ZOLTAN WAS WORRIED; in all his years of manhood, never before had his position as Axe Master of the land of Geetar been so seriously challenged. He hunched his muscular shoulders and furrowed his barbarian brow, glaring at the Knight Warrior — the source of his problems. It was only since he had begun using this beautiful shining black axe that others had dared to even mention his mighty name...

But why should this weapon cause such troubles? Its shaft had been carved by the master craftsman Aria, from its very shape you could tell it was of the revered and ancient lineage of Fender (as predicted in the runes of Strato Caster), and its metalwork was from the Forbidden Mines of Kahler. So then, why would Knight Warrior not stay in tune?

Perhaps it was the factory strings, though they didn't feel like it; it could have been that the Allen bolts on the locknut were maladjusted, but I checked twice and it made very little difference whether they were tight or not; it certainly wasn't the excellent Aria machine heads, as those were only used when you needed to change a string; could it have been the ultra-modern tuning gear on that Kahler tremolo unit?

The Kahler backlash starts here: mounting fine-tuning pegs on the back of a floating tremolo unit, particularly a light action one such as I discovered on the Knight Warrior, can cause PROBLEMS. Attempt to adjust one of said pegs and you unavoidably put pressure on the tailpiece assembly; this makes the guitar go sharp, which in turn makes tuning the errant string remarkably difficult. This can give guitar players a HEADACHE, especially if they like playing in tune.

What made the tuning problems most annoying was that the Knight Warrior is a very pleasant guitar in every other respect. Its faultless black gloss finish, narrow headstock and angular body look good, and are pleasantly offset by the understated chroming on the pickups. It has a very wide rosewood fingerboard (lots of error margin outside the E strings) with a slight camber and 22 big, fat, shiny frets. As befits 40mm of useable fingerboard space at the first fret, the back of the neck is shallow enough to fit comfortably into the palm of the hand. Combined with the traditional slimlining of the body, this makes the Knight Warrior a comfortable machine, with all the prerequisites necessary for happy strumming.

Electrically, it is dependably straightforward: five-way selector switch, single volume and tone, two single coil pickups in the neck and centre, backed up by a powerful humbucker in the bridge position. This small innovation gives the Knight Warrior plenty of "poke" (technical term) in the higher frequencies, and adds substance to the treblier "out-of-phase" settings — a good idea and one which even Fender themselves are adopting on their newer guitars.

Given the design of this guitar, it's not surprising it sounds like a Strat; it isn't solid enough to have the warmth and sustain of a Les Paul, though on the back pickup it does compare (unfavourably) with a Firebird. Not such a bad compromise, though.

I enjoyed playing the Knight Warrior, when it stayed in tune; the width and flatness of the fingerboard encouraged fast chord work and clever inversions, as even my spatulate fingers had room to get round the odd Aug 13. With the exception of a rather scruffy mounting for the locknut, and slightly sharp edges to the scratchplate, the finish is superb.

The guitar's good design is apparent in the simple but effective touches, like the humbucking back pickup, and the Allen key tension adjustment for the tremolo (though we must credit Kahler with that).

With a price of £329, this is one of those guitars that will sit in the racks between the Squiers and the Real Thing; it doesn't have any overtly flashy features to make it stand out, so the Knight Warrior (daft name) runs the risk of being ignored. It doesn't deserve to be, providing it stays in tune.

ARIA knight warrior: £329

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