One of the most pleasant aspects of reviewing musical instruments for a living is occasionally encountering something which gives you a nice surprise. Just now and again, one has that rare experience of coming across a product which one previously knew absolutely nothing about and which turns out to be a blissful revelation, a real refreshment among the fairly run-of-the-mill products one deals with on a day to day basis.

The Canadian-made Odyssey guitars were just such surprise products for me. I first came across them some while ago and arranged to borrow one from U.K. importer Ray Smith, of Norwich-based Tip Top Music.

By the time the Odyssey arrived I had forgotten the sudden rush of blood to the brain which I'd experienced when I'd first set eyes on this beautiful instrument. But, once I'd taken leave of Ray and pulled the Attila out of its box, that rush hit me once more. Here I was holding a guitar which must have been one of the most physically beautiful that I'd seen in a long while.

The Attila is made of ash, but red stained in a style where the wood's pronounced grain shows-off the red finish to a degree which must make this one of the most obviously attractive instruments I've ever set eyes upon.

The Attila features a straight-through neck of maple, which is also superbly red stained, although beautifully counterpointed against the tone of the darker ash of the body. Really, this guitar would look like it was worth a fortune under stage lights — a really tasteful colour which oozes quality!

Hardware on the Odyssey is equally impressive. The gold plated machine heads are Gotohs (about as good as money can buy) and the gold plated bridge is possibly a Badass (or at least a Badass type). This features a 'curved-round-the-bridge' string fixing whereby the strings loop right around the bridge base and lock into channels. They then pass right round and over the bridge saddles, each of which is gold plated and adjustable for string length. The bridge itself screws up and down via two large screws (giving you string height) and the whole bridge itself also adjusts back and forwards via twin screws at either end of it. Final touches are a nicely fashioned brass nut, a brass truss rod cover and heavy duty brass knurled pots.

On the remaining hardware side, the pickups could well have been American-made Bartolinis. Not, perhaps very widely known over here, Bartolini pickups are among the very best made in the U.S.A. and are favourites among many of the ultra-quality makers over the other side of the 'pond'. For good reason as we shall see. Control gear for these really nicely made pickups comprises a very wide range of options. The pickups are twin coil types and each has its own volume and tone pot plus a small flick switch governing single or twin coil operation. Furthermore a third flick switch will set the two in or out of phase when the small pickup selector is set in the middle (both pickups 'on') position.

Little touches of sheer quality abound on this guitar. For example, I have a problem in that the guitar strap I use (one of those really nice Second City Leather jobs) tends to come off the retaining knobs on my Gibson (and one or two other guitars) which can result in very nasty 'near misses'. The Odyssey, on the other hand, uses very much over-sized strap buttons which prevent that happening — a small touch but a very welcome one!

"LITTLE TOUCHES OF SHEER QUALITY ABOUND ON THIS GUITAR"

On the neck side, the Odyssey is a dream of a guitar. The profile is thin and the ebony fingerboard is virtually dead flat. Fretting is of a highly accomplished standard employing fat frets and the whole feel of the neck profile is one of absolute comfort and speed. I have rarely encountered a better neck shape in any guitar at any price!

Plugging the guitar in reveals the reason why Odyssey guitars are so much sought-after in the States and Canada! The immediate output level strikes you as lower than that from some other products (Di Marzio, Mighty Mite, etc.) but the tonality of the pickups ranges from a rich dark warmth when the neck pickup is set on twin coil, to a sweeping searing top when the bridge unit is flicked across to single coil settings. Quite frequently guitar pickups sacrifice tone for output power but the Odyssey's Bartolini units don't make that mistake — very far from it, in fact. They appear to comprise more than enough windings to make them deserve the description 'hot' but their tonality is so subtle and so professional that they deserve comparison with the very best that, say, Gibson can offer!

Overall the feel and the sound of this amazing guitar are of the very highest professional order. A less experienced guitarist would immediately appreciate the Odyssey Attila as as a fine instrument — but a pro with experience would at once understand that he was playing a guitar of true quality which rivals the best produced by any of the traditional manufacturers like Gibson and Guild or Fender. In fact (and it hurts me to admit this!) I would even consider owning one of these in preference to my own Gibbo if I could afford to buy one.

And that, too, is a moot point. The selling price of this remarkable instrument is an almost incredible £325. When you consider the workmanship and quality which has gone into this guitar, when you compare it with American-made instruments costing twice as much or more, you realise that it is not only one of the best electrics currently on the market — but that it is also priced at a level which makes a mockery of other brands — whether top flight Japanese or American!

There are just two or three instruments that I've played during the past twelve months or so that I'd really like to own — the Odyssey Attila is one of them — for its quality of manufacture, for its subtlety and variability of tone, for its looks — for just about any quality you care to judge any guitar by.

Because they're distributed by one of the smaller companies, the Odyssey guitar (and you ought to try their basses, too!) may not be too easy to find in your local dealers. If you have any problems then I wholeheartedly suggest that you contact the U.K. importer who will, no doubt, tell you where you can get to try one. The company is Tip-Top Music Ltd, of (Contact Details).

(RRP £325 inc.VAT)