Handy as it is to have a good quality acoustic guitar around (and many players feel that it's positively essential), it's even better if it has a good pickup fitted, enabling you to use it amplified on stage or with effects when recording.

Probably the most highly regarded dual-role acoustics are those from Ovation - but they're not cheap, and many (mainly electric) guitarists might feel one to be a luxury they cannot afford.

As this has left a parking space open in the market (and musical instrument makers, like Mother Nature, can't abide vacuums) several companies have stepped in to offer fibreglass roundbacked acoustic/electrics at more easily affordable prices.

In the normal course of things you might expect most of these to come from the Far East (and some, of course, do) but it is the well-established Italian guitar making industry who've stepped in here, using their centuries-long experience of making acoustic instruments generally, to fill the gap.

Among the newer products in this field, then, is one such Italian-designed and produced model - the Clarissa roundback acoustic/electric.

Initially launched at the end of the Summer, the Clarissa range has recently begun to become quite widely available - one of the sources being from The Musician's Direct Supply Co. (the Alligator amps people) who sell them mail order, and from whom we borrowed a sample to review.

Arriving in a good quality hard case (itself probably worth a good £40 and included in the RRP of the guitar) the Clarissa has a neat shallow 'bowl' back, formed from moulded fibreglass, taking the general lyre-shape common to this breed of instrument. The top fitted was made of a wood which we couldn't easily identify - it may be a laminate, it may not, but it was hard to be sure as the shining black finish applied was impenetrable.

The neck, however, we were fairly certain about - mahogany (and a nice sample of it, too), fitted with a rosewood fingerboard. The setting-up standard was very pleasing to see; the Clarissa having been set to have a low-ish action, very suitable for electric players who want an acoustic/electric for occasional use and who find many acoustics a bit hard to handle after their solid bodied guitars.

Machine heads on the Clarissa were sealed types (which, again, seemed to work very acceptably) and the nut was accurately cut and set. Likewise, the brass bridge/saddle was well fashioned - so we've no complaints at all about the hardware standard.

Like most roundbacked guitars, the Clarissa is extremely comfortable to hold, the body being nice and shallow, fitting well on the lap. The neck is a shade deep, maybe, but the width is very comfortable and you shouldn't find adjusting to its dimensions any sort of problem - in fact you'll almost certainly be able to go straight from a solid bodied guitar to the Clarissa without too many difficulties. Sound from our sample, acoustically, did betray that 'edginess' which is present on virtually all fibreglass backed lyre-shaped guitars - but it was certainly no worse in this respect than others we've tried, and better than a lot of them. Obviously, a 100% wooden backed acoustic will sound different, and if that's what you want then that's what you should be looking at - not one of this breed of guitars, which are really designed for use on stage through an amp with occasional use as a pure acoustic.

Played through an amp it certainly lives up to expectations - performing well above what you'd expect from an instrument in this price range. The two-stage volume/tone control works very effectively, and the Clarissa puts up a convincing display through an amp, sounding much better than a lot of this type of guitar we've tried and far better than you would expect for the price. Resistance to feedback is another plus point, too. Yes, you can induce feedback at very high volume levels, but it is much less prone to it than ordinary acoustics fitted with pickups, and better by far than a lot of the 'almost-Ovations' that we've come across.

Output power from the below-bridge mounted transducer (presumably a Piezo type?) may possibly be a bit low for some amps, so it could be that their owners might benefit from using one of these with a small booster/pre-amp to raise the output. Perhaps, ideally, you could try one of these and a small pedal graphic equaliser too, as these will help overcome almost certainly any feedback problems - although we should stress that we did have to work quite hard to get the Clarissa to feed back.

From almost every point of view we'd rate this guitar highly. For the purist who wants an absolutely natural unamplified acoustic guitar sound it wouldn't (probably) be the right instrument, but for the player who accepts the need to make some compromises in an acoustic sound to get good amplified performance on stage, it's a winner - and the best value on the market that we've tried to date, especially with the inclusion of the good quality case it comes supplied with.

RRP £229 inc. Case & VAT.

More details from trade distributors John E. Dodds on (Contact Details) or from The Musician's Direct Supply Co. at (Contact Details).