WE SAY

Oh joy - if only they were all like this. This Encore has been pampered, either by distributors JHS, or in Korea (less likely); the 21 jumbo frets have been stoned down to a reasonable height, giving an excellent deadspot-free action; the coarse-grained rosewood fingerboard has been treated, concealing the whitish grain that typifies the wood used on cheap guitars; intonation is perfect.

It's hard to believe that such a cheap instrument could be so playable. The satin finished maple neck is slim and shallow, and fits the hand comfortably. The fingerboard is broad and flat, and to my tastes, better for having flatter frets.

It's not the most beautiful guitar ever; The three-per-side pointed headstock doesn't exactly complement the big rounded asymmetrical cutaways. But the lustrous pearl finish is tough and even, and the body's original shape is definitely a plus. The two black covered humbuckers are controlled by a normal three-way mini-toggle switch, and overall tone and volume. The volume knob is a push/pull coil-tap. Or is it?

The Encore certainly produces an astonishing variety of tones from its six possible settings, but they're not entirely what you might expect. With the knob in and pickup selector in the neck (front) position — you get a bright single coil neck pickup sound. But put the selector in the middle, and the volume leaps up a notch, producing a raucous and very Gary Moore mid-boosted tone. Back position is the trebly, but not powerful, bridge humbucker.

Hmm. Now pull the knob out and see what happens: front position is middly, and definitely muffled; middle position is warm, brighter than position one, but still muddy; back position is trebly, and vaguely Stratty.

Bizarre? According to the technical chaps at JHS, it's all their doing: when the guitar arrived in the UK, it had simple humbuckers plus coil tap electrics. Not satisfied with this rather conventional arrangement, they set to work with their soldering irons and a few filters they had lying around, and concocted this IQ test of a layout. For instance, the powerful middle position with the knob in is the bridge humbucker plus the inner coil of the neck pickup. The equivalent position with the knob out features both the bridge humbucker, with the inner coil out of phase, plus a filtered out of phase output from the outer coil of the neck pickup. Phew.

That's not to say the noises the Encore produces are unusable (with the possible exception of the muffled setting) — they're just unusually layed out.

DECISION

Our review model was beautifully set up. If they're all that good, then they represent incredible value for money, from the fine tunable locking trem to the little felt pads under the strap buttons. I'm not at all keen on the unnecessary complications of the internals, but the basic guitar sounds are reasonable, and the instrument is very kind on tender young fingers (I borrowed some). A good one.

ENCORE A7-2T SIX STRING £110

JHS, (Contact Details).