SHALL I COMPARE thee to a Summer's day? Thou art more temperate, and more loud; more wooden, too, for that matter, but why quibble? It's not often that the critic's pen is driven to Shakespearean eulogies (if he's honest) in order to describe lumps of musical equipment, so why not relish it while I can?

This sonnet in sound is the Manson Falcon, and I want one. And this is why:

The Falcon is a six-stringed, double cutaway guitar, equipped with two Kent Armstrong Rainbow pick-ups. The body shape is reminiscent, in its rounded angularity, of the sixties' Burns Bison, with its long pointed horns curving back in towards the neck. The 24-fret ebony fingerboard offers excellent access right to the top, as it rests on a Brazilian mahogany through-neck which does away with the need for awkward heels where they join the body.

The headstock is small, and offers three Schaller machines on each side; the Manson name is there, in raised letters on the macassar ebony veneer. Talking of veneers, the body itself comprises two large, finely grained blocks of sycamore on either side of the neck-piece, with an equally attractive overlay of walnut making up the upper surface of the guitar, upon which sit all the controls, jack socket, and Kahler tremolo unit. By the way, the above carpentry is included just to give an idea of the detail that the Manson Brothers of Crowborough, E. Sussex have put into handbuilding this gorgeous plank.

The electrics of the Falcon are simple but effective: two twirly black nobs with good, even action control overall tone and volume. There's an ordinary, three-way toggle switch and lurking under the tremolo unit are two smaller toggle switches, the front one being a coil-tap (for both pick-ups), and the rear one acting as a phase reverser for the back pick-up while in humbucking mode, and as a coil selector when p-u's are coil-tapped.

Other pieces of hardware placed strategically about the lustrous skin of the guitar include the aforementioned viciously sensitive Kahler tremolo and a string locking device with Allen keyed restrainers just behind the ingenious German roller nut. This belt-and-braces set-up uses rollers to guide the strings 'stickless-ly' over the nut whereupon they are immediately clamped into immobility, anyway. Whichever you use, it certainly seems to work as even my most muscular and over-zealous wang-barring failed to put the Manson out of tune. Should you manage to dislodge the odd semitone, Kahler have thoughtfully provided fine-tuning knobs on the tremolo unit. More impressive detail/thoughtful user-friendly construction, etc.

Yeah, but so what? Just because it's well made doesn't mean it would necessarily evoke the response it did — obviously there's more to it than that. The Manson even had things wrong with it, like a very slightly warped bass side to the fingerboard (which had no effect on the excellent action, as far as I could tell), and a tendency for the tremolo unit to 'sit-up-and-beg' when bending strings. It's particularly noticeable when you bend more than one string (country pickers beware). The extra pressure pulls the trem arm downwards and that, naturally, slightly detunes all the other strings on the guitar.

A remedy is apparently being designed for the latter problem, which is a general fault of Floating trems rather than of the guitar.

The real attraction of the Manson is its manageability. It hangs round your neck (once you've got your strap onto the awkwardly recessed rear button) just waiting to be told what to do. In spite of the double-octave neck, it's a small guitar (the tremolo/bridge unit is mounted close to the rear of the body) and it fits comfortably and well.

The neck is fat and rounded, as are the frets, two features that reminded me of a Les Paul, though the fingerboard has a greater camber across it than any Gibson I've ever played. Sustain is long and warm, obviously being aided by the wondrous Kent Armstrong pick-ups. These give power in combination with a clarity that would make even Rickenbacker look to their laurels — even when overdriving my Fender Twin to the full, the Manson retained the full spectrum of frequencies, never submitting to the bass-heavy wooliness that so often afflicts loud guitars (through my amp, anyway).

The back pick-up has plenty of edge to it, even in single coil setting, though I found the out-of-phase switch less than useful. Rather than proffering the option of Strat-O-Caster Sound, this merely bled the guitar of all its middle and bass, and most of the treble. Not that the effect was unattractive, just that it was an effect rather than a useful sound.

Because it's not possible to describe the Falcon in terms of other well-known guitar sounds, it might be tempting to conclude that it lacks character. This is not so.

The Manson has a superbly full and clear sound; it is joyously easy to play in a way that makes your fingers simply fall onto the right frets. It is this passivity that inexperience mistakes for indifference; all the Manson needs to make it sound truly glorious is a firm and able hand. Unfortunately, at £705 for each Manson Falcon, it won't be mine.

MANSON Falcon: £705

CONTACT: Manson Guitars Ltd, (Contact Details).