case: Faith Hard Case
Model: FM - Natural Series Mercury
Price: £399
Manufacturer: Faith Guitars
Body Size: Parlour
Made In: Indonesia
Top: Solid Engelmann Spruce
Back & Sides: Solid Mahogany
Neck: Mahogany
Fingerboard: Ebony
Frets: 18
Tuners: Grover, Gold with black wood button
Electronics: N/a
Strings: D’Addario XL 12 - 52
Left Handers: No
Gig Bag/Case: Faith Hard Case
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